New album Foregone out February 2023

[shad0w__]

Just a guess, but I would think he probably feels pressure (whether from himself or someone else...) to make it sound commercial. I hate using terms like "sell-out", but the fact is, In Flames has wanted to be a mainstream metal band for over 20 years. Very, very, very few mainstream metal bands don't use clean vocals in some way. In fact, I don't know if I could think of a single one that didn't eventually add clean vocals into the mix. And I'm not talking about Amon Amarth levels. Yes, they're a big metal band. Certainly not mainstream. I can't fault Anders or anyone else for wanting their music to be heard, to sell, to make money off it. That's the goal. But if you go too far, you lose authenticity. Anders lost authenticity years and years ago in my opinion. Making their records sound commercial, or at least have moments of it, makes sense from a music selling perspective. Especially when you consider management, record labels, etc. There's a group of people who's sole purpose is to make money, not please fans on the internet.

I'm not speculating that Anders is just going through the motions and doing what he's told. There's a very good chance he wants to be a good singer and deliver amazing performances. More than a 'good' chance. My point is, you want to make money from your music? Putting out a shitty sounding black metal album that sounds like it was recorded in a basement on a 4-track isn't the path you take. You look at the path In Flames did take and you can easily see the forward momentum as they added more and more clean vocals, synth, etc.

There's nothing inherently wrong about any of that. I just have a hard time looking at it and not thinking "this sounds fake as shit."

To also pay the guy a compliment, Anders growls have indeed been better the last several years than in a very long time. I remember watching their Hellfest 2017 show and thinking "holy fuck, this sounds amazing" when they played Moonshield. I just think Anders needs to stop overextending and trying to do things he isn't good at. Find a balance. Not everything needs to be corrected and compressed so much that you lose any semblance of a vocal track being organic.

Agree, i suspects he looks at the commercial success of US Metalcore bands eho utilise clean vocsls in choruses mainly

 

[drawntoblack]

Without claiming to be any sort of expert, I've listened to my share of extreme metal vocalists over the years, and I recognise there are a lot of them who're probably technically better than Anders both at harsh and clean vocals, but personally, when he's at his best, no-one else comes close. I remember a review of Come Clarity that said something like "When Anders Fridén sings, you believe him", and I'd say I've felt that.

I'm trying to be as objective as humanely possible when I say that the biggest mistake this band made was that they discarded Come Clarity's production and instead of chose its follower ASOP as the go-to formula they would utilize to this day. ASOP is coincidentally when they started mixing their records in the US.
R2R and Soundtrack are both very experimental sounding and different, and so was CC. But when it comes to Anders, CC is the best he ever sounded - again, objectively. The soaring lines just work, like you said, the processing of the vocals is perfect. Don't get me wrong, they autotuned him there severely too but the processing chain and the editing is done in a believable way and most importantly - it fits the music and actually sounds good. Guitars have this razor sharp quality to them, and despite it being a lackluster tone on its own when isolated, it fits the mix.
Honestly, given how well that album did it's weird to me that no bands tried to emulate that production. It feels very mid 2000s with its choruses as a whole, but you could release that record today and it would sound like it hasn't aged a day.

I understand how pointless it is to try to describe sounds, but everything they released with ASOP and onwards has a distinctly plastic quality to it that I just can't shake off and ignore, and even the faster songs on those albums lack the energy that Come Clarity's production would've perhaps helped. They hit the nail on the head with that one and I can't believe they thought to themselves "yeah let's try something radically different next time, this wasn't it".

 

[DE4life]

The CC mix definitely aids how Anders' cleans sound on that album. He sounds great on Leeches and CTK especially. Alternatively, on the title track, which obviously lacks the aggression of the other songs, he sounds objectively bad. So much so that I never listen to that one nowadays.

 

[Xpyro125]

Without claiming to be any sort of expert, I've listened to my share of extreme metal vocalists over the years, and I recognise there are a lot of them who're probably technically better than Anders both at harsh and clean vocals, but personally, when he's at his best, no-one else comes close. I remember a review of Come Clarity that said something like "When Anders Fridén sings, you believe him", and I'd say I've felt that.

The guy gets a hard time on here, and I've been as guilty as any for criticising some of the post-Benson-era output and the use of studio techniques to try and turn his voice into something it isn't. I don't know if that Come Clarity review comment could really be applied to Here Until Forever or In This Life or any of the other recent songs where he's trying to use soaring melodic lines with sustained high notes. The simple authenticity of the verses of Bullet Ride or the melody of Metaphor that was comfortably within his range were more than good enough, and just as much part of the reason he's my favourite singer as his awesome (imo) growls. I wish he knew that and was content with playing to his strengths, but maybe he feels pressure from somewhere to try and write songs that push his voice to its limit.

To pay him a compliment, I think his harsh vocals on the Foregone singles are the best they've been on a studio recording since Clayman (the original, not the rerecording). That little passage of growling at about 0:50 on the In The Dark clip posted a few pages ago sounded to me like 1990s Anders, but I actually also really liked the clean vocals over the stripped back pre-chorus, the "the pain, the rage, our scars" line.

For me, as I've said before, a return to form isn't necessarily about getting rid of parts of the modern In Flames sound and returning to a "pure" effort to emulate TJR or Whoracle, it's about including elements of their sound that they had almost completely abandoned by the wilderness years of SC and Battles. Their best modern albums (Come Clarity and SOAPF) have been the ones where they put their sound of the moment in a blender with parts from their past. I feel like the harsh vocal tone from Foregone would improve both CC and SOAPF.

I'm trying to temper my expectations in case the rest of the tracks are like Battles or the mid part of I, The Mask, but based on everything I've heard so far, I am quite hyped...

I'm trying to be as objective as humanely possible when I say that the biggest mistake this band made was that they discarded Come Clarity's production and instead of chose its follower ASOP as the go-to formula they would utilize to this day. ASOP is coincidentally when they started mixing their records in the US.
R2R and Soundtrack are both very experimental sounding and different, and so was CC. But when it comes to Anders, CC is the best he ever sounded - again, objectively. The soaring lines just work, like you said, the processing of the vocals is perfect. Don't get me wrong, they autotuned him there severely too but the processing chain and the editing is done in a believable way and most importantly - it fits the music and actually sounds good. Guitars have this razor sharp quality to them, and despite it being a lackluster tone on its own when isolated, it fits the mix.
Honestly, given how well that album did it's weird to me that no bands tried to emulate that production. It feels very mid 2000s with its choruses as a whole, but you could release that record today and it would sound like it hasn't aged a day.

I understand how pointless it is to try to describe sounds, but everything they released with ASOP and onwards has a distinctly plastic quality to it that I just can't shake off and ignore, and even the faster songs on those albums lack the energy that Come Clarity's production would've perhaps helped. They hit the nail on the head with that one and I can't believe they thought to themselves "yeah let's try something radically different next time, this wasn't it".

I can't help but completely agree with these two posts, they put everything I feel on the topic into the exact right words.

 

[DE4life]

I can only assume disunity within the band is why they never stick with a consistent production/mix. I'm not sure there's any other band I listen to whose sound varies so drastically from one album to the next - and this is despite having the same producer across various albums.

There's even significant differences between TJR-Whoracle-Colony. Pretty much the only albums in the band's entire discography that are close in production/mix are Colony and Clayman.

You'd think working with Benson for three albums would give the band a consistent sound, but no. Battles and ITM take somewhat different approaches, whilst Foregone is also very different to those two.

 

[Xpyro125]

I can only assume disunity within the band is why they never stick with a consistent production/mix. I'm not sure there's any other band I listen to whose sound varies so drastically from one album to the next - and this is despite having the same producer across various albums.

There's even significant differences between TJR-Whoracle-Colony. Pretty much the only albums in the band's entire discography that are close in production/mix are Colony and Clayman.

You'd think working with Benson for three albums would give the band a consistent sound, but no. Battles and ITM take somewhat different approaches, whilst Foregone is also very different to those two.

I'm going to also guess that there's just a desire to not do quite the same thing on each album- Even before the band had the classic lineup, although a fuckton of alcohol also seriously changed how they approached Whoracle (And likely other albums). I have to imagine they're in completely different mindsets too. Battles was made with pretty much zero confidence from the guys, while Foregone was brought on by lockdown and a desire to actually be kinda heavy again.

 

[DE4life]

IF certainly don't seem to do comfort zone settings. From an outsider's perspective it feels like it'd be exhausting to repeatedly change your sound, but Anders and Bjorn at least don't seem to mind.

 

[eochaid]

Arguing about Anders' vocal quality is just futile. The people praising him are living in a constant state of cognitive dissonance where they refuse to acknowledge how poor his live performances are elevating him to the pantheon of the greatest vocalists ever.

And there has, also, been a lot of condescendence by others who are praising him just for growling, while his growls aren't also any good. I've seen adjectives regarding his live vocals that only belong to the realm of fiction because there's no way that people were seriously writing that.

This said, this would be bad if Anders was the only one with these vocal issues. But, sadly, that's a trend now in metal. It's full of pretentious wannabes that are taking advantage of studio tools to hide their inabilities. Inabilities that come from the lack of a real effort.

Now, I wouldn't care about this amateurish approach to music if it wasn't for the fact that this musicians are asking people money to watch them live. I cannot imagine too many situations where people is asking money just with this lack of professionalism.

 

[DE4life]

I remember a review of Come Clarity that said something like "When Anders Fridén sings, you believe him", and I'd say I've felt that.

Eochaid:

 

[Ilias7]

I think I've said it before, I certainly do not consider Anders a good clean singer. He is far from that. But his voice has a distinguishing tone, which somehow works for me (when is not full of autotune).
I do consider him a good screamer. His screams can be pretty accessible to people outside music with screaming and his articulation is also good. In Foregone so far he sounds like a beast, as he does also live the last years.
Keep in mind that he has been touring for many years and he never had to cancel shows because his voice blew up. Now I am no expert, but I've heard that constantly switching from screaming to clean is dangerous if you dont do it technically right. I give him credit for that. Other vocalist had to undergo a surgery because of this ( Jesse from Killswitch Engage or Matt from Trivium).

 

[DE4life]

As far as Anders' voice never blowing out completely is concerned, I think it's down to a combination of luck and the right genetics. He has been quite open about not using any serious technique basically all the way until Battles.

 

[Jester Slave]

Arguing about Anders' vocal quality is just futile. The people praising him are living in a constant state of cognitive dissonance where they refuse to acknowledge how poor his live performances are elevating him to the pantheon of the greatest vocalists ever.

There is some irony about bashing a metal vocalists' singing, because it isn't perfect. Who cares? Aside from some unqiue voices in metal, like Anders, there are like 56 male singers in thousands of bands. One of them is the young(ish) american metalcore singer, another one is the somewhat beefy power metal singer, and another one is the US singers from the midwest. If you heard one of them, you heard them all.

It's also futile to bring up Anders' live voice, because the best part of IF is pretty much their live performances. Aside from the few times he had fucked up voice, he's been great, and he has been better and better since Battles. You can circlejerk yourself about hating on his vocals, but it's been one of the hallmarks of the band since Reroute.

The more I browse online communities in all kinds of topics (domestic topics, global politics, music, language learning, video games), the more I'm convinced that the healthiest thing to do is to just not browse them. Everyone is bitching about everything for the dumbest fucking reason, you read so much of it that you kinda believe that it is the opinion of a majority, then you leave the house and you just see the exact fucking opposite from the everyday people.

 

[DE4life]

If you're easily triggered and struggle to debate then yes, absolutely avoid fandoms. You also have to know when it's worth debating something or not. Sometimes an opinion is so out there that it simply isn't a viewpoint you're going to be able to alter.

As far as metal singers, in some genres yes, but strong disagree on the Power Metal front. As somebody who is very fond of the genre, there are a wide range of different vocalists who sound very different from each other. In fact I'd say it's one of the best genres to look for unique and unusual vocalists.

 

[eochaid]

There is some irony about bashing a metal vocalists' singing, because it isn't perfect.

It isn't perfect he says .

That's what I mean when I talk about delusions.

 

[eochaid]

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/in-flames-foregone-review/

New review.

The two primary criticisms of Foregone, however, will be that it’s front loaded and Fridén’s cleans. In Flames’ sporting a sound so dependent on Anders—who lacks the power of a Björn Strid or emotive sensibilities of Mikael Åkerfeldt—seems to be passively acknowledged by the vocal production. Producer Howard Benson spends a lot of effort doubling him up, with liberal use of spreaders, what appears to be aggressive compression and who knows what kinds of filters. Honestly, it’s not a sound I love.4 However, as weaknesses go, I think that Anders’ cleans are the best they’ve ever been. The real problem with Foregone is that it falters in the second half with three songs that tend towards mid-paced groove and which lack the newfound spice and energy of the band’s sound (“A Dialogue in B Flat Minor,” “Cynosure,” and my least favorite “Pure Light of Mind”). There are no bad tracks on Foregone, but Nuclear Blast’s pre-release tracks suggest that I am not the only person who feels that the front half will resonate more with fans.

 

[TheJestersDoor]

Most universally positive reviews the band has got in a very long time. I'm expecting the rest of the album to be a mix of ITM and what we've heard. I'm okay with that.

 

[Jester Slave]

Debating prowess, if that's what you meant, is pretty futile in communities which members convinced themselves long ago about something. In fact, you don't even have to be a good debater to bring up good points in this cases, because these people are so far gone, that it's enough to use common sense to put a whole into their entire world-view.

If someone would base their expectation about an IF show on the comments here, they would expect a very small crowd, who gets rowdy whenever a newer song is being played, go apeshit when The Hive is being played, and could barely tolerate Anders' voice. In reality it's entirely different and pretty much everyone is having a good time. They just don't spend their time discussing IF, or it ends with a random Facebook comment like "you guys rock, come to [city's name] again!" and that is it. Normal people won't give a shit about whether Anders would win The Voice or not. Lots of people find him unique and cool, others find him unique and shit, but the former will hold him in higher regard compared to most other bands, because having a unique singer is more rare, than having a unique sound. I like Slayer for example, and have nothing against Araya, but aside from his guttural screams, he doesn't really leave a mark on you.

 

[Ilias7]

I got an email that my pre-order is on its way. Maybe it will arrive tomorrow.

I am looking forward to better quality versions of Cynosure and In The Dark. From the reviews A Dialogue in B Flat Minor could be an interesting track. The snippet from Pure Light Of the Mind sounded cool, it gave Follow Me vibes and I am ok with that.

 

[eochaid]

Most universally positive reviews the band has got in a very long time. I'm expecting the rest of the album to be a mix of ITM and what we've heard. I'm okay with that.

I find it annoying that lots of them are comparing them to ASOP, as if SOAPF is somehow a bad album. And that tells more about the reviewers than the music itself.

 

[Ilias7]

@ciko_gfb Is everything ok, my neighbour? I've heard about the earthquake in Turkey