NEW SOLSTAFIR IS OUT NEW SOLSTAFIR IS OUT NEW SOLSTAFIR IS OUT

[MFJ]

TJR is 100% legitimate and you really can't even consider it to be the same band. The real In Flames died after Whoracle.

 

[NAD]

That snare drum crack in Moonshield. Grabs me every time and doesn't relent until the album ends.

I think the last time I was truly EXCITED by a brand new album was Atoma by Dark Tranquillity. I bought it expecting a few joyous spins but it was in my car for like a year. Pretty solid run for nowadays crap!

I have not been able to make it through an entire In Flames song since Whoracle. I mean I have tried but that new shit is just............everything wrong with modern music. Awful.

 

[einride]

colony is like ten times better than whoracle and either my favorite or second favorite in flames album depending on which day you ask

whoracle is kind of crappy and full of filler. it could be an ep with jotun, food for the gods, gyroscope, the hive, and episode 666 and nothing of value would be lost

the only thing worse about colony is the lyrics because anders friden started kinda-sorta writing them himself instead of letting niklas sundin do it but ignoring that, zombie inc and embody the invisible alone just fuckin kill whoracle effortlessly and then everything else on the album is just solid as fuck except "the new word" is a little ehhh

in flames died with clayman

~~~

here's how in flames works imho

[SUPER GOOD TIER]
1. the jester race/colony
2. subterranean
3. lunar strain

[GOOD BUT MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN ANOTHER REAL SONG INSTEAD OF THAT STUPID FUCKING DEPECHE MODE COVER ALSO "MORPHING INTO PRIMAL" IS SO OBVIOUSLY ABOUT FUCKING AND I DON'T REALLY NEED TO LISTEN TO MELODIC DEATH METAL ABOUT HOW IT FEELS WHEN ANDERS FRIDEN EJACULATES IN THINLY VEILED METAPHOR IT WAS BAD ENOUGH WHEN "DEAD GOD IN ME" WAS ABOUT HIS FATHER RAPING HIM IN EVEN MORE THINLY VEILED METAPHOR TIER]
4. whoracle

[I BARELY GIVE A SHIT BUT IT'S AT LEAST GOOD ENOUGH TO EVEN HAVE A TIER TIER]
5. clayman

 

[NAD]

Wait, I kinda like Colony, I thought that came before Whoracle. Nope. So I guess I mean since Colony then.

I don't own a copy of either one though, ha.

EDIT: Uh, words. Oops.

 

[J.]

Colony was my 1st In Flames and my favorite. Bought it at Best Buy back in the day when they had a decent selection.

I like "Swim" from Clayman. Thats it.

Whoracle has a few good songs

I should listen to IF and DT. Havent in a long while

 

[einride]

we took a couple rolls of analog film in iceland and we just got them back from developing (haha yes we are that slow) so please enjoy this super standard photo of me standing on that one crashed plane that everyone knows about

 

[MFJ]

Very nice. I went to Iceland in 2006 with my friend. We were 17 years old, stupid, had to itinerary whatsoever, and were completely broke after flying there from The Netherlands. It was a quick 3 day trip where we didn't have the funds or resources to see many of the natural wonders that exist far beyond Reykjavik. The best thing about the whole experience was that we got there before the gigantic tourism boom. It was very quiet there in April. I'll never forget listening to Masterpiece of Bitterness as we took the bus from the airport to the hotel. We were so young and ignorant that we took like 10-15 pictures the entire time. They were uploaded to imageshack or some website where they were eventually lost forever. Here is one of three pictures which exists on Facebook:



Here is a picture with the tattoo artist from "House of Pain". This is where I got the mannaz rune on my thumb. I asked his opinion about the most painful area on the body to tattoo. His response in broken english, "Between the pussy and the bunghole"

 

[NAD]

It's kind of a revolving door, but for me the timeless classics are:

The Jester Race
Bergtatt
Pale Folklore / The Mantle (counts for one)
Storm of the Light's Bane
Masterpiece of Bitterness

I thought about this for a spell, and here is what I came up with. All Time Metal Classics that I still listen to decades later as if they remain new:

Ulver - Bergtatt
Carcass - Heartwork
Agalloch - The Mantle
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Megadeth - Rust In Peace

Black, Death, Atmospheric, Heavy, Thrash. This list covers a lot of metals for me.

I am coming 'round to Masterpiece of Bitterness... I've found that starting at Nature Strutter works well for me and then I can loop back around to the opening track and then listen to the entire thing all the way through. Kinda weird, I never do that type of thing, but it kinda works. Your other choices I adore, Storm of the Light's Bane in particular was a formative album for me in the late '90s. I sometimes forget how good that album is, letting it sit on a shelf for too long.

Heartwork gets a lot of undue flak (much like The Jester Race). I remember in some guitar magazine back when it was released they did a triple review of Chaos A.D., Wolverine Blues, and Heartwork. The review was praising them all for moving beyond the realms of death metal, growth/progress/whatever, but of particular note was that Heartwork was the lowest rated because it still clung to "undecipherable riffs" and blast beats, etc. Honestly even back then, long before I really enjoyed Ugly Death Metal, I thought that is what made Heartwork so special. It was catchy and melodic, but also fucking mean at times.

This early '90s death n' roll movement introduced me to a lot of bands at the time, all signed to major labels and shown on the MTV, but I didn't really appreciate the early material for awhile. Old skool death metal wasn't my jam when I checked it out as a kid (well, except Napalm Death, oddly enough), even stuff like Necroticism and Clandestine took me 10 years to appreciate. Now I love all that old shit, with Chaos A.D. and Wolverine Blues being damn near unlistenable in 2020.

Heartwork remains amazing. Always then, always now.

Anyhow. This is one of those days where I feel the only thing left I can rely on is Heavy Metal so that's my boohoo waaaaah 2020 suxxx post for today.

 

[MFJ]

Did anyone check out the new album? It's a real teaser because the first two tracks are pretty solid. After that, it goes downhill at about one million miles per hour. I don't know how it's possible to write such BORING material.... seems like they're really scraping the bottom of the barrel with the songwriting. I don't think its reasonable to expect any good material in the future. Oh well!

 

[Ellestin]

I think they are burnt out as a creative enity, plain and simple. They will still write good songs now and then, but mostly they're now stuck in this toothless dearth of ideas. As it stands, Svartir Sandar was their last solid production.

 

[MFJ]

I think they are burnt out as a creative enity, plain and simple. They will still write good songs now and then, but mostly they're now stuck in this toothless dearth of ideas. As it stands, Svartir Sandar was their last solid production.

Agreed. Unfortunately Iceland is still trendy these days and people are eating up Solstafir like CRAZY. It's amazing how many special editions and limited boxes (etc) came out for this album.

 

[SonOfNun]

Agreed. Unfortunately Iceland is still trendy these days and people are eating up Solstafir like CRAZY. It's amazing how many special editions and limited boxes (etc) came out for this album.

I got a Solstafir sticker in my Season of Mist order. Had no idea what they were until I read this thread.

colony is like ten times better than whoracle and either my favorite or second favorite in flames album depending on which day you ask

whoracle is kind of crappy and full of filler. it could be an ep with jotun, food for the gods, gyroscope, the hive, and episode 666 and nothing of value would be lost

the only thing worse about colony is the lyrics because anders friden started kinda-sorta writing them himself instead of letting niklas sundin do it but ignoring that, zombie inc and embody the invisible alone just fuckin kill whoracle effortlessly and then everything else on the album is just solid as fuck except "the new word" is a little ehhh

in flames died with clayman

I think Clayman was the first In Flames album that I heard as a 16 year old kid and fanboyed over it. Pretty sure I claimed it was one of the greatest albums eVar on here back then. I haven't listened through that album in ages, but it will always have a certain degree of nostalgia for me because of the experiences I associate with it. I also really loved Colony back then. I owned Whoracle and the Jester Race/Black Ash Inheritance digi thingy but I didn't really listen to them.

A couple months or so ago I decided to explore their back catalogue and it may have been the first time I actually listened to Lunar Strain/Subterranean. There's certainly a depth to it that doesn't seem present on Clayman. I went ahead and bought the red vinyl off Century Media since I was picking up some Ulver.

I think I made a thread at one point that argued that Colony and Clayman are not that different and that I didn't get why people defend the former and not the latter. I don't know if I would still feel that way or not if I re-listened to them today.

P.S. I started listening to Clayman to write this post and these first two songs are not very good. I'm really disliking whatever this low gurgly spoken voice thing is that Anders did...though his high growls are not sounding much better.

 

[einride]

I think I made a thread at one point that argued that Colony and Clayman are not that different and that I didn't get why people defend the former and not the latter.

they are not that different in style generally

it just seems like they were scraping the bottom of the creative barrel with clayman, i don't like it because the songs suck and i think that is a valid reason

and also while i will let them off with a warning this time they are already kinda-sorta sniffing at the nu-metal/teencore thing they would embrace fully with the coming albums

 

[SonOfNun]

I think my ears upgraded to a new model now because I started listening to them both while I was writing that post and Colony is clearly superior. I didn't realize how weak the opening songs on Clayman are (it gets better in the latter half) and how crap Anders Friden's vocals were in comparison to before. If the whole album was like "Swim" it would rule.

 

[J.]

Colony rules hard. Just a great collection of songs

 

[swizzlenuts]

I listened to the new Solstafir twice now. What a weird album, and why the hell did they add that stoner metal song?