New album Foregone out February 2023

Yeah it is poorly done, but I give it points for at least trying to be creative with the video. Compared to the videos below it which are just boring ideas or really weird/low budget.
 
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Interesting thoughts. My quick takes on all of the videos I can remember:

Artifacts -- I like this video because it's In Flames when they were a bunch of early-20s guys from Sweden on their first tour. Vintage Gothenburg. Johan and his baseball cap. I like the 90's people just smiling and having a good time in the audience, none of that try hard "raaaagh" metal shit.

Jotun/FFTG -- Pretty eh. But it does capture the brief moment in time when the lineup was Anders, Niclas, Jesper, Peter, and Bjorn.

Ordinary Story -- I like the bits with Anders but the rest is pretty cringey. The red filter does suit the Colony vibe, though. Song deserved a better video.

Pinball Map -- Solid. I like the hand-drawn part during the solo. Anders visibly hurts himself at the start of the third chorus when he swings his arms too hard.

Only for the Weak -- That shot of Peter and Bjorn headbanging once the main "dun-DUN-dun-DUN" riff starts after the opening is seared into my memory and is probably the thing I reflexively imagine the most when listening to this band. I always found this song kind of boring but I like a good performance video.

Cloud Connected -- Classic. The lame jumpsuits, the Anders jump, everyone singing the second chorus, the cool camera angle swaps. It was the first thing I ever saw by In Flames and I'll always have a special place for it next to my heart and between my lungs.

Trigger -- Cool performance video and I like the little act with Soilwork. I like that it was shot in winter; it reminds me of the winter when my brother and I really hunkered down and researched everything about this band shortly after discovering them.

System -- Not huge on live videos and this one's not really that special.

The Quiet Place -- Always thought this one was pretty cool. I like the little storyline and the variety of different settings (theater, white corridor, dank basement, gargoyle with the moon in the background). The video looks like how the song sounds.

Touch of Red -- A little too gangster for me, but I always thought the video was supposed to be a parody of that genre. Peter's part tells me it has to be.

My Sweet Shadow -- Solid performance video. I remember watching Headbanger's Ball every time it came on after learning this song would get a video. The only weird thing about it is that the band members were obviously freezing their asses off.

Friend -- I always liked this one. Simple and effective, with lots of chaotic camera movement.

(STYE has more videos but I only ever bothered watching them once or twice; the above four is enough)

Take This Life -- The band performance shots are really cool, love the concept of them playing in a city center. The parts with the actors are a bit tryhard but I can't hold it against the video.

Come Clarity -- A bit cheesy (those meteors at the end) but it's pretty cool. The version of the song they used for the video is not as good as the album version (some parts are brought forth in the mix).

The Mirror's Truth -- Creative concept, very Quiet Place-esque. I've always liked this one.

Alias -- As far as straight-up performance videos, this is probably one of my favorites. I like the studio setting they used and variety of lighting effects.

Delight and Angers -- Live video, no good.

Deliver Us -- Funny as hell. Seeing Bjorn headbanging in the ferris wheel car early on in the video was such an iconic moment when it was new. The start of the Goofy In Flames era.

Where the Dead Ships Dwell -- Would have been good if the band was playing in the video itself. As it stands, I don't care for how much they cut from the song.

Ropes -- I refuse to watch this. I will die from the cringe.

Rusted Nail -- Always like a performance video, but Ullaeus has this tendency to use really lame slo-mo shots in really ill-fitting moments (At the Gates has been a victim of this since their comeback, too), which makes the video just kind of silly.

Through Oblivion -- Basically the same concept as Artifacts of the Black Rain but with way better production values and instead of live footage of the band it's just Anders being Kanye West. I let it slide because it's basically his song (and I like the song). The part where the guy is floating in the water as that staccato synth plays at the end is pretty great.

Paralyzed -- Don't like live videos but I give it points because the band members make pretty amusing faces at times and I love the song.

The End -- It's a guy just killing people in a way that comes across as really distasteful rather than cool or even video gamey. It's one of, if not the worst music video I've ever seen.

The Truth -- Only saw it once and I just remember it being really lame.

Here Until Forever -- Refuse to watch this. Can't stand this song.

Save Me -- I hate this song but I love the music video. How is it that the poppiest In Flames album has the goriest music videos? That part at the end where you see the band members with the leather masks, and Bjorn's beard is clearly visible, perfectly encapsulates the weirdness that's drawn me to this band since 2004.

I Am Above -- It's hard to watch. I think I liked it when it came out but these days I just find it really cringey.

Call My Name -- Pretty silly, from what I remember.

Stay With Me -- Self-indulgent live video that I have no interest in watching. Dark Tranquillity's video for "The Pitiless" was bad for the same reason.

State of Slow Decay -- It's fun to watch and I really like the song. Pretty cool camera work.
 
I'm not big on music videos but the gangsta theme in Touch of Red always makes me laugh (in a good way). :)

The bondage thing in Pinball Map is a bit strange indeed, but when taking into account the song is about a pinball ball I guess it makes sense in a way. I mean, a pinball ball is controlled by the player and a bound person is more or less helpless too.
 
Makes sense.

When are these guys going to announce the new album. Bad marketing to build all this momentum around a single and then not announce anything for over a month.
 
Not unheard of these days. Gojira released Another World almost a year before they announced the album it would eventually be on.

And they probably want to max out on the current hype around SoSD before moving on to the next announcement (as far as I can tell it's still getting a lot of buzz).
 
I don't think I've listened to it since the first few days of its initial release - except for when I was stitching Lindberg's vocals over the ATG "tribute" verse sections.
 
He's such a bad actor. Acts as if he doesnt care about The Halo Effect but body language and expression says otherwise.
Care to point out the time? There's no way I'm watching the full thing to search for it.
 
So according to Anders the other band members had zero input into the writing ot the album, just him and Bjorn. You'd think they'd let Broderick and Tanner contribute a little, as both have shown to have some decent creative chops. I like how the interviewer pushes and basically says "well what do the other members contribute then?" and Anders has some vague answer about energy and feeling, rather than outright saying the other members are basically just touring musicians. Anders was a bit contradictory saying that he and Bjorn write "100%" of the music but then that Broderick wrote at least some solos? That isn't 100%, then. Anyway, bit of a shame the interviewer didn't push to confirm Niclas is done with the band. It's kind of obvious at this point but he didn't outright ask it. Anders did say that Broderick is an official member of the band now, though, so in a roundabout way that more or less confirms that Niclas is out.

Are those tats on Anders hands new btw? Don't remember seeing them before, but it's not like I'm looking at his hands often :D

Same BS quotes about how "if you like In Flames the album is for you", "it's a mixture of the past and present" - what he says about every album, even though it doesn't really make much sense. There are fans who like old In Flames, mid-2000s In Flames, SOAPF era In Flames, even SC/Battles era In Flames - is he saying that no matter what era you're into you'll like this album? I don't think so somehow.

"If we recorded the albums with the same producer, in the same studio every time I don't think people would see that difference between album to album" - lol, well, Nordstrom probably wouldn't have allowed you to release Siren Charms or Battles for a start, so probably not. But again this is nonsense. Yes their production is all over the place from album to album, and for the pre-2010 albums I'd say he has a valid point, but not after that. Production is part of it, but musically the post-2010 stuff varies a lot and production isn't that big of a part of the reason why.

You can definitely sense the mood change when the interviewer mentions The Halo Effect. Some pretty shitty comments from Anders on the subject, claiming he isn't paying attention to THE and hasn't heard what they're doing. As a supposed friend you'd think he'd give them some praise even if he hadn't heard their stuff - which I refuse to believe is true. If he's as into 'the scene' as he claims then there's no way he wouldn't have listened out of curiousity at least. Seems like sour grapes comments on his part. Also "I've heard they sound more like Dark Tranquillity than In Flames" - seemed like a bit of a snide remark? Anyway, yeah, he didn't hide his disdain very well. Just totally dismissive of a band that contains people who are supposed to be his friends. He didn't have one positive thing to say about them which says a lot about his feelings towards them.
 
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On the matter of solos. For some reason, when it comes to metal music, when it comes to writing solos, they don't seem to count as writing music for some reason that I don't understand.
 
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A new interview with Anders


Aside from him getting a bit more tensed up, I don't really think there's anything notable about what he said about The Halo Effect. It seems like he's less bitter about them and more bitter that there's any sort of notion of a rivalry between them due to being completely indifferent to them. It's a bit of a dick move to not even check them out if you really are friends with even just one of the members, but I understand why he wouldn't care otherwise. The obligation's only there if you're friends, at least if you ask me, though I guess the Dark Tranquillity comment was a bit too specific compared to everything else he said. I'm not sure if he meant to sound as passive aggressive with it as he did, but yeah, he did.

I can't say I've really watched their interviews, so I don't know how his behavior here is compared to how it is any/every other time. He kinda talks like a politician, save for everything about COVID. It's the one thing he went into the most specifics on and got the most worked up over, and it feels like it was a huge thing to him, which isn't exactly surprising at all. That's to be expected from a lot of people, at this point.
 
On the matter of solos. For some reason, when it comes to metal music, when it comes to writing solos, they don't seem to count as writing music for some reason that I don't understand.

I think he means just the core of the composition? It's clear that each drummer contributed their own drum composition, and I'd assume it's the same for the bass, since Anders and Bjorn probably can't write those. I guess Chris just does some solos, and that's that. I could always be wrong there. Either way, all of that is part of the music, Anders and Bjorn aren't writing everything. Either he's really egocentric about it, or it's a really poor choice of wording.
 
What does he say about COVID?

Again, regarding solos. They're not even being considered as writing music. Not that I agree.
 
Aside from him getting a bit more tensed up, I don't really think there's anything notable about what he said about The Halo Effect. It seems like he's less bitter about them and more bitter that there's any sort of notion of a rivalry between them due to being completely indifferent to them. It's a bit of a dick move to not even check them out if you really are friends with even just one of the members, but I understand why he wouldn't care otherwise. The obligation's only there if you're friends, at least if you ask me, though I guess the Dark Tranquillity comment was a bit too specific compared to everything else he said. I'm not sure if he meant to sound as passive aggressive with it as he did, but yeah, he did.

I can't say I've really watched their interviews, so I don't know how his behavior here is compared to how it is any/every other time. He kinda talks like a politician, save for everything about COVID. It's the one thing he went into the most specifics on and got the most worked up over, and it feels like it was a huge thing to him, which isn't exactly surprising at all. That's to be expected from a lot of people, at this point.

I mean, most of the interview is just typical Anders. His demeanour is always like this. I don't think he really likes doing interviews.

For me THE part was noticeably awkward. Even the interviewer seemed to pick up on it and was like "it's okay, what you just said was okay". I didn't feel like the way Anders answered the questions about THE was the way a genuine friend would speak about it. It was very dismissive, and like he was talking about just a random MDM band that kinda sounds like IF. Even the way he said something like "they're just one of many bands" was pretty harsh. I mean, dude, these are some legendary MDM musicians coming together, and they're supposed to be your friends. You could have at least feigned that you think it's cool and they're doing good stuff. Instead the most he could say was "good luck to them", again very dismissively. I don't know, I got really bad vibes from that entire portion of the interview. I think if Bjorn was asked that question it would be totally different.
 
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Definitely see his point about the media sort of framing THE as like a statement against current In Flames, a resurrection of old In Flames, or trying to make some sort of competition between bands. And obviously that kind of thing is brewing between the fanbases of both bands. I highly doubt that the members of either band think of it that way. Of course, statements from Anders or Peter (or whoever else has weighed in on it) won't stop people from speculating.
 
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