New album Foregone out February 2023

[The Grayfox]

It definitely felt like a night and day difference upon first hearing it. Going from songs like Suburban Me and Swim to Metaphor and Dawn of a New Gay (yeah I said it) was very jarring. Even hearing Cloud Connected after Clayman was jarring. They started relying more on synth and Anders' shitty clean vocals here, so I will respectfully disagree that it's not a drastic difference. RTR is still looked at as the pivotal point when In Flames changed their sound by most people -- certainly by people who were around then.

I see why people like the album though.

 

[Man Made Bod]

As experimental as R2R was, it still had the soul of classic IF in there. It was just buried by the album's muddy sound. Dark Signs, Minus, and Trigger are pretty great tracks that still sound like they were produced by the band that gave us Colony and Clayman, just a bit different. When it sucked (Free Fall, Cloud Connected, Transparent) it sucked, but when it hits it's still a fun listen for me personally. In contrast, STYE sounded like it was trying waaaaaay too hard to appeal to fans of Korn and I'm really not a fan of that band at all. Still had some bangers, and it had better production than R2R, but the ratio of good:bad songs did not work in that album's favor compared to its predecessor. For what its worth, STYE used to be my least favorite album until 2014 when Siren Charms dropped. Now it's still pretty low-tier but my opinion on it has softened in retrospect.

 

[The Grayfox]

Yeah, I can see that. I'm just very biased against RTR. I remember not liking STYE at time of release either, but it has grown on me significantly, whereas RTR has just gotten worse. The production/mixing on both albums is particularly bad.

 

[DE4life]

Reroute is more fun than STYE. I find Reroute really interesting as you can hear the band beginning to explore something beyond what they'd been used to previously. Soundtrack meanwhile is much more focused and less varied, albeit still having a lot of songs I like on there.

Production does indeed suck on both though - and yet Nuclear Blast/IF decided in their infinite wisdom that Clayman was the album to remaster.

 

[The Grayfox]

Ah yes, the remaster with no noticeable differences. I love that trick.

 

[Man Made Bod]

Trigger was the very first song I ever heard from IF. I was a big fan of slasher movies growing up and I bought the soundtrack for Freddy vs. Jason with my dad's money which had Trigger on it. When I heard that song for the first time, 12 year old me's mind was blown haha.

Fun fact: When IF played near me last fall, I bought one of their VIP ticket upgrades and got to meet the band. So after telling them about how I discovered them through that soundtrack and all that I asked the band members what their favorite horror movie was. I don't remember what Tanner or Bryce said but I do remember the rest. Anders' was OG Halloween (great choice), Bjorn's was Fright Night, and Chris said he doesn't watch horror movies.

 

[The Grayfox]

I don't remember what Tanner or Bryce said but I do remember the rest. Anders' was OG Halloween (great choice), Bjorn's was Fright Night, and Chris said he doesn't watch horror movies.

Nobody remembers what Tanner or Bryce say about anything

Great choices by Anders and Bjorn though.

 

[J_msh84]

When RtR came out, a Japanese metal magazine made a big deal about In Flames being Americanized. That's somewhat understandable, but I didn't feel that much has changed since Clayman. Most of the problem was the mixing, and there was still some melody in the guitars.

On the other hand, when STYE was released in 2004, one writer of the magazine wrote about Fiend "They have regained their early musicianship."

I believe that writer has mold in his ears.

 

[Xpyro125]

Alright, last chance everyone before I leave this place for ever :

House or Bottled?

Any IF song you put against House automatically wins. Make no mistake, I like Bottled a hell of a lot more than House (Or at least I dislike it a hell of a lot less), but I'd take fucking Dead Eyes or some other filler song from SC over House. I'd take The Truth, In My Room, or Before I Fall over House. I'd take Underneath My Skin and In This life over House. I'd take those awful fucking backing vocals in Gyroscope's chorus over House, and that says something.

@Xpyro125 Free Fall is also another favorite of mine, and I don't know why Anders hate it.

I wish I could live in the timeline where RTR got the remaster and Free Fall got this surprise growth in popularity out of nowhere all these years later. Unfortunately, we got Clayman 2020.

 

[drawntoblack]

Ah yes, the remaster with no noticeable differences. I love that trick.

It's not a trick, that's what it is. Mastering (or remastering) is taking a finished full mix and applying the final 5% on a fully finished song, mostly affecting the general loudness, but not the mix itself. Remixing the record is what you actually want, taking the dry recorded takes before any processing was done and redoing everything. That could potentially affect things for the better, I would love R2R that sounded like Soundtrack at least if not Come Clarity.

Remastering, as in term itself, really started to be used very liberally once video games industry started throwing that word around. Now it can mean anything and everything.

 

[anzi]

There is a poll at Finnish metal site kaaoszine.fi where you can vote three favourite IF albums. So far only ~400 voters but the result show that this forums’ general taste is not so far from bigger picture. Probably the people praising Foregone at social media is mostly people who mostly listen to mainstream stuff.

 

[Jester Slave]

These polls are meaningless, because it's like an election where only certain kind of people can vote, ie. only the rich, only the poor, only the rural folk, only young adults, etc. Of course a poll is going to look like that on a metal site: the people who would vote differently are simply isn't there. This is how echo-chambers are formed, and this is why after every election there are a bunch of people who go "how the fuck did X party win????? everyone I know voted for Y!!!!!!!!!!" Newsflash: if you only mingle in circles who would vote for Y, you won't meet too many people who will vote for X.

I remember, we had an election poll on our national subreddit for the 2018 elections. The winner of that poll was a pretty new party with youtfhul energy. According to that poll they had a majority in our parliament and could've form a government. In real life they got 3% of the votes and failed to even get into the parliament. So the only somewhat meaningful thing these polls tell us are the general userbase of said sites.

 

[anzi]

Of course majority won’t vote, but usually people who really care about the music and ”true fans” vote. So it’s not the same as some political poll or something. And it’s not some UG site, pretty mainstream. Of course you can interpret it however, IF is a metal band so the userbase should be their target group, right?

 

[DE4life]

Slave ties himself in knots sometimes, as contrarians tend to do. Foregone is supposed to be the back to da rootz, fans from 20 years ago flocking back, sick riffs and dem growls album, so of course a metal site would typically reflect the target audience.

 

[Jester Slave]

What kind of reductionist argument is this? It is a metal site, therefore representative of the target audience?! And who said it is a return to rootz material? Only the reviewers hyped it up; Anders and co. said they combined older elements and wanted a heavier record, and it is indeed their heaviest since ASOP.

No, a metal site is not representative of metal fans. Are you guys following every single metal or IF fan club? Are you even following every single media output (music, movies, video games) you like and take part in such polls? Of course not. Most people are casual. Most people's identity does not depend on this shit. This logical fallacy is seen all around in reddit for example. Long story short, a subreddit which subscriber count is like 0,5% of the total users of said Application, is fuming about recent changes about that App. "Why don't they listen to us???? Clearly everyone is upset about these changes!!!" Motherfucker, you are vocal minority of the 0,5% to begin with; your opinion means jackshit.

The same thing applies to a poll on a FInnish metal site. What do you think the average age on this board is? Yes, ~20 years ago internet boards were the shit; the Forum Romanum of even the most casual internet users. Today it is but a playground fading. We are a minority (of everyone who likes In Flames), of a minority (of everyone who are willing to engage in any online media about the band) of a minority (who are willing to post replies, argue about things and not) of a minority (who are using ancient fucking sites like this). We are only representitve of a very minor fraction of people who like IF, but without even opening the "rank your favorite IF record thread" I can guarantee you that there are a bunch of rankings there which are not in harmony at all. So even us, a tiny fraction of people who like IF can't even agree about everything.

So don't give me that crap that a random ass Finnish metal site is representative as a whole. Go, gather information at other sites (facebook, reddit, spotify, facebook, youtube) and pile them together. Then you will have a somewhat representative list.

 

[DE4life]

"A metal site is not representative of metal fans".

Herp derp.

 

[Jester Slave]

On Spotify, December Flower has 1 633 732 listens. In This Life has 4 477 314. Colony, the so called 3rd favorite record of some finnish people on some finnish metal site, somewhere between Mordor and Atlantis, is pretty much being beaten by every single track from Battles and ITM. Colony and Embody the Invisible are putting up a fight with some of the tracks (there is an epic battle between In This Life and Embody the Invisible!!!) but only Ordinary Story can rise into the middle of a pack status.

"A metal site is not representative of metal fans".

Herp derp.

Are you suggesting every, or at least most people who like metal music can be found on these sites? Have you thought about the possibility, that by the time someone ends up on a godforsaken Finnish metal site, they are already making up such a minor group, that they are in no way representative of the actual, larger/largest group they initially began from? Do you honestly think the 1% who ends up on these sites and even participates in polls are the voice of the other 99%, and not just these specific group?

If it was 2003 I may agree with you, but it's 2023 and most people can't even comprehend that there are sites, where the comments are not sorted by likes and dislikes.

 

[anzi]

Haha, you think They and every single music media/site don’t focus mainly on every social media platform? Your statement maybe valid in a world without internet.

 

[DE4life]

Bruh, do not entertain this nonsense. It's a black hole of antilogic and constantly moving goalposts that will make you want to bang your head against a wall.

 

[anzi]

On Spotify, December Flower has 1 633 732 listens. In This Life has 4 477 314. Colony, the so called 3rd favorite record of some finnish people on some finnish metal site, somewhere between Mordor and Atlantis, is pretty much being beaten by every single track from Battles and ITM. Colony and Embody the Invisible are putting up a fight with some of the tracks (there is an epic battle between In This Life and Embody the Invisible!!!) but only Ordinary Story can rise into the middle of a pack status.

And you haven’t thought that people used to listen to legal or illegal physical copies or mp3s when those were released and looong afrer. Most people listen to new music and those and those new shitty songs are also featured on hundreds of mainstream playlists. You count only listens from there and base your opinion on that. Well done..