New album Foregone out February 2023

[Xpyro125]

Honestly the subreddit for IF is pretty dead, but most of the people on there seem quite chill. I met Xpyro either on the IF subreddit or another metal subreddit where IF was being discussed. There are some wild takes at times, but I think people are too scared of being downvoted to be too critical of anyone else's opinion, lmao.

I haven’t even touched the In Flames subreddit with a ten foot pole (… I’m not converting that to meters), I just don’t want to discuss shit with the people who say that you have to love everything (what’s a stand ablaze) to be a real In Flames fan. It was before Foregone came out, but I was so fucking tired of hearing “oh my god, it’s a return to form, this is just like Clayman”. No, it wasn’t. Not at all. You people do not know In Flames. It was stupid back during the release of Battles’ and ITM’s singles, but I know I wouldn’t be able to talk sense into the people who believe that about Foregone.

I know we interacted on two different posts in the MDM subreddit, but I forget what the first one was. The second one was a poll on ranking IF albums. I don’t remember all of my opinions there, but I do remember having ITM right above TJR. It might actually be similar to the one I posted, save for LS being ranked so high, though I might not have come around to appreciating Whoracle yet. I still don’t think I’ll ever interact too much with the MDM subreddit (Interacting with Reddit isn’t too much of my thing in general) since posts on the biggest bands are understandably limited on how often they can be made, leaving discussion to primarily be on medium-level or lower exposure bands or for general questions that can include bigger bands in people’s answers. I’m not into a ton of different MDM bands, and most of the ones I love are rather mainstream— I want to discuss In Flames, and I’d like to do it with people who aren’t braindead shills. This place is great.

 

[DE4life]

That statement is absolute garbage.

It is, but it's also totally hilarious. Reminds me of a Jester Slave rant from the good old days, but not quite as well constructed.

I haven’t even touched the In Flames subreddit with a ten foot pole (… I’m not converting that to meters), I just don’t want to discuss shit with the people who say that you have to love everything (what’s a stand ablaze) to be a real In Flames fan. It was before Foregone came out, but I was so fucking tired of hearing “oh my god, it’s a return to form, this is just like Clayman”. No, it wasn’t. Not at all. You people do not know In Flames. It was stupid back during the release of Battles’ and ITM’s singles, but I know I wouldn’t be able to talk sense into the people who believe that about Foregone.

I know we interacted on two different posts in the MDM subreddit, but I forget what the first one was. The second one was a poll on ranking IF albums. I don’t remember all of my opinions there, but I do remember having ITM right above TJR. It might actually be similar to the one I posted, save for LS being ranked so high, though I might not have come around to appreciating Whoracle yet. I still don’t think I’ll ever interact too much with the MDM subreddit (Interacting with Reddit isn’t too much of my thing in general) since posts on the biggest bands are understandably limited on how often they can be made, leaving discussion to primarily be on medium-level or lower exposure bands or for general questions that can include bigger bands in people’s answers. I’m not into a ton of different MDM bands, and most of the ones I love are rather mainstream— I want to discuss In Flames, and I’d like to do it with people who aren’t braindead shills. This place is great.

Nowadays people on that subreddit seem to be a bit more relaxed, anyway. General consensus that SC and Battles suck, which is a step forward for them. Still a bit OTT on Foregone and too critical of ITM, but I guess that's the whole "the king is dead, long live the king" mentality they seem to have there when a new album comes out and is very different to the preceding one. Reminds me of how our good friend Krofi-kun used to behave. Would act like SC or Battles was top-tier excellence when they were released, but then a year later would be like "actually that album sucks and I don't even have it on my mp3 player". Very frustrating considering his stance on every album thread that the album of the time was the absolute best, despite it clearly not being the case.

I think Battles did break Krofius' devotion to the band in the long-run though, as he was never the same after that album.

MDM subreddit is generally quite OK, although I don't tend to go there much either. I don't really do reddit in terms of interaction - I tend to just lurk. I'll maybe post something every so often if I feel the urge, but it's pretty rare. I save my wisdom for my bois (and Laverna) right here at good ol' UM IF forum.

 

[drawntoblack]

And of course, never forget this absolute classic:

IN FLAMES SPEAK OUT AGAINST FANS NARROW-MINDEDNESS

Y2K small peepee energy Anders, that forum would beat most political subreddits in terms of raw toxicity.

 

[DE4life]

Interesting review here:

Key Club 12/10/2000 - Shadows Fall, Nevermore and In Flames - UnEarthed.Com

The night started off outside of the Key Club in a line that went around the block. It was also kinda chilly out, but I knew that once I got inside it would be warm, just off the bodies that were there to catch a night of metal. The doors opened a bit before 7:30, ...

unearthed.com

Purely interesting because the reviewer claims IF played Suburban Me during this set. However, Setlist.fm doesn't say this song was played:



In fact Setlist.fm doesn't have Suburban Me listed as having ever been played by the band.

I'm inclined to think the reviewer just got it wrong and mistook/misremembered one of the other songs as being Suburban Me, as it seems highly unlikely Bjorn or Jesper would even attempt to play Amott's solo on that song, and it's arguably not worth playing without it.

 

[The Grayfox]

I believe Suburban Me was attempted once at a show in Sweden and probably for the reason you mentioned, never tried again. At least that has been the rumor for years. I remember having a discussion about this on the Everdying forum, where somebody claimed to actually be there for it. In fact, I remember he said the solo was basically butchered.

Although, you know what, I did just put this together — In Flames is about to embark on a tour with Arch Enemy. Now would be the time.

 

[drawntoblack]

Suburban Me is probably top 3 songs on Clayman.

Shame they never figured out how to pull off those whispered verses live, and yeah, the guitar solo too. That being said Amott also tends to half-ass his own solos from back in the day.

 

[The Grayfox]

Suburban Me is my number 1 from Clayman and probably top 10 IF songs of all time. Highly underrated song. Every time I hear it, it makes me nostalgic for this period of In Flames and to be honest a little bit sad at the same time because I know those days are over and they aren't coming back.

 

[DE4life]

Suburban Me is a great example of the stark differences between Clayman and Reroute. There's no song on Reroute that even comes close to the sphere a track like Suburban Me operates in.

 

[Xpyro125]

It’s interesting to watch old live sets. I’ve seen a few recently, but despite preferring the older ones I saw, this one was more interesting to post here— It’s all technically classic In Flames including the setlist, with the concert being in April 2002, but with the live debut of System, at least according to Setlist.fm. Weird to think that this is the first song revealed from Reroute. Cloud Connected and Trigger would both debut in August, just a month before the album’s release.

Also, they once performed Fucking Hostile by Pantera in 2004. I have to see that now.

Scream first received live play in July of 2005 along with Take This Life and Leeches. Zero plays if Reflect the Storm, but hey, Vacuum got 52 plays. That’s crazy to think about too.

The only songs they’ve never played live from Reroute are Dismiss the Cynics and Free Fall. I know they never got Free Fall to work despite trying, but I do want to know if they ever tried seeing if Dismiss would work.

Not counting bonus tracks, the only album they’ve played the entirety of is STYE. Siren Charms of all albums got the closest, with only Filtered Truth not being played. If we’re counting bonus tracks, none have been completely played, with STYE missing Discover Me Like Emptiness, but Reroute beats out SC since Watch Them Feed has been played, and SC misses three original songs.

Subterranean has the fewest amount of songs played with only Stand Ablaze. Next is Foregone, with SoSD, Foregone Pt. 1, TGD, In the Dark, End the Transmission, and Meet Your Maker receiving live play. Interestingly, despite the band and label seemingly loving End the Transmission and Meet Your Maker, they’ve both only been played three times each.
Edit: And Lunar Strain has only six songs played too, though Everlost Pt. 1, In Flames, and Starforsaken were all only played once back in August of 1994.

Another edit, they actually played Blinded By Fear twice in 2004. Fascinating.

 

[eochaid]

System was the first song revealed because it was the one that de company sent to the media to promote the album. I think this was a couple of months before it was released. Then, I was surprised by CC being the first single. I don't have a high opinion of that song. It's listenable but that's all.

 

[The Grayfox]

I got to see one of the performances of Blinded By Fear (the one in LA) -- I was pretty disappointed neither performance made it to the DVD. They played all of STYE and then opened the second set of the night with it and it was pretty damn good. I'm not sure if bootlegs exist of it. Security was TIGHT due to it being a film shoot. They made me throw away a full of pack of cigarettes because they weren't risking any kind of "smoke damage to the cameras." So I imagine they weren't letting people get recording equipment in either. It was the most I've ever been patted down in my life, including at airports.

My guess is that due to the incredibly altered vocals in songs like Meet Your Maker and End the Transmission, it didn't go terribly well live. But maybe not. I mean they still play songs like Alias, so who knows? As we've all discussed at length, something is off with the Foregone touring cycle and them ignoring most of the album. Even on the Battles run, when they had shortened sets, they were still playing six songs from Battles. From BATTLES. Just look at this complete clusterfuck of a setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/in-flames/2017/first-direct-arena-leeds-england-2be1846e.html

What's the most songs from Foregone they've played at a single show? Three? And that's as part of a full setlist. There's clearly a problem. Either with the fans not reacting how the band wants or how the band themselves feel about it. Anders saying that Foregone is the best In Flames album doesn't track whatsoever.

 

[Jester Slave]

System was and still is one of my favorite tracks. Those verses are bangers, and the way Anders screams the chorus agonizingly at the end is just so good. The synth solo is nothing to write home about, but I still prefer something different than forcing a half-assed guitar solo on every single fucking track. Overall it has a really cool and somewhat unqiue structure to it.

And R2R has the best emotions (dem feeeelzzz) from Anders out of all their records. He fucking dies on those songs. Even the "worst" songs are like a 7/10 for me. For example Egonomics is nothing special, doesn't even have a memorable hook or anything, but it doesn't overstay it's welcome: 2,5 minutes of banging and done. On Foregone it would've been 4,5 minutes long, without improving on it.

My least favorite track is probably Drifter. It's not bad either, but that chorus does nothing for me.

And one thing it has over CC and makes it a better record for me, is that CC's ballady, moody side is pretty weak. Aside from the title track it's basically balls to the walls from start to finish. R2R has a much better balance without getting into ITM territory, where the slower tracks are pretty much interchangeable. It's also why I rated ITM so low. Sure, I like all the pain, stay with me and deep inside as well, but I also like most of Battles as well, because 80% of that record is just variations from the same fucking song. Maybe if that song was something special I'd be more lenient with these records, but neither Battles' pop-rock songs, nor ITM's ballad 101s do anything special. I can respect a Liberation at the end of SOAPF a 1000 times more. It's a good song on its own, but as a record closer it's oh so much better.

 

[Xpyro125]

What's the most songs from Foregone they've played at a single show? Three? And that's as part of a full setlist. There's clearly a problem. Either with the fans not reacting how the band wants or how the band themselves feel about it. Anders saying that Foregone is the best In Flames album doesn't track whatsoever.

Considering that the fans who do go to their live shows seem to react well to it (At least from the one I went to, anyways, and that TGD, Foregone Pt.1, and SOSD), I’m going to believe it’s the latter reason.

 

[GraemeSinclair]

Suburban Me is probably top 3 songs on Clayman.

Shame they never figured out how to pull off those whispered verses live, and yeah, the guitar solo too. That being said Amott also tends to half-ass his own solos from back in the day.

As far as the verses go, if they can do Bullet Ride and Square Nothing live, they can do Suburban Me, and even when they're not touring with Arch Enemy, I'm sure Chris could play the solo like he's done with December Flower and Coerced Coexistence.

 

[Xpyro125]

Found the live debut of Cloud Connected. Weird to think that Trigger would debut three days later and not at this concert, but it makes for something fascinating at two places I guess.

 

[The Grayfox]

I think that's when they were opening for Slayer with a few headline shows between dates. Pretty sure Trigger premiered on one of those off dates. Immediately after that tour, they did a U.S. headline run supporting RTR. I've mentioned this like 10 times on this forum, but I was at the first show that Anders had dreads and everybody was wondering who the Rastafarian guy on stage was. I've seen IF 10-12 times and this was one of my least favorites.

 

[DE4life]

I'm sure the last time I posted a bunch of these live vids, someone mentioned they were at the Furnace Fest show. Looks like a really weird setup with people behind the stage as well. Almost like a high school talent contest lmao.

YouTube is awash with old IF live videos, which is really cool. I've downloaded any good ones I've come across for future preservation. My favourite is the show where some some dude zooms in on a woman's chest for about 3 minutes

 

[Xpyro125]

Found one with Minus and Watch Them Feed. Vocals definitely make me understand why people called Sadew the Japanese Anders back in 2007, especially with his love vocals too.

And now I want to see that live performance you’ve mentioned, purely for the music’s sake. Nothing else, of course.

 

[DE4life]

I'm fairly sure it was a Canadian show, which would either be Montreal or Toronto. I think it was during Moonshield, which would narrow it down if my memory is accurate.

 

[DE4life]

A rarity here - As The Future Repeats Today @ 52:30