New album Foregone out February 2023

[The Grayfox]

We're about a month away from the Euro tour. They've got a couple of warm-up dates before it starts, which is interesting because historically they play songs they haven't played in a while at those kinds of shows and use them as a measuring stick of sorts. Anyone have any predictions as to what we see on this tour? Will we see new songs from Foregone make their live debut? Will we see the most basic, cookie-cutter bullshit setlist as usual? Will we see them add Upon an Oaken Throne in as the opener? My bold prediction is that Suburban Me will finally happen with Michael Amott playing the solo. Likely? No, but I won't let this dream go.

 

[mindd]

Suburban Me solo was by Christopher, not by Michael, so even less likely. The closest I can give you is this: https://www.instagram.com/christopher.amott/reel/Cq083sMAlmo/

For the setlist I guess the most basic stuff with maybe 1 more less- or unplayed Foregone song and some TJR/Whoracle song swaps, as usual

 

[The Grayfox]

Yeah, but... but maybe Chris taught it to Michael for this tour!

Stop shitting on my dream.

 

[DE4life]

It looks like IF are coming to Turkey on Oct 1 - setlist.fm suggesting for the first time since 2012? Finally a chance for Ciko to meet Anders and thank him for being his hero and inspiration.

Their 2005 setlist in Turkey was pretty great. Episode 666, Artifacts, System, Scorn, Gyroscope, Behind Space, Jotun and Morphing Into Primal all showing up. They also played Graveland, because of course they did. The other two shows in 2011 and 2012 were festivals so nothing special there - but maybe we'll get another 2005-esque epic setlist this time around too.

Ciko better have tickets and he better be recording, just in case. Don't let us down bro.

 

[Pallbearer]

I’m still pissed off at the guy who started uploading the Istanbul 2005 show on eMule but went offline forever well before the upload was completed. I know I probably should give him the benefit of doubt (broken PC or something) but for some reason I always thought he did it just in order to annoy people.

I think it was only possible to salvage about ten minutes of video footage from the partial files. Cloud Connected, Jotun and parts of Morphing into Primal? Something like that. It’s on YouTube if anyone’s interested.

 

[DE4life]

Maybe it was that Turkish guy on here who did that interview with Anders and Bjorn, showed us a couple of interesting snippets, promised to release the full audio to us and then just never did trolling us hardcores again 20 years later. Although, I did at least get the answer to the question I asked, as he posted that part, so I can't really complain.

 

[The Grayfox]

I’m still pissed off at the guy who started uploading the Istanbul 2005 show on eMule but went offline forever well before the upload was completed. I know I probably should give him the benefit of doubt (broken PC or something) but for some reason I always thought he did it just in order to annoy people.

I think it was only possible to salvage about ten minutes of video footage from the partial files. Cloud Connected, Jotun and parts of Morphing into Primal? Something like that. It’s on YouTube if anyone’s interested.

Holy shit, that's a memory I had completely forgotten about. The Istanbul 2005 show was a thing of legend at the time. I remember everyone over at Everdying trying really hard to find it because the setlist was so good. Three songs from TJR and four from Whoracle in one set? That isn't happening ever again.

 

[Pallbearer]

I eventually ended up in talks with a bootleg collector who had it, but unfortunately I didn’t have anything interesting to offer in trade and IIRC he wouldn’t sell it (only trade).

 

[burank666]

I’m still pissed off at the guy who started uploading the Istanbul 2005 show on eMule but went offline forever well before the upload was completed. I know I probably should give him the benefit of doubt (broken PC or something) but for some reason I always thought he did it just in order to annoy people.

I think it was only possible to salvage about ten minutes of video footage from the partial files. Cloud Connected, Jotun and parts of Morphing into Primal? Something like that. It’s on YouTube if anyone’s interested.

Hey There, sorry pal! i had some health issues. I will be uploading Bjorn interview shortly.

 

[burank666]

I eventually ended up in talks with a bootleg collector who had it, but unfortunately I didn’t have anything interesting to offer in trade and IIRC he wouldn’t sell it (only trade).

I have some snippets from legendary Istanbul Show+ Heden show from 2001 or 2002.

Below, you can find the link. It is around 30 seconds. There are snippets from OFTW, Clayman and Morphing into Primal.

IF.mp4

1 file sent via WeTransfer, the simplest way to send your files around the world

we.tl

 

[mindd]

New song with Anders guesting on vocals.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Oh damn, I've heard these guys before. Anders sounds good here.

 

[Xpyro125]

New song with Anders guesting on vocals.

Anything negative I could say genuinely feel like nitpicks here, so I won’t. It’s a rather catchy and enjoyable song, and I quite like that. Definitely gonna buy it when I have the money to.

While I think Anders’ vocals are a bit better and more emotive than on Foregone, I think I enjoy them a lot more simply because I’m not making comparisons to In Flames’ legacy and previous works. The lyrics aren’t super deep, and I can live with that since there isn’t the legacy of In Flames actually having some pretty fantastic lyrics (I know it’s a mixed bag overall, I don’t care), so a ton of emotion isn’t necessary. He put in a ton of effort for a feature here, and it was a lot more than I expected since I had flashbacks to him just shooting “blood for freedom” and nothing more on Raise Your Banner by Within Temptation. It was such a simple feature, and while it wasn’t objectively bad, it felt like a waste of Anders’ talents. He feels so much more in on this, and I like that. It’s a nice and honestly somewhat necessary touch for me, as the song would be a bit one-note otherwise— And in fairness to the band, I feel like they crafted the song with this in mind, and I do like the intentionality of highlighting the growls as a contrast and enhancer for the rest of it. It’s good stuff for people who are fans of that, like us.

 

[The Grayfox]

See, this is what In Flames needs; a second vocalist to do the cleans. Obviously that won't be happening, but it sure would improve things significantly in the vocal department. He does sound pretty good here though.

 

[drawntoblack]

I still don't like these guttural low growls that he does, absolutely nothing unique or characteristic about them. Still it's nice to hear him in more unbensonified manner.

As far as these modern poppy djenty proggy but not proggy bands go that sounds pretty alright, good singer.

 

[DE4life]

Yeah, decent enough song. Anders is perfectly acceptable as a vocalist if he's kept away from trying to actually sing. Whilst I am also not a huge fan of the low, gutteral style of growling, Anders does it well here and the production does a good job with the contrast between the clean and harsh vocals.

It's a shame IF have such a dependency on Benson. The final output of their career will always be tainted by their association with him.

 

[The Grayfox]

I don't know, I like the low gutterals. It reminds me of TJR. I much prefer this style as opposed to his shrill, shrieky screams. There's a clip on YouTube of IF playing Moonshield at Hellfest some years ago, sometime right when he started using his lower register again, and I don't think Moonshield has sounded that good since the 90s. It may not lend itself well to Clayman-present, but anything before that? It works beautifully imo.

 

[DE4life]

Just sounds boring to me tbh. But keep in mind I've never been into death metal, deathcore, etc either. Vocals just do absolute zero for me. No expression or emotional range, just "sounding brutal", which... yeah, sure, I guess so.

 

[Moonshield_]

To me, Anders sounded the most awesome between 2002 and 2006. I'm still amazed by his high pitched powerful screams from that era.

 

[DE4life]

1999 is probably peak Anders for me - he had this perfect blend of slightly deeper growl and higher pitched scream that blended together in a very unique way. In the period after that he stuck mainly to the higher register, until around 2019 when he started changing his technique (particularly live) to a more permanent, deeper growl. I'd say purely in terms of technique he's had some of his best moments in the past few years (purely from a harsh vocal perspective), but similarly it'll always be his vocals from the IF mid-era period that are my favourite. Up until SOAPF, excluding ASOP which was total shit.