Well, that's quite okay. If we were talking a legitimately bad song like 'In This Life' then I'd be ready to throw virtual hands, but I don't class In the Dark as one of those kinds of songs, just one that I don't personally like at all.
The first part of the song kind of reminds me of Bottled with those riffs, which is the first problem. It isn't exactly the same but close enough that I start twitching uncomfortably. I'm honestly not a huge fan of those really low growled vocals. I don't mind them on the odd line, but they don't sound good to me in a prolonged stretch. Also, as aforementioned, I do not like the way the production deals with these vocals - too central for my liking. I will say that 00:41 - 01:00 is a decent little section. I also like 01:26 - 01:33. Then those vocals from Anders which sometimes barely sound like him, similar issue to PLoM. Singalong chorus seems to go against what the song has been building to up until that point, and even instrumentally there's a clash between the doomier riffs and Anders upbeat clean vocals. This would, in my view, have been better growled - but we gotta have dat singalong chorus for the crowd, I guess.
Straight after the first chorus there's another decent section from 02:02 - 02:11 - then we're back to the exact same riffs as before with the same vocal rhythm, just different lyrics. Same problem with the chorus as before. First half of the solo just seems aimlessly upbeat and out of sync with the vibe of the song, whereas the second half of the solo is actually quite nice. Then we're back to waving your hands in the air muddafukkas as we sing along with Anders and autotune machine.
So yeah, maybe saying I hated the entire song was an exaggeration on my part. There are brief parts of the track I do think are good, particularly the second half of the solo. What I mainly have a problem with is the verse riffs and vocals, which I find really boring, and the singalong chorus which seems out of place on a composition that's otherwise quite doom-ish.
I appreciate you taking the deep dive on this one even if it's not a trip you particularly enjoyed
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I've never had particularly strong feelings about Bottled either way, it struck me as a typical STYE song, mostly chugging chord-driven alt metal but no worse than the average track on that album. That said, I still think the lead guitar part that comes in at 1:35 and then gets harmonised is the closest thing to the classic IF sound on the whole of Soundtrack (Värmlandsvisan notwithstanding).
I think I like all the same bits of In the Dark as you do, for much the same reasons, but I also like enough of the parts you don't that the song as a whole works for me. The intro/verse riff admittedly isn't the most exciting or inventive, and if it was the only thing the song had to offer, it would bore me too. As it is, in the broader context of the components of the song I
do like, I think it serves a function. Vocally (and probably in general), my favourite IF album is Whoracle, and I don't think we've really had prolonged low growls on a studio recording from In Flames since then. Colony still had a good growl-to-scream ratio, but the verses of ITD give me a sound that I thought I'd never hear on an IF album again, and I think the riff complements the growls well, creating a bludgeoning effect. I'm not saying In the Dark as good, but I wish Anders had gone full Worlds Within the Margin much more often on the verses of albums from Clayman to I, The Mask, and this feels to me like the closest he's come since.
Most of my favourite IF songs come from before their big singalong chorus era, so I wouldn't say I'm a devotee of that part of their sound, but, to their credit, they have done some very good ones, Trigger, My Sweet Shadow and Crawl Through Knives jump to mind. As we've discussed before, Foregone's biggest issue for me is the execution of its choruses, and the insistence on having so many of them, which is a bugbear that we have in common. I just happen to like the instrumentals and the rest of the songwriting enough that the choruses aren't a dealbreaker for me like they were on Siren Charms or Battles, where they were. I will say that I think ITD isn't one of those problematic choruses. I think the vocals are mostly within Anders' natural range so I don't hear that plastic pitch correction sound, and it's not layered to hell either like Dialogue, Bleeding Out or PLoM. I like the vocal melody and the way it meshes with the instrumentals. I think it's a good, catchy chorus, not just in comparison to the others on Foregone, but in the context of the band's discography in general.
I think the main melodic figure (the one that first plays on acoustic guitars at 1:26-1:33, later comes back at 2:02-2:11 and ultimately becomes the backing instrumental for the chorus) is a classic IF melody that could belong anywhere in their back catalogue, and is one piece of evidence among various on this album that Björn is very capable of composing good music in the Gothenburg style when he puts his mind to it. I'd say the same about the solo. I've been as disillusioned and bored as anyone else with some of the perfunctory wah-pedal noodling that defined the solos on IF albums during the 2010s, but I think this solo is much more tasteful, thought-out and memorable. It gives me shades of Satellites and Astronauts, particularly the latter half, although I also do really enjoy the descending run at 2:57.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk, I expect to have convinced none of you of my case, and that's okay!
I dumped the individual stems into some audio editing software, then with the guitars just fucked around with the filters until I found something that I liked. I then used another filter on the vocals and drums to try and make them clearer. Left the bass alone. Bass and drum volume is raised by about half a decibel, and that's it.
