New album Foregone out February 2023

[Xpyro125]

We cannot dismiss the possibility that Peter and Daniel knew that Anders and Bjorn wanted to do some ATG rip off, so they decided to form THE. To diminish the effect.

The fact that Anders and Bjorn have shown no interest in melodeath since Jesper's departure might be something that they did on purpose to mislead us from their true intentions.

What if they've been writing this album since 2009?

Bjorn " we're going melodeath again. It will blow people's minds".

Peter "over my dead body".

Damn, truly the greatest deflection. Thank you for thwarting their awful plans- You're a fucking hero, Peter.

 

[eochaid]

Peter is the hero that we don't deserve.

 

[Jester Slave]

I don't even rate Clayman that highly, but mostly just trying to describe that it feels very mid-era IF to me, which I define as Colony/Clayman/Reroute.

What? There is no way Reroute is the end of the Colony-Clayman-R2R era and not the beginning of the R2R-STYE-CC era, maybe even ASOP slapped there, but with his voice being fucked CC definitely marked the end of screaming.

I wouldn't even take the easy way out and say that R2R belongs to both, because imo it is so much closer to the (back then) modern IF sound. Reroute was also a breaking point in their career and not just musically. They ditched their producer, the sound is more raw, it has additional production (vocal fuckery, synths), it was their biggest hit, kicked off their booming period which ended with CC as their last truly successful commercial release.

 

[DE4life]

I think almost everybody groups the mid-era as R2R/STYE/CC/ASOP... Phobiac is an odd fellow though this is the guy who ranks Jester Race as #1 and Siren Charms as #2 in his list of favourite IF albums. Siren Charms as #2 is appropriate in a certain way, but alas.

 

[Xpyro125]

What? There is no way Reroute is the end of the Colony-Clayman-R2R era and not the beginning of the R2R-STYE-CC era, maybe even ASOP slapped there, but with his voice being fucked CC definitely marked the end of screaming.

I wouldn't even take the easy way out and say that R2R belongs to both, because imo it is so much closer to the (back then) modern IF sound. Reroute was also a breaking point in their career and not just musically. They ditched their producer, the sound is more raw, it has additional production (vocal fuckery, synths), it was their biggest hit, kicked off their booming period which ended with CC as their last truly successful commercial release.

Early-era IF is really weird to try to accurately put, as Clayman feels like a much more transitionary album than it initially seems- Especially since it falls outside of the TJR-Whoracle-Colony narrative trilogy and since the lyrics tackle the same sort of subject matter as their subsequent material. Can't say I'd put it with the latter albums though. It's still very much sonically like the preceding albums. That being said, yeah, I'm with you on Reroute being with the latter two albums (Three for me, even if I fucking despise ASoP- You just can't have Come Clarity without Come Clarity Lite).

I think almost everybody groups the mid-era as R2R/STYE/CC/ASOP... Phobiac is an odd fellow though this is the guy who ranks Jester Race as #1 and Siren Charms as #2 in his list of favourite IF albums. Siren Charms as #2 is appropriate in a certain way, but alas.

So yeah, what you said.

 

[eochaid]

Reroute is too much a break from the past, or a new beginning, to even he considered a part of the old times. STYE feels like an evolution to R2R and CC takes a lot of elements from both times. Then ASOP is a lesser brother from CC.

 

[DE4life]

I've always grouped TJR/Whoracle/Colony/Clayman as the classic albums/the big four, but in reality there's a pretty massive difference between the sounds of TJR and Clayman. So truthfully it would make more sense to group TJR/Whoracle and Colony/Clayman as their own 'eras' (paticularly with the lineup changes between Whoracle and Colony).

 

[eochaid]

Agreed. But, til Clayman, there's this feeling of real evolution in the band. All of the albums seem to come from previous experiences adding new ways of approaching the music.

Then R2R is as much a break with the past as it is SOAPF.

It's like listening to a different band.

 

[Xpyro125]

I've always grouped TJR/Whoracle/Colony/Clayman as the classic albums/the big four, but in reality there's a pretty massive difference between the sounds of TJR and Clayman. So truthfully it would make more sense to group TJR/Whoracle and Colony/Clayman as their own 'eras' (paticularly with the lineup changes between Whoracle and Colony).

It makes sense to me, but I also don't like dividing the eras up too much. So, for the sake of clarity:

that's it, i'm not solving it, you figure it out yourself

 

[DE4life]

I've always been a bit of an outlier in stating that I consider TJR and Whoracle to be In Flames' only true MDM albums, so maybe best not to take my definitions that seriously

 

[Xpyro125]

I've always been a bit of an outlier in stating that I consider TJR and Whoracle to be In Flames' only true MDM albums, so maybe best not to take my definitions that seriously

Well, I can't say I agree there.

 

[DE4life]

For me the sound on TJR/Whoracle is so different to Colony/Clayman that it seems strange to put them in the same genre. Particularly when you consider that genre is actually a sub-genre of two other genres (Metal > Death Metal), so if you haven't gotten to a point where you can describe a consistent sound by then, how many more levels are needed?

TJR/Whoracle are universally considered MDM classics, so it's fair to place them there. Colony/Clayman however are closer to just straight melodic metal with black metal-ish vocals. Whilst some may say that's basically MDM, I'm not sure I agree. With that said idk what category I would put Colony/Clayman in ultimately, so I don't actively push against them being called MDM. Seems sensible all things considered, even if the actual description doesn't really give the consumer a way to differenciate between TJR and Clayman.

 

[drawntoblack]

Colony is what people typically refer to as modern melodic death metal. A lot of keyboards, riffs are more chuggy with emphasis on groove over melody. Clayman is just a logical continuation of it.

 

[Pallbearer]

I don't think there is necessarily some kind of attachment to Stand Ablaze. They also played Graveland a lot over the past two decades yet that song was never a fan favorite and I don't think I've seen it once brought up when people discuss their favorite IF songs. Graveland also just so happens to be the shortest and the easiest song to play off TJR.
Stand Ablaze is a very weird choice no matter how you look at it. I wouldn't be suprised if it was one of the new guys that suggested it.

Well yeah I don't think Anders and Björn have any special kind of attachment to the song; if they had, they probably hadn't taken a two-decade break from playing it. But I could indeed imagine one of the new guys asking the main men "Hey, this Stand Ablaze song seems cool, could we play it live some time?" and them answering "Well, we've played it before so why not." Things like that do happen sometimes. In 2001 or 2002 the guitarist Roland Grapow was fired from Helloween and Sascha Gerstner was brought in to replace him. On the following tour (in 2003) they were suddenly playing "Murderer" and "Starlight" from their first album, for the first time since 1987 I think, and it was said in an interview Sascha had suggested they do it.

However, I'm not saying playing Stand Ablaze couldn't have been a cynical, well-calculated move to gain attention. It will be interesting to see whether or not the song makes it to the set list on their upcoming headlining tour. There's no mention of Stand Ablaze on the Rock Altitude Festival set list (https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/in-flames/2022/patinoire-le-locle-switzerland-43b39f0f.html) but that's not terribly surprising as they only had time for 16 songs, as opposed to 22 songs at Dalhalla Brinner.

 

[Xpyro125]

For me the sound on TJR/Whoracle is so different to Colony/Clayman that it seems strange to put them in the same genre. Particularly when you consider that genre is actually a sub-genre of two other genres (Metal > Death Metal), so if you haven't gotten to a point where you can describe a consistent sound by then, how many more levels are needed?

TJR/Whoracle are universally considered MDM classics, so it's fair to place them there. Colony/Clayman however are closer to just straight melodic metal with black metal-ish vocals. Whilst some may say that's basically MDM, I'm not sure I agree. With that said idk what category I would put Colony/Clayman in ultimately, so I don't actively push against them being called MDM. Seems sensible all things considered, even if the actual description doesn't really give the consumer a way to differenciate between TJR and Clayman.

I think I very much disagree with this notion, as while the latter two are certainly much more accessible and modern in composition, I think all four albums (TJR-Clayman) are melodeath. It's the same sort of thing for me as comparing The Gallery and Fiction, with Fiction being considered not melodeath. Same with Above the Weeping World and Shadows of the Dying Sun, as well as Wages of Sin and Rise of the Tyrant (I'd put a Johan-era album here, but I haven't listened to them in forever, and thus have no idea what they're like anymore).

Are the former two (TJR and Whoracle) very different from the latter two sonically? Absolutely, but I do still think they're all melodeath.

 

[Jester Slave]

Even if SA was a cynical jab and an tattempt to get some publicity, all of that is being absolved by the venue. At worst it was a cheeky move at a venue where they always do some niche performances. You might as well accuse them of taunting people with the fireworks in the middle of an economical crysis.

As for those 4 records, TJR/Whoracle and Colony/Clayman are obviously in different groups, but I'd still consider the latter mdm. The word evolution has been beaten and ridiculed to death regarding IF, but genres can absolutely evolve, and up until Clayman I do think it is what happened. Modern rap and hip-hop doesn't sound the same as they did in the 80s or 90s - not even as in the 00s. Sure, some subgenres were born (like trap), but we don't make up new genres for the genres which just change with the time. I don't think a song like Square Nothing would ever fit on the R2R-STYE-CC trio, but some prototype version of it is not so far fetched to be heard on TJR/Whoracle/Colony - granted, it would've been more guitar oriented on TJR/Whoracle because they didn't give a shit about drumming there.

 

[shad0w__]

Considering that they, together with a handful of other bands, defined the melodeath subgenre in the 90s, i think its safe to call their classic albums (ie. Until clayman) as melodeath.

 

[eochaid]

I still considere Colony and Clayman as melodeath. Clayman might be in the frontier but still has a good amount of elements to be considered as that. I also include Come Clarity since, in my opinion, has a lot of Melodeath elements mixed in a more modern approach to the gender. Even if some people will not considere it, it's still nearer to the first era albums than anything that they have released since Clayman.

 

[shad0w__]

I still considere Colony and Clayman as melodeath. Clayman might be in the frontier but still has a good amount of elements to be considered as that. I also include Come Clarity since, in my opinion, has a lot of Melodeath elements mixed in a more modern approach to the gender. Even if some people will not considere it, it's still nearer to the first era albums than anything that they have released since Clayman.

Yes could call CC mdm to an extent but taking a lot of influence from the US metal and metalcore of the 00s

 

[eochaid]

Indeed. And a lot from the previous IF albums. That's why, while a bit reluctant, I think of it as modern Melodeath.