New album Foregone out February 2023

[eochaid]

The thing is, fan we he sure that IF and ATG aren't the same band? Have we ever seen them together? What about the clues that they might, in fact, be the same band?

Both of them are from Gothenburg. Both of them lost their founder guitarist. Both of them have a bearded singer wearing baseball hats and whose voice is a mess. Both of them release music.

 

[DE4life]

Case closed, IF and ATG have always been the same band, confirmed. Couldn't handle outputting two bands at once so ATG "broke up" to allow IF to continue their ascent into metal superstardom. Only when the star started to fade did ATG "reunite", able to put out music during the periods IF weren't so active (Siren Charms only took 6 weeks to create and produce, after all).

 

[Jester Slave]

Good job. It's amazing to me how I go on the IF Reddit and there's a thread showing the set list - and inside just comments about how awesome it is that they played Free Fall, not a single person asking for proof or pointing out that it doesn't really make sense that they'd played that. Just mass acceptance of a dubious fact that was posted on the internet by some random dude. Why are people these days so lazy and gullible? This is why fake news and misinformation spreads like wildfire, too many people just believe what they see without employing their common sense to question it.

Also they played a show the next night and no Free Fall on that set list, so yeah, it was bullshit. Wonder if it was the same guy who tried to sneak Free Fall onto a set list years ago on that website?

Yeah, I had to edit that one out as well, so I guess it's officially my job now.

It's times like this when I realize that IF doesn't have a cult-like following like some other bands, as there would have been zero doubts whether they played Free Fall or not. Nine Inch Nails fans are fucking swarming the live thread FROM THE VENUE to post if a deep cut was played or a song just had its live debut, then you get insta clips and a few hours later you get HQ full uploads of said songs or entire sets even. Though there were some infamous songs which were edited into the live setlist update to troll people but it didn't last long.

edit: damn, didn't take you for a wrestling fan!

 

[eochaid]

They don't? So the IFWT thing is a fake?

 

[Jester Slave]

I guess there are a bunch of people who know IF for various reasons, and if they have a show nearby they attend, or if they hear there's a new record coming out, they eventually give it a spin. But not many of us walk the extra mile and form an actual community.

 

[eochaid]

Maybe the difference is the size of the fanbase. And the fact that NIN, this is only a guess, doesn't go pissing off a part of that fanbase.

But al the Jesterhead thing and IFWT seems very cult like. Also, anyone saying that SOSD is old IF is deluded by that same cult attitude.

 

[Jester Slave]

Where do you find these IFWT guys? Like a board, forum, something lively.

 

[eochaid]

Facebook.

 

[Jester Slave]

Their biggest IF presence is their official page where they are constantly getting shit on.

 

[eochaid]

 

[eochaid]

This is, by far, my favourite reply.

 

[Jester Slave]

"Feeling of Take This Life" hahaha. Ah yes, huge TTL vibes!!!

 

[DE4life]

edit: damn, didn't take you for a wrestling fan!

I'm more a fan of the wrestling business than the product nowadays, if that makes sense. The behind the scenes stuff is pretty fascinating, but WWE as a product has been boring since like, 2006 for me, barring the odd year (Smackdown post 2016 draft was great for a year or so).

I like AEW but they've got significant roster bloat now which makes it difficult to follow at times.

Much like with IF, my preference is rooted in the 90s/early 00s period. Can still watch a Nitro or Raw from that time period and be highly entertained.

 

[Jester Slave]

I'm more a fan of the wrestling business than the product nowadays, if that makes sense. The behind the scenes stuff is pretty fascinating, but WWE as a product has been boring since like, 2006 for me, barring the odd year (Smackdown post 2016 draft was great for a year or so).

I like AEW but they've got significant roster bloat now which makes it difficult to follow at times.

Much like with IF, my preference is rooted in the 90s/early 00s period. Can still watch a Nitro or Raw from that time period and be highly entertained.

Same, as it really wasn't a thing here unlike in the US and UK, so for the longest time, wrestling was Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker - so it always puts a smile on my face, when some people claim Steve Austin is the most famous wrestler. Or even The Rock for that matter, becausefirst and foremost he was an actor here.

Anyway, OSW made me fall in love with the business and I've been lost in the rabbit hole ever since. Rarely watch the product though, but the dramas are juicy, so is listening to Cornette

 

[DE4life]

Same, as it really wasn't a thing here unlike in the US and UK, so for the longest time, wrestling was Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker - so it always puts a smile on my face, when some people claim Steve Austin is the most famous wrestler. Or even The Rock for that matter, becausefirst and foremost he was an actor here.

Anyway, OSW made me fall in love with the business and I've been lost in the rabbit hole ever since. Rarely watch the product though, but the dramas are juicy, so is listening to Cornette

Lol, yeah, the backstage drama is the real entertainment - the product is basically just there as an excuse for it to happen. I'd say Hulk Hogan is still the all-time most famous wrestler, by far. Dwayne Johnson is a bigger movie star, no question, but when the average person gets asked about wrestling they'll say "Hulk Hogan". Even when I started watching WCW as a kid in 96, having not really watched any wrestling before, I knew who Hogan was.

There's a lot of great wrestling content on YouTube, Brian Zan'e Wrestling With Wregret is another really good channel. I don't think you have to be a fan of wrestling to appreciate the absurdity and entertainment of it. There's rarely a dull moment, even now you've got Vince being outed as having paid out $12m in hush money to women

 

[DE4life]

https://www.metal-rules.com/2019/01/27/in-flames-anders-friden-and-bjorn-gelotte/

Interesting interview here with Anders and Bjorn from 2019. They were asked for five essential Swedish metal albums.

Anders went with:

Merciless - The Awakening
Entombed - The Left Hand Path
ATG - Slaughter of the Soul / The Red Sky is Ours (I think, hard to tell from his answer honestly)
Raised Fist - Fuel
Europe - Europe

Bjorn went with:

Arch Enemy - Stigmata
HammerFall - Glory to the Brave
Soilwork - Natural Born Chaos
ATG - Slaughter of the Soul
Entombed - The Left Hand Path

So we can say for sure that these fuckers knew what they were doing when they ripped off BBF also Bjorn's list is... interesting, particularly selecting Natural Born Chaos. I'm with him on it being an amazing album but wouldn't have thought he'd have it in his top five.

 

[DE4life]

Alright, this is a ranking that I don't think has been done yet... In Flames music videos. I'm only going up to SOAPF because there's a ton of videos after that and I don't really care about any of those songs.

Cloud Connected



I just think the whole aesthetic of this video is very cool, and as a whole it's really creative.

The Quiet Place



Similar to Cloud Connected, a pretty cool aesthetic and some interesting ideas. Anders standing on that giant bird thing at the end of the video is a pretty sweet visual too.

Trigger



The IF/Soilwork fake beef thing is pretty entertaining. Soilwork showing up at the gig at the end of the video, with one dude combing his beard, another guy jumping around like he's ready to throw hands, Anders chucking the mic and offering the Soilwork guys out whilst they just laugh at him... very funny. I like it.

Come Clarity



Cool location to shoot, added points for durag Bjorn

Touch of Red



I just love how utterly out there this video is gangsta Anders in the ghetto, Jesper and Bjorn joining some motorcycle gang, Peter standing around as hookers wash his car and Daniel standing around holding a baby... just hilarious.

Take This Life



Not a huge fan of all the emo teen stuff going on in the video, but location wise it's a cool visual.

Deliver Us



Locarion on that ferris wheel thing is interesting, Anders little flatcap makes me chuckle

Only For The Weak



Something about this video is just kind of adorable the way they're trying so hard to come across as these broody, life-weary tr00 metalheads. I always thought that microphone looked weird. My absolute favourite part of this video is Anders shoving someone - Peter maybe? - out of the way at 03:40 what a badass.

My Sweet Shadow



I mean, it's pretty much just the band playing the song in some warehouse with fire shooting up everywhere... nothing hugely interesting, but still a cool visual.

Where the Dead Ships Dwell



Weird video but at least it's creative. There's even a brief callback to the bird from TQP in there, very briefly.

Ropes



At first I couldn't work out why the band weren't playing, but then I realised it's just a compilation of members of JesterHead playing the song. Cool idea I guess.

F(r)iend



Didn't even know this song had a video, honestly. It's just the band playing with a ton of jumpcuts.

Pinball Map



This one is just fucking bizarre I don't understand what is going on. Anders is just so awkward in this video... also doing the Hardy Boyz pose briefly for some reason. The bondage thing is just odd.

Ordinary Story



I have lots of questions about this video. I get the part where Anders is singing the lyrics with historical videos playing in the background, but why the hot lesbians and the girl band playing? it's fucking strange but certainly not boring.

Alias



Well, it's just the band playing the song surrounded by disco lights. Kinda boring. ASOP music vids in general were pretty shit.

SOAPF



Just edited live footage, so whatever.

System



Same as SOAPF, but with worse editing.

Borders and Shading



Just Peter and his hookers on loop... OK

Jotun/Food for the Gods





The same video for two different songs. The band playing live spliced with some random woman dancing... sure, why not.

Artifacts of the Black Rain



I mean, it was probably produced on a super low budget so I'm not going to rip on it too much. Just edited live footage from Koln 96 spliced in with shots of some dude running around outside.

Like You Better Dead



This is basically just a shittier version of the video Soilwork did for Light the Torch.

Delight and Angers



Just edited live footage of the band playing this shitheap live.

The Mirror's Truth



I don't even know what the fuck this video is supposed to be. Weird and not in a good way.

Was going to include Evil in a Closet but I don't think it counts as a proper video.

So yeah, overall for me best videos were around the Reroute/STYE/CC period. Worst ones from TJR/Whoracle days and ASOP, but ASOP is worse because they actually had a decent budget for those, whereas they would have had basically nothing for the TJR/Whoracle videos.

 

[eochaid]

I mostly agree with your list. The only difference being Ropes in the last place. That video didn't make sense.

 

[DE4life]

I think the idea was just to have compilation clips of JesterHead members playing the song. It's at least a worthwhile concept, even if the video itself isn't really worth watching.

 

[eochaid]

But it was poorly done. In the end, the pacing of the different videos joint together is poor, there are too few of them and there's the guy who thinks that he's in a black metal video.