New album Foregone out February 2023

[The Grayfox]

I have a few very rough thoughts after one listen. It's going to take multiple listens to come to a really solid opinion.

The Beginning of All Things (...That will end?) Which title is it?: Nice intro if I'm being honest. It sets up the album pretty well. I don't understand why State of Slow Decay is the first actual song though. I think Foregone pt 1 or The Great Deceiver would've been better choices for that slot.

Bleeding Out: Very poppy chorus. Decent solo. Not much else to say here right now.

Pure Light of Mind: After the intro, my first thought listening to this was "oh, this is In Flames trying to channel Architects." That changed pretty quickly though. Really, there are some great vocal melodies going on here. I just wish someone else was singing them.

In the Dark: This is one of my least favorites right here. The verses are incredibly boring, very forced clean vocals. Big surprise there. This one and Meet Your Maker will become interchangeable for me in the future, I can already tell that. As in 'which one is worse?'

Dialogue in B Flat Minor: This was the first time listening to any of the new songs where I stopped and appreciated Tanner's drumming. He sounds quite good on this album. And his drums are mixed well. Solid solo as well. The rest of the song is forgettable at this point in time. We'll see what happens later.

Cynosure: Great bass work in here. Decent riffing going on. It lost me about 1/3 through and the cleans once again killed it for me. You like what you like... but how the fuck do people actually like Anders' clean singing? It is so forced and fake sounding. I just don't get it.

End the Transmission: An attempt at being a heavy closer. And it was indeed an attempt.

Become One: I was actually kind of getting into this song until that awful chorus kicked in. Fuck, can they just hire a proper singer to do the cleans going forward? Pitch correction extremely noticeable on this song.

Overall thoughts: the clean vocals are really hurting this album for me. I actually feel like I might enjoy this album if it wasn't Anders singing. The album is mixed really well. It's probably one of the best sounding IF albums ever, minus vocals. It's very clean. I know I'm focusing a lot on vocals here, but it's because they're really distracting. Usually I can sort of look past vocals that I don't really enjoy, but they're so up front and in your face that it's hard to focus on the music. I have no idea how they plan on approaching vocals from a live standpoint. Well, I do. They're going to use backing tracks, but man it's going to sound bad. Songs like Pure Light of Mind and Cynosure are going to have to rely on those tracks heavily and for me that takes away from the live performance.

Final thought right now: Anders, you are not Bjorn Strid. Just stop it.

 

[DE4life]

There are two issues with the vocals. One is the ridiculous processing, layering, autotune, etc that's going on just to make them sound like anything other than Anders. Really fake. Second is that they are too high in the mix, I'd say by at least one decibel but you can easily reduce them by two or three and still hear everything. Production in general is indeed very solid, but whoever mixed the vocals fucked up imo.

 

[GraemeSinclair]

It didn't -quite- live up to my highest hopes, but overall, I'm coming away from it feeling pretty positive. It's not above Come Clarity or SOAPF in my ranking, but it does some things better than both of them (mainly the harsh vocals, but also some of the instrumental work).

After listening through Siren Charms and Battles for the first time, I just... didn't go back and listen to them again, which was really the ultimate indictment. I didn't feel like I needed any more time with them to conclude they weren't for me and I've largely stuck by that conclusion. The same goes for the songs I didn't like on I, The Mask, I made a playlist with the six songs I liked and I've never really listened to the others again. I've listened to everything on Foregone at least twice so far, so that's a positive sign that even the worst songs on this album don't belong in the pit of despair.

For me, there's a lot to like on Foregone, but I'm not deaf to its problems. The overproduction of clean vocals is pretty egregious across the board, in lots of places during sustained vowels Anders sounds like a tape cassette being fast-forwarded, at points there are so many vocal tracks together that it sounds like "Some Nights" by Fun, which is not a comparison I ever thought I'd be making with an In Flames album. I love harmonised vocals, but quite often two or three voices is enough. As someone with synaesthesia, I can "see" two vocal lines (or guitar lines) moving next to another as streaks of colour - at times on Foregone, Anders sounds like he's vomiting a rainbow.

Sometimes he still tries to fit too many syllables into a line and loses the flow, but overall, the vocals and the music are meshed together much better than they were on Siren Charms and Battles.

For me, this is the best Anders' harsh vocals have sounded since Clayman, and I'm really happy that lower growls are so prevalent throughout the album (this might even be the most he's growled on a record since Colony). It's always been one of my favourite parts of the In Flames sound and I feel it's been criminally underused in every release since 2000, so that's a massive deal for me and really helps to elevate Foregone.

The Beginning of all Things - Deserves its place alongside Acoustic Medley, Pallar Anders Visa and Varmlandsvisen in the pantheon of gorgeous IF folky acoustic instrumentals. I did worry having heard YouTube recordings of it that I'd be bored by it, but hearing it on the record, it sounded lush and I enjoyed the little B-section with the low strings. It would have been nice to have a bit more of a segue between it and the start of SoSD, but that's really nit-picking. (8/10)

State of Slow Decay - Covered most of it when it came out, but it's nice to hear it in the context of the album. Could maybe be a bit more fleshed-out, but it's grown on me as it is. I enjoy the thrashy, chaotic feel, the harsh vocals (especially the pre-chorus), the harmonised solo. I wasn't familiar with Blinded by Fear before I heard SoSD, but I've listened to the two of them and it doesn't feel like a blatant rip-off for me, even if there are some similarities. (8/10)

Meet Your Maker - I like the verses, both instrumentally and vocally, although the lyrics are pretty basic. First overproduced chorus (although I do like the harmony on 'at the end of the masquerade' - I'd like to hear it sung live by a couple of good vocalists with no post-production). I love the dancing guitar melody behind the chorus. It definitely compensates for the vocal element. After a meandering start, the solo is solid, especially the end of it where it harmonises and meshes with the chords. (7/10)

Bleeding Out - At first, I was like "oh, okay, this is different, but potentially pretty cool". It had a kind of bouncy pirate vibe to me. There's a little leading guitar line at about 30 seconds in that's just signature In Flames and could be from any of their records. The harsh vocals sound good, but they don't entirely compensate for the issues with the clean vocals. Solo is a bit wheedly and directionless. (5/10)

Foregone Pt. 1 - I enjoy this song a lot. It feels excoriating, but in a good way. The chaotic verses remind me of Morphing Into Primal, especially the riff at 0:43. Probably the most unbridled aggression In Flames have had in a song in a very long time, but still retains a sense of melody throughout, with the three bar acoustic break and the solos from both Bjorn and Chris that have distinct voices but both feel like they're saying something rather than just noodling. (9/10)

Foregone Pt. 2 - I always liked the harsh vocals and the guitar melody on this one. The clean vocals on the verses have grown on me too, particularly where there's just one track. The solo could be a bit longer and more developed. It does give me -some- of the same vibes as Moonshield, but I think that's just time signature and tonality. (7/10)

Pure Light of Mind - I like the intro melody, it feels very In Flames. It was interesting hearing Anders try something approaching falsetto. The choruses are overwrought, as per. Instrumentally there are some nice things going on without it fully living up to the potential of that first melodic passage. As In Flames ballads go, it's somewhere above The Chosen Pessimist and the ones from SC/Battles, and somewhere below Come Clarity and Evil in a Closet. (6/10)

The Great Deceiver - Very solid, up-tempo slice of melodic death metal. The main melodic hook isn't the most inventive that In Flames have ever created (when it's competing with the likes of Swim, Resin, Jotun and Embody the Invisible, there's steep competition), but it does have that signature In Flames tonality to me. Reminds me a bit of the lead guitar in Dark Signs. I like Tanner's drum work a lot (actually he does really well throughout the record and they're mixed really well), and Anders sounds great here, with more of a mid-range scream, similar to the tone he used on Self vs. Self. The solo is just... there, but I do wish they had expanded the mellow section at 2:50 into something longer. It has a beautiful atmosphere (although melodically, it is very similar to The Attic). (8/10)

In The Dark - I LOVE THIS SONG. For me, Anders' harsh vocals here sound straight out of Colony. When I heard the growls on that clip a few days ago, I was quite hyped and I really hoped that passage wasn't the only use of harsh vocals on the song. I'm glad that all of the verses were growled. I'm fine with the basic Bottled-style riffing in 6/8 at the start, but I really enjoy it when that folky acoustic melody kicks in and the rhythm guitars get melodic. It does remind me of some of the 6/8 sections on The Jester Race (I know... I know... these things can be buried in there). I also enjoy the solo, and I agree with @ThePhobiac that the triumphant-sounding bit at the end is evocative of Clayman. It also has probably my favourite clean-sung chorus on the album. It has a good melody, feels mostly within Anders' range and the harmony vocal tracks are buried better in the mix. (9/10)

A Dialogue in Bb Minor - Instrumentally, there are some nice things happening here. Straight away, that verse riff is fun and reminds me of Reflect the Storm. There are some more cool melodic flourishes as things go on... But the chorus of this song is probably the biggest offender with the worst issue on the album and although I've tried, it's hard to look past it. It's just too much, too many layers. Especially that last chorus... Yikes. Acoustic outro is nice, for what it's worth. (5/10)

Cynosure - It's that kind of alt. rock that featured heavily on Siren Charms and Battles, and I feared would be their direction forever. It's not badly written music, it's just not really what I listen to In Flames for. The rhythm section did really well here. The chorus melody doesn't really work for me and the vocal overproduction is nearly as bad as Dialogue. (6/10)

End the Transmission - I'd say this one's comparable to Darker Times or Vacuum, a mid-tier song based predominantly on down-tuned riffing without much melody outside of its chorus. The chorus isn't the most stand-out melody they've ever written either. I like the growls, though. The fact that Anders sounds like this again blows my mind, and he does it with abandon throughout this song which livens up the verses. (6/10)

Become One - Feels like a filler track from Reroute, Come Clarity or ASOP, until the chorus... Jeez. (5/10)

Overall, I'm giving Foregone a first-impression rating of 7/10 which means it would fit into my album tier list as follows:

The Jester Race/Whoracle (10/10)
Clayman/Colony/Sounds of a Playground Fading (9/10)
Come Clarity (8/10)
Foregone/Reroute to Remain (7/10)
Soundtrack to Your Escape (6/10)
I, The Mask/A Sense of Purpose (5/10)
Siren Charms/Battles (2/10)

P.S. Glad you're okay @ciko_gfb , really sorry to hear what people in your country are going through right now.

 

[DE4life]

I already know that Foregone will be my least played IF album of all time, even taking SC and Battles into account, because nothing on it is interesting to me. For every song on Foregone that may sound decent, there are bands doing the same sound much better, with vocalists who can actually sing. That IF uniqueness just doesn't exist for me on Foregone.

Ultimately, I just don't think this version of the band produced by Howard Benson is for me. Broderick and Tanner are excellent at what they do, don't get me wrong, but mixing them in has in some way diluted what made In Flames different, even when it was more stupid different than good different.

If they move on from Benson in the future then maybe I'll give them another shot. Otherwise, much like @eochaid , I think I'm out as far as the current band and sound is concerned. Really cool for people who are enjoying the band again, but for me personally I think this journey likely ends with I, the Mask, and I'm okay with that.

 

[miniroch]

I'm yet to listen from start to end, but the In The Dark chorus is just too catchy for me to stop it.

Still, my biggest issue is once again, Anders. I don't blame him that much for Battles, it was just dull in all departments, but I tend to think ASOP, ITM and now Foregone are not what they could be. I'm a sucker for his far from perfect cleans, since Colony all the way to SOAPF (ASOP aside), but they used to be sparse, which made it feel like icing on a cake, e.g. Insipid 2000 or Coerced Coexistence. Nowadays, it's the other way around and it's an instant "back to the roots" as soon as they release anything without cleans.

When it's all so focused on vocals, it's hard to enjoy what's happening underneath, and even that would be okay-ish, if it was any good or at least honest. Right now, it's just autotuned to unbearable levels.
Soilworks latest album does it similarly with Vultures and Electric Again - I have no idea what's happening except for that super catchy choruses, but that only works because it's one of the best melodeath vocals out there.

With all that, I'll try to give some more chances to a couple of tracks, but I doubt I will ever randomly decide I wish to hear Meet Your Maker, Bleeding Out or Become One. Still, I'll enjoy at least 7 out of 13, which is same as with ITM, though I value Foregone's bangers higher, mostly due to some of the best growls since a while.

I felt IF was going in the right direction with ITM, I feel the same with Foregone, with same conclusion - ditch Benson, leave the autotune, put more focus on what works best (those acoustic interludes are a thing of beauty), limit clean vocals. Or get Strid for them, that might works as well.

 

[A88]

I already know that Foregone will be my least played IF album of all time, even taking SC and Battles into account, because nothing on it is interesting to me. For every song on Foregone that may sound decent, there are bands doing the same sound much better, with vocalists who can actually sing. That IF uniqueness just doesn't exist for me on Foregone.

Yeah, I have the same feeling.

Can't see myself going back to any of these songs.

So, out of last 4 albums and a whole decade of work, I can really enjoy a few songs from ITM. Everything else goes from bad to meh in my book.

 

[mindd]

I think that after glowing reviews almost everywhere and fans/media people screaming about Foregone being IF's heavy and awesome return to roots and overall the best thing since sliced bread and Clayman, and also Anders and Bjorn being very comfortable and pleased with Benson, there is no way they'll change course now from the Battles-ITM-Foregone direction.
Feels sad, because there is always a little something inside their music that felt like home to me, even on the newer stuff, but this something is getting smaller and smaller while being drowned in layers of shit, and I'm also starting to feel like it may be time to let go.

Don't really want to replay Foregone again aside from a couple of songs.
I'll go spin some SOAPF.

 

[The Grayfox]

I already know that Foregone will be my least played IF album of all time, even taking SC and Battles into account, because nothing on it is interesting to me. For every song on Foregone that may sound decent, there are bands doing the same sound much better, with vocalists who can actually sing. That IF uniqueness just doesn't exist for me on Foregone.

Ultimately, I just don't think this version of the band produced by Howard Benson is for me. Broderick and Tanner are excellent at what they do, don't get me wrong, but mixing them in has in some way diluted what made In Flames different, even when it was more stupid different than good different.

If they move on from Benson in the future then maybe I'll give them another shot. Otherwise, much like @eochaid , I think I'm out as far as the current band and sound is concerned. Really cool for people who are enjoying the band again, but for me personally I think this journey likely ends with I, the Mask, and I'm okay with that.

Yeah, I share a lot of these opinions. The IF uniqueness is not there for me either. A lot of is vocally, but not all of it. It feels like they're trying to emulate other bands and not doing it as well as those bands. And when they do that, it's almost like they lose more and more of what made them special. I really wanted to put this album on, hear it as a cohesive effort and find something that clicked but it just isn't happening. It's disappointing but I also expected it.

 

[DE4life]

Yeah, I have the same feeling.

Can't see myself going back to any of these songs.

So, out of last 4 albums and a whole decade of work, I can really enjoy a few songs from ITM. Everything else goes from bad to meh in my book.

Probably I could just about cobble a decent album together from a handful of SC/Battles tracks and half of ITM, but yeah, largely slim pickings.

Even so, it always felt like the IF magic was still there under the surface. There were issues that needed to be addressed, but if they were addressed another SOAPF level album was possible.

For the first time, I don't feel that anymore. It's not that Foregone is technically worse than SC or Battles - it isn't - it's just not got that special ingredient that has always drawn me to IF. It now feels, genuinely, like IF no longer makes music I enjoy. I don't think I could have much in common, musically, with people who really like Foregone as an album.

 

[DE4life]

Yeah, I share a lot of these opinions. The IF uniqueness is not there for me either. A lot of is vocally, but not all of it. It feels like they're trying to emulate other bands and not doing it as well as those bands. And when they do that, it's almost like they lose more and more of what made them special. I really wanted to put this album on, hear it as a cohesive effort and find something that clicked but it just isn't happening. It's disappointing but I also expected it.

Once the first couple of singles dropped and I had zero desire to listen to them again I pretty much knew it was over for me. I was hoping maybe we'd get a Stay With Me or Voices level track from what was remaining, but no.

Even Anders' low growls, as good as they sound on a technical level, aren't very interesting to me. "Sounds sooo brutal", I mean yeah, sure, but I've never listened to IF for that. I honestly prefer how he sounded, harsh vocals wise, on SOAPF, even though that was nowhere near as good on a technical level. Just felt more real, I guess.

 

[mindd]

Went through SOAPF and now I just feel really really sad after Liberation.

Restating what has been told here a thousand times already, but it's so fucking unfortunate how Anders went from not being a very good singer but trying (with some studio touchups, of course) to sing something that he could theoretically reproduce and sounding at least somewhat sincere and emotional to obviously out-of-range lines and overall flat and overprocessed singing like Bleeding Out, Become One and others.

 

[miniroch]

I don't think I could have much in common, musically, with people who really like Foregone as an album.

Tad dramatic

I'm skipping MyM, Bleeding Out, B-Flat whatever and it's a nice 9-track album. Little short, but so is Days of The Lost. What I'm most happy about are the singles, turns out they do have nice replay value + I can easily have a playlist of SoSD, Foregone Pt 1 and then go straight to some kind of Fit For An Autopsy or even Lorna Shore without having a big dissonance.

 

[DE4life]

Went through SOAPF and now I just feel really really sad after Liberation.

Restating what has been told here a thousand times already, but it's so fucking unfortunate how Anders went from not being a very good singer but trying (with some studio touchups, of course) to sing something that he could theoretically reproduce and sounding at least somewhat sincere and emotional to obviously out-of-range lines and overall flat and overprocessed singing like Bleeding Out, Become One and others.

Yeah he had something good going on SOAPF. Unorthodox, but somehow it worked. It's a real shame Benson and co got involved. Yes SC sucked, but I have faith they would have found a way to bounce back. I don't think they could have done worse than Battles.

Tad dramatic

I'm skipping MyM, Bleeding Out, B-Flat whatever and it's a nice 9-track album. Little short, but so is Days of The Lost. What I'm most happy about are the singles, turns out they do have nice replay value + I can easily have a playlist of SoSD, Foregone Pt 1 and then go straight to some kind of Fit For An Autopsy or even Lorna Shore without having a big dissonance.

To be honest my man I think we are some way apart in terms of the music we like, so this only reinforces my point

 

[burank666]

I cant find it though, any link would be awesome.




Çok iyi sorular sormuşsun dostum, devamını merakla bekliyorum Never thought I would speak Turkish here, hope to hear full interview soon

Hey Man, great to hear that you are fine. Please check your inbox

 

[miniroch]

To be honest my man I think we are some way apart in terms of the music we like, so this only reinforces my point

Yeah, it's not like we're literally sitting on the same bands board, jerking off to Clayman, The Halo Effect and early/mid 2000s MDM. We certainly have differences, but let's not make it apples and oranges. Though I have no sympathy for power metal

 

[DE4life]

Well, to be fair I said "not much in common" rather than "absolutely nothing in common" but yeah, I think the music taste beyond the base of old school MDM will play some part in how a person receives Foregone. If people like the album it's totally cool with me, as I don't think it's a bad album. It's just not my kind of album.

 

[eochaid]

Well, to be fair I said "not much in common" rather than "absolutely nothing in common" but yeah, I think the music taste beyond the base of old school MDM will play some part in how a person receives Foregone. If people like the album it's totally cool with me, as I don't think it's a bad album. It's just not my kind of album.

It's, obviously, not the same coming from a classic metal background, that is, heavy metal, thrash metal, death metal, than coming from nu metal or metalcore. I understand why that people like this album. Not only the album but also the band.

For dinosaurs like me music and musicians were something different than they're now.

On my part, I don't think that I share anything in common with the people that has grown up listening to Linkin Park or Static X. Even if it's still metal is a total different world.

 

[miniroch]

I'd say it's up to metalcore/deathcore perception. Gutterals and autotuned cleans were always a part of it, funnily enough, with metalcore being heavy inspired by IF in the first place. Obviously I can see why people dislike Foregone (minus SoSD, how can you dislike best ATG riff?).

 

[eochaid]

I like the riff where it belongs.

My perception of metalcore is that it's strange to me. It always felt like a nice packaging with no substance. The kind of music that a company, a producer, does, not a band.

 

[miniroch]

I like the riff where it belongs.

It's like with movies remake - doesn't matter who did it first, only who did it better. And since you just mentioned that live performances matter, trust me, you don't want to hear Lindberg on that one.