New album Foregone out February 2023

[ThePhobiac]

My first thought was honestly "this is an At the Gates song" -- like, literally the same patterns as Blinded by Fear for the first minute or so -- but seeing as how so many American metal bands are derivative of At the Gates, that take does make some sense.

 

[shad0w__]

My first thought was honestly "this is an At the Gates song" -- like, literally the same patterns as Blinded by Fear for the first minute or so -- but seeing as how so many American metal bands are derivative of At the Gates, that take does make some sense.

Yup thought the same. Song sounds promising and i was not expecting them to pick a song like this as first single. Lets see how the studio version sounds.

 

[DE4life]

Another angle, sound isn't really any better.

The beginning does sound like they're covering Blinded By Fear otherwise really tough to tell how good or bad the song is with the sound quality available. I guess we'll see on Monday how it sounds after it's been Benson-ised. Worth remembering that on the last two albums first single was decent and second single was a piece of shit, so a fair chance they'll follow that pattern here too.

As an aside, why didn't they play this at the secret show? They played literally the same set except State of Slow Decay.

 

[DE4life]

One thing I will say (cautiously) is that this does appear to be another step in the right direction. Even if it does sound a bit American metal-ish at times, it's still far superior to what they were vomiting out around the SC/Battles period. Hopefully Broderick and Tanner have had some influence on the songwriting this time around. The emergence of THE may have focused Hipster and Bjorn's minds a bit as well, as they must have noticed the groundswell of comments asking why IF can't/won't make music like THE anymore.

Also I know Slave starts REEEEEing whenever we dscuss song titles, but this is for me the best song title since the SOAPF album. Based on recent output I'd expect something more like 'State of My Broken heart', so again, fingers crossed it's a good sign.

 

[A88]

Hard to judge with this sound quality but nothing special.

ATG cover + random evil riffs similar to "heavy" stuff from recent albums + random solo #3678.

Still missing the essential IF stuff.

It has some energy and growls are good. We'll see how much of the later is fucked up and autotuned to oblivion on the studio recording.

 

[DE4life]

Not related to new In Flames, but Lord Hypnos came onto my playlist the other day.



Such an awesome and often overlooked song in the band's discography, and sadly also never played live. Anders' vocals ae often considered functional on TJR at best, but I think he absolutely shines on this track. 'into the charged, forbidden zones' at 00:51, followed by that melodic guitar, perfect. 'To the frozen music of gods', when the music just pauses briefly and transitions into a chilling melodic interlude. The track doesn't follow any kind of 'formula', it's just organic throughout. This is what I mean when I'm talking in THE thread about their output sounding nothing like older IF - it simply doesn't. THE is great stuff but doesn't have any of the intricacies of TJR. I've been listening to this album for over 20 years and I'm still blown away every time I go back to it. It's so unique and I really don't think there will be another album released that even comes close to matching it, because that magic seems to have been a one-time thing that simply can't be recaptured no matter how many bands try to copy portions of its sound.

Oh, also the lyrics on this one are so fucking good. A lot of people find Sundin's lyrics impenetrable, but even though he can be a little unfocused and wordy at times, I've always found his lyrics to be absolutely incredible to read and digest.

 

[TheJestersDoor]

I could be wildly wringi

Not related to new In Flames, but Lord Hypnos came onto my playlist the other day.



Such an awesome and often overlooked song in the band's discography, and sadly also never played live. Anders' vocals ae often considered functional on TJR at best, but I think he absolutely shines on this track. 'into the charged, forbidden zones' at 00:51, followed by that melodic guitar, perfect. 'To the frozen music of gods', when the music just pauses briefly and transitions into a chilling melodic interlude. The track doesn't follow any kind of 'formula', it's just organic throughout. This is what I mean when I'm talking in THE thread about their output sounding nothing like older IF - it simply doesn't. THE is great stuff but doesn't have any of the intricacies of TJR. I've been listening to this album for over 20 years and I'm still blown away every time I go back to it. It's so unique and I really don't think there will be another album released that even comes close to matching it, because that magic seems to have been a one-time thing that simply can't be recaptured no matter how many bands try to copy portions of its sound.

Oh, also the lyrics on this one are so fucking good. A lot of people find Sundin's lyrics impenetrable, but even though he can be a little unfocused and wordy at times, I've always found his lyrics to be absolutely incredible to read and digest.

I love this song, learned to play it on guitar a while ago, great fun!

 

[eochaid]

Lord Hypnos is great. The new song, while being cautious, if that's the best that they can come with after months of work, then I'm not impressed.

 

[galvanized]

Damn they weren't lying about being heavy. Some of those riffs are very old school! Sceptical about how it'll sound in the studio version with Howard recording it but honestly this is promising. Seems really good live at least.

*Obligatory joke about Bjorn's solo*

Wow! Did In Flames actually become a metal band again? This is like the song I’ve been waiting for for 20 fucking years! Did you guys hear his vocals shift at 6:40 to higher pitched TJR/Whoracle style screams for about 10 seconds? Song is awesome! The solo is good, and is the song structure actually slightly different than the standard as well? Seems like the solo came earlier than usual, need to go back and re-listen.

VERY promising.

Disclaimer: I’m an ATG fan and I have always wished the two sounds could be mashed. I do wish IF took the opportunity to make the solo longer though. With dual harmonies. ATG riffs + IF classic solos would be amazing.

 

[galvanized]

The emergence of THE may have focused Hipster and Bjorn's minds a bit as well, as they must have noticed the groundswell of comments asking why IF can't/won't make music like THE anymore.

Indeed. But maybe this is just this album’s “Everything’s Gone” but actually good. We shall see.

 

[TheJestersDoor]

I have a feeling (feel free to quote me on this when I'm wrong ) this album will be slightly shorter than usual, maybe 10 tracks, and will be heavier and a bit more old school in theme, but still with that accessable edge and clean choruses of the modern songs. I reckon next single will be an almost all clean sung radio "hit", and the album will be sort of like I, the mask - front loaded with heavier tracks and more mid paced stuff near the end.

This is a pretty big departure from the song structures and riff styles of the last few albums, so even if it's not as good as the old stuff, I'm excited that it seems they've made an effort to make a different song/album, perhaps due to the risk of being exposed by THE.

 

[galvanized]

This is a pretty big departure from the song structures and riff styles of the last few albums, so even if it's not as good as the old stuff, I'm excited that it seems they've made an effort to make a different song/album, perhaps due to the risk of being exposed by THE.

The chorus is catchy. It only gets repeated twice. And the first time you hear it is after the solo. Awesome.

It sounds like they are finally thinking outside the box and playing some metal. Hope it continues. I don’t need to hear a chorus 5-6 times. Twice is enough. Maybe once.

 

[DE4life]

I don't really have any expectations for IF at this point, so I'll judge whatever they put out on a fairly basic scale. I'm not comparing to what they did in the distant past at this point. I mean, the last great album they created (from my perspective) is SOAPF and that was 11 years ago. If it sounds more like ATG and less like AFI then that's a good start. If Tanner and Broderick have had more influence in the songwriting this time around then we can probably expect something more in an Americal metal/metalcore vein. That special IF MDM vibe left along with Jesper, so I'll look to The Halo Effect for that.

Whilst I did enjoy I, the Mask, it wasn't what I would call a strong metal album. Alternative metal with a distinctly soft edge. It was fine, but it would be interesting to hear a harder and heavier album from IF to see what they are capable of at this point in time. My guess is nothing unique or mind-blowing, but maybe some decent enough music which doesn't make me roll my eyes in annoyance. At this point that'll do. Fact is I'm only following the band out of loyalty and morbid curiousity these days. If it was based purely on artistic merit I would have stopped having any interest in them after SOAPF, as there's much better metal and music in general out there.

 

[Ilias7]

I am glad that Daniel and Peter seem to be in good terms with In Flames!

 

[Ilias7]

I was trying to think about heavy In Flames songs that I enjoy after Jesper left and for some reason I came up with Enter Tragedy. I had totally forgotten about this track.

 

[TheJestersDoor]

I was trying to think about heavy In Flames songs that I enjoy after Jesper left and for some reason I came up with Enter Tragedy. I had totally forgotten about this track.

Enter tragedy is a very underrated song! That and A New Dawn are genuinely great semi-old school tracks. The variety and mix of old & new on SOAPF is part of what makes it a brilliant album. It's what I'm hoping (but my expectations are still low) from the new one.

 

[DE4life]

I hadn't really considered Enter Tragedy, but yeah, I like that one too. I wish Anders had leant more into growling the vocals properly as opposed to the yelling thing he does for most of the song, though.

 

[DE4life]

I am glad that Daniel and Peter seem to be in good terms with In Flames!

That's cool. I imagine they get pretty annoyed when people constantly rip on In Flames in the comments section of THE videos. Peter and Daniel in particular left of their own accord, and even though Jesper and Peter both had their issues with Anders I think they're all still friends. I wish people would just chill the fuck out and let their angst over In Flames' modern direction go.

 

[TheJestersDoor]

That's cool. I imagine they get pretty annoyed when people constantly rip on In Flames in the comments section of THE videos. Peter and Daniel in particular left of their own accord, and even though Jesper and Peter both had their issues with Anders I think they're all still friends. I wish people would just chill the fuck out and let their angst over In Flames' modern direction go.

I think they will have all got over their own personal issues at this point, even jesper. I'm sure at some point when they get to the twilight of their career there will be some sort of "reunion" type show, maybe with Bjorn on drums and Mikael out for behind space like they did 10 or 15 years back.

 

[DE4life]

I think they will have all got over their own personal issues at this point, even jesper. I'm sure at some point when they get to the twilight of their career there will be some sort of "reunion" type show, maybe with Bjorn on drums and Mikael out for behind space like they did 10 or 15 years back.

Hopefully one day. I mean we know for sure that Bjorn wouldn't have a problem with it, just a case of how deep the scars run between Anders and Jesper really.

One person I don't think we'll see as part of a reunion is Henke Forss

https://www.metalsucks.net/2014/11/24/flames-publicly-beefing-original-vocalist-henke-forss/

I'm assuming this was never resolved, although Bjorn's response was pretty funny.