New album Foregone out February 2023

First listen. Boring song. Shitty solo. If this is the best that they can do then I don't have high expectations for this album.

About the writing process:

we decided to take a trip to the U.S. and just get the machine rolling again — write some stuff; just get things out of our system. So we spent some time — like, three weeks — in L.A. And then we flew home and had Christmas and so on, and then we flew back again and started recording stuff for real. But as soon as we got together, a few weeks in the writing process, it felt like it always has."
 


New single, guys!


Love the vocals especially, but I dunno, something about this doesn't really click with me as much as "State of Slow Decay". It's really good, and I love that there are straight up no cleans on here, but... Eh, it really doesn't feel memorable or fun in the way that SoSD does. It's not something that'll make my way into regular listening.

Also, the guitarwork sounds a ton like modern Arch Enemy. If they weren't so mediocre, I'd probably know which song it sounds like.

That being said, it's nice to be genuinely hopeful about In Flames for once. Maybe this album won't be Benson'd after all.
 
Second listen and man, "Bend the truth to fit your opinion / another excuse, another lie" is actually a really great hook.

Quote me three years from now and laugh but behind the sleek production and Jesper's palpable absence, parts of this give me that mid-era In Flames vibe and I'm really digging it.

The lyrics are so fucking hit and miss, man. On one hand, you have that, Nothing but pain, "this is the end", "The sky is on fire and the angels cry" all being incredibly raw lines, but on the other hand, the first verse exists, and you have "Mankind, too unkind to be renowned / Joey was right, this is the final countdown"

I'm sorry, I know "The Final Countdown" is a classic, but he really namedropped Joey Tempest and that song and expected it to sound badass. I'm not hopeful for the lyrics of this album whatsoever, but at least we'll get some good laughs out of it.

But what the hell is on Joey's head?
 
Lyrics are cringe and guitars still sound like they were mixed and optimized for an iphone speaker, they have that plastic boxy sound that is signature Benson production. These guys used to be pioneers of modern guitar tones, how did they fall this low. And more importantly, how did they manage to cement themselves into that rut for what is now almost a decade without making some kind of full circle at some point.
Music itself is fairly forgettable. It does sound like THE gave them a bit of a reality check and influenced them to write faster songs but this is still some very forgettable music. I don't buy for a second that Anders is telling the truth in that interview where he said he hasn't heard any of The Halo Effect music at all.
 
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I'm sorry, I know "The Final Countdown" is a classic, but he really namedropped Joey Tempest and that song and expected it to sound badass.

I was hoping I couldn't hear correctly. This is cringe.

Music itself is fairly forgettable. It does sound like THE gave them a bit of a reality check and influenced them to write faster songs but this is still some very forgettable music. I don't buy for a second that Anders is telling the truth in that interview where he said he hasn't heard any of The Halo Effect music at all.

To be fair, Shadowminds was the only track that was released before IF entered the studio. Feel What I Believe was released while IF were recording and all the other tracks after they were done.
 
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I'm not really expecting any clever lyrics from Anders at this point, and my mind just kinda filters the lyrics out, so he could sing in Swahili for all I know and I wouldn't even care.
 
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Drums are very energetic and cool. I like the more agressive and metal sound as well.

But, song is quite generic, solo is shitty and lyrics are mostly cringe.

Not great, not terrible. Maybe it will work better in the context of the whole album.
 
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Also, I've listened to the new song a couple of times more and I'm not really sure if I like it more than SoSD anymore. The "sky is on fire and the angels cry" part mostly kills it for me, both lyrics and that guitar fiddledoodling underneath sound terrrible.
 
After a couple of listens, i think its an ok song, i prefer SoSD though.

Intro reminds me of Arch Enemy for some reason. For me the strongest bit is the chorus, because its thrashy and cool screaming over it.

Solo is again weakest point, reference to "Joey" is beyond cringe.
 
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Sounds a bit like the modern Arch Enemy.

Weird guitar sound, generic riffing you heard somewhere already, ex-Nevermore guitar player doing basic rhythm work, Deceiver in the song title, lyrics written by a very young teen.

But hey, at least it's mostly metal.
 
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What's funny is that the reference doesn't even make sense. The Final Countdown isn't a countdown to our destruction, the song is literally just about going into space :D if you're going to make a cringe reference like that at least call back to a song that actually fits thematically with what you're doing. I thought this kind of thing was done more in rap/hip-hop as opposed to metal, anyway. Not sure I can think of any other metal song with a weird reference like this in it.
 
This is something that they do a lot here in Spain when it comes to pop and rock musicians. The structure is usually:

"As (insert some first name here) said (insert quote here)".

Tried a second listen. Stopped after the first chorus. I find nothing relevant or apealing to this song or the previou one. Just... Some random music. Bad random music. Is it hevier thatn the previous efforts? It is. But, heavier doesn't define quality. It's just more noisy. And forgetable.
 
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