Non-gay bro thread a.k.a. Random offtopic stuff.

[DE4life]

Didn't you have a similarly odd dream a while back about In Flames releasing an album based on video games? I think you even remembered some of the lyrics

At the moment I'm kind of understanding how it feels to be Ciko. I downloaded an album by a band, and I really liked the band name, album art and some of the song titles:

I mean let's be honest that's pretty sick.

But anyway, I listened to the songs and was somewhat disappointed. I knew straight away that, unfortunately, this was fairly average stuff. Not bad, but not anything spectacular either.

However, I've been listening to one of the songs over and over again, and my mindset went from 'well, it's average but listenable' to 'actually this is pretty decent' to 'I actually like this a lot' to 'this is top tier stuff'. It's how I imagine things have gone over the years for the hardcore IF fanboys on here and elsewhere. Just listen to a song enough times and eventually you'll brainwash yourself into thinking it's awesome.



Now I don't know, maybe this is actually pretty good and I was just being harsh on the track originally. However, I have the feeling my initial thoughts were correct and there isn't really anything special about this. But, having listened to it repeatedly over the past few days, I'm now at the point where I'm like

- Yo, love that synth-soaked opening melody

- Love dem riffs starting around 27 seconds

- Lead singer reminds me of the former vocalist from Angra (RIP), sweet

- Who cares if the lyrics don't make any real sense and are very bad English, that adds to the song's charm

- guitars are inspired

- epic chorus is epic

- 01:40 - 02:42 flow from verse to pre-chorus to chorus flawlessly, then straight into a solo, chef's kiss

- Piano and synths to finish the song off alongside some kind of mechanical noises, yes, great idea

But despite all of this another part of my brain is still telling me the song is in reality not that good. I imagine this must be what it's like for IFWT crew when they're forcing themselves to like an atrocity like Underneath My Skin or In This Life, but worse because whilst those songs are horrible, Gates to the Cyber Land is still OK. Just not as good as I've fooled myself to believe.

 

[eochaid]

However, I've been listening to one of the songs over and over again, and my mindset went from 'well, it's average but listenable' to 'actually this is pretty decent' to 'I actually like this a lot' to 'this is top tier stuff'. It's how I imagine things have gone over the years for the hardcore IF fanboys on here and elsewhere. Just listen to a song enough times and eventually you'll brainwash yourself into thinking it's awesome.

This is how R2R came to be one of my favourite IF albums .

At first, it was meh. Then, I didn't listen to it for a year. Then, started listening to it non stop for a full month and I understood what they were trying to do

 

[ThePhobiac]

Didn't you have a similarly odd dream a while back about In Flames releasing an album based on video games? I think you even remembered some of the lyrics

Had a dream that I, the Mask came out and it was nothing like what's been advertised. I flipped open the cover booklet and saw that the first song was not "Voices" but "The Diurnal Spathis". I started reading the lyrics and the first verse was:

video games are lots of fun
press Y to jump and hold B to run
i'm mashing A to get the highest score
i've never had to use the X button before

 

[mindd]

video games are lots of fun
press Y to jump and hold B to run
i'm mashing A to get the highest score
i've never had to use the X button before

This actually maps pretty ok to the first verse of Foregone pt.1

 

[miniroch]

Back to top form, hopefully.

 

[eochaid]

The song is not bad. It's enjoyable. But it's also predictable. Not the best effort. And the video... The overuse of closeups is plain bad.

 

[miniroch]

Agreed, it's pretty straightforward, though I dig how it reminds mix of In The Halls of Awaiting and Heart Like a Grave. Also, a big step up from The Wanderer EP. I've read somewhere that the recent EP was just an experiment and for the longplay they aim for graver sound, with the single released being one of the most joyous on album.

And yeah, the video is pretty much awful, while I enjoy some of the views the story is pure cliche trash.

 

[eochaid]

The new album, 1696, is going to be entirel based in a story by Nillo. So, again, a conceptual album. It's going to be released almost the same day as Foregone. Though, if course, they cannot be compared.

 

[DE4life]

Sounds like a pretty normal MDM song to me. Nothing particularly interesting about it.

And yes, indeed Insomnium won't be able to compare to the pure metal force that is In Flames amirite @ciko_gfb ?

 

[Pallbearer]

Did Anders play the male lead in "Long Shot" (2019) ?

 

[Xpyro125]

Saw the band live on the 18th, and it was fucking awesome. This was the setlist, except instead of "The End", it was "The Mirror's Truth". I'll have to fix it myself if I can figure out how. In addition, I got a Google Drive folder here full of pictures and a short video of the intro of "Leeches". Unfortunately, the video of "Cloud Connected" I have and the video I have of everything Anders said before "Behind Space" (Including my friend's pop off) refuse to upload, so I'm going to have to see what I can do there. Edit: They have uploaded. I have no idea why they didn't earlier, but they did now, so fuck it.

Anders said between songs that he loved us, that he knew people would record it for Youtube and that it was his favorite night of the tour (Sadly, it hasn't been put up on Youtube), "fired" Chris, and he said "Speak Swedish, bitch" to someone as a joke as well. He really seemed to come out of his shell as the set went on, and it was a ton of fun. It was a smaller venue with no seats (There was a balcony, but I have no idea if there are seats there or not) and a bar tucked away in a corner.

He also sang the second pre-chorus/hook of OFTW instead of the first, and nobody else caught that. I told my friend who I went with that after the song ended, and he was genuinely surprised for a second before it clicked. The friend's an old school fan (I think the first album he listened to was Clayman or Reroute?), and when each old song came on, he got more and more hyped. There was something really funny about knowing the setlist from looking it up, and basically calling each one to basically be a prophet to him. The one he was the most excited for was "Scorn", and I couldn't tell you just how excited he got over it- And the song finally fucking clicked for me. It took hearing it live, but I fucking love "Scorn" now.

My friend also only heard the first two singles, but not "Foregone Pt. 1", though I told him it was my favorite of the singles beforehand. He was blown away hearing it live.

My favorite part of the whole thing was shouting the title of "Take This Life" and having it followed up by an absolutely hammered (But seemingly pretty cool) dude with "I'm right here!". After the first time we were pretty much in on it together despite not knowing each other. I'll probably never see the guy again, but he absolutely made my night, even though it was already fantastic.

 

[eochaid]

 

[DE4life]

Saw the band live on the 18th, and it was fucking awesome. This was the setlist, except instead of "The End", it was "The Mirror's Truth". I'll have to fix it myself if I can figure out how. In addition, I got a Google Drive folder here full of pictures and a short video of the intro of "Leeches". Unfortunately, the video of "Cloud Connected" I have and the video I have of everything Anders said before "Behind Space" (Including my friend's pop off) refuse to upload, so I'm going to have to see what I can do there. Edit: They have uploaded. I have no idea why they didn't earlier, but they did now, so fuck it.

Anders said between songs that he loved us, that he knew people would record it for Youtube and that it was his favorite night of the tour (Sadly, it hasn't been put up on Youtube), "fired" Chris, and he said "Speak Swedish, bitch" to someone as a joke as well. He really seemed to come out of his shell as the set went on, and it was a ton of fun. It was a smaller venue with no seats (There was a balcony, but I have no idea if there are seats there or not) and a bar tucked away in a corner.

He also sang the second pre-chorus/hook of OFTW instead of the first, and nobody else caught that. I told my friend who I went with that after the song ended, and he was genuinely surprised for a second before it clicked. The friend's an old school fan (I think the first album he listened to was Clayman or Reroute?), and when each old song came on, he got more and more hyped. There was something really funny about knowing the setlist from looking it up, and basically calling each one to basically be a prophet to him. The one he was the most excited for was "Scorn", and I couldn't tell you just how excited he got over it- And the song finally fucking clicked for me. It took hearing it live, but I fucking love "Scorn" now.

My friend also only heard the first two singles, but not "Foregone Pt. 1", though I told him it was my favorite of the singles beforehand. He was blown away hearing it live.

My favorite part of the whole thing was shouting the title of "Take This Life" and having it followed up by an absolutely hammered (But seemingly pretty cool) dude with "I'm right here!". After the first time we were pretty much in on it together despite not knowing each other. I'll probably never see the guy again, but he absolutely made my night, even though it was already fantastic.

Glad you had a good time my man. I've been to a half dozen IF shows and enjoyed pretty much all of them. First was in Cambridge in 2005 when they were supporting Motorhead, and most recent was Norwich in 2019.

Worst performance I saw was definitely when I saw them at the Bloodstock festival in 2007. Pretty sure they were drunk as Anders forgot a lot of lyrics and Bjorn butchered the OFTW solo so bad that it was embarrassing. There were quite a few mistakes during their set. It's probably the worst I've ever seen them play, including the numerous shows I've seen on YouTube.

In 2008 they infuriated me by starting the show with a full rendition of TCP, but redeemed themselves somewhat with Satellites and Astronauts. At the time I believe I likened it to somebody entering my house, taking a shit on the floor and then handing me an all-expenses-paid trip to a tropical island somewhere. It's like, thanks for the awesome gift bro, but did you have to take a dump on my floor first?

If you got to see Stand Ablaze live then that's pretty cool, and the set in general looked solid for a 2022 show. Far better than I would have predicted even a year or two ago.

Based on the shows I've been to, I've seen:

The Quiet Place x4
Pinball Map x6
System x4
Episode 666 x3
Clayman
Trigger x4
Cloud Connected x6
Touch of Red x3
Colony x5
My Sweet Shadow x6
Leeches x4
Behind Space x3 (one as part of medley)
Crawl Through Knives
Black and White
Take This Life x4
Come Clarity x4
Scream
Drifter
Moonshield
Only for the Weak x3
Vacuum
Dead Alone
Dark Signs
Graveland
Bottled (fucking lol, come on, they've only played this 40 times and I was there)
Egonomic
The Chosen Pessimist x2 (again, come on, how did I manage to see this twice?)
I'm the Highway
Vanishing Light
Voices
Everything's Gone
The Mirror's Truth x2
Insipid 2000
Satellites and Astronauts
Delight and Angers
Disconnected
Dead God In Me (as part of medley)
The Jester Race (as part of medley)
Move Through Me
Alias
Where the Dead Ships Dwell
Call My Name
Monsters in the Ballroom
All For Me
(This is Our) House
Deep Inside
Here Until Forever
The Truth
I Am Above
The End

So, of the six times I've seen them, they've played Pinball Map, Cloud Connected and My Sweet Shadow at all of them. Colony also at all but one show (Download 2006).

Rarest songs (according to setlist.fm) from that list would be Vacuum (50 shows), Dark Signs (15 shows), Bottled (40 shows, god damn it), I'm the Highway (69 shows), Dead Alone (89 shows), Scream (51 shows... of course I was there), Egonomic (83 shows), Satellites (88 shows), Vanishing Light (55 shows) and Move Through Me (71 shows). If you count the Jester Race/Dead God/Behind Space medley then that was played at 54 shows.

Somehow they've managed to play ALL of my least favourite songs on the half dozen occasions I've seen them. Bottled, Scream, TCP, Everything's Gone, Delight and Angers, Here Until Forever, House and The Truth. I mean... come on. It's like they've legit been trolling me on purpose.

 

[Xpyro125]

Glad you had a good time my man. I've been to a half dozen IF shows and enjoyed pretty much all of them. First was in Cambridge in 2005 when they were supporting Motorhead, and most recent was Norwich in 2019.

Worst performance I saw was definitely when I saw them at the Bloodstock festival in 2007. Pretty sure they were drunk as Anders forgot a lot of lyrics and Bjorn butchered the OFTW solo so bad that it was embarrassing. There were quite a few mistakes during their set. It's probably the worst I've ever seen them play, including the numerous shows I've seen on YouTube.

In 2008 they infuriated me by starting the show with a full rendition of TCP, but redeemed themselves somewhat with Satellites and Astronauts. At the time I believe I likened it to somebody entering my house, taking a shit on the floor and then handing me an all-expenses-paid trip to a tropical island somewhere. It's like, thanks for the awesome gift bro, but did you have to take a dump on my floor first?

If you got to see Stand Ablaze live then that's pretty cool, and the set in general looked solid for a 2022 show. Far better than I would have predicted even a year or two ago.

Based on the shows I've been to, I've seen:

The Quiet Place x4
Pinball Map x6
System x4
Episode 666 x3
Clayman
Trigger x4
Cloud Connected x6
Touch of Red x3
Colony x5
My Sweet Shadow x6
Leeches x4
Behind Space x3 (one as part of medley)
Crawl Through Knives
Black and White
Take This Life x4
Come Clarity x4
Scream
Drifter
Moonshield
Only for the Weak x3
Vacuum
Dead Alone
Dark Signs
Graveland
Bottled (fucking lol, come on, they've only played this 40 times and I was there)
Egonomic
The Chosen Pessimist x2 (again, come on, how did I manage to see this twice?)
I'm the Highway
Vanishing Light
Voices
Everything's Gone
The Mirror's Truth x2
Insipid 2000
Satellites and Astronauts
Delight and Angers
Disconnected
Dead God In Me (as part of medley)
The Jester Race (as part of medley)
Move Through Me
Alias
Where the Dead Ships Dwell
Call My Name
Monsters in the Ballroom
All For Me
(This is Our) House
Deep Inside
Here Until Forever
The Truth
I Am Above
The End

So, of the six times I've seen them, they've played Pinball Map, Cloud Connected and My Sweet Shadow at all of them. Colony also at all but one show (Download 2006).

Rarest songs (according to setlist.fm) from that list would be Vacuum (50 shows), Dark Signs (15 shows), Bottled (40 shows, god damn it), I'm the Highway (69 shows), Dead Alone (89 shows), Scream (51 shows... of course I was there), Egonomic (83 shows), Satellites (88 shows), Vanishing Light (55 shows) and Move Through Me (71 shows). If you count the Jester Race/Dead God/Behind Space medley then that was played at 54 shows.

Somehow they've managed to play ALL of my least favourite songs on the half dozen occasions I've seen them. Bottled, Scream, TCP, Everything's Gone, Delight and Angers, Here Until Forever, House and The Truth. I mean... come on. It's like they've legit been trolling me on purpose.

That's fucking awesome. It's pretty much my dream (And even moreso my father's dream) to see them play Satellites and Astronauts live, so the fact that you got to is just incredible. It's just something that I don't see ever happening again, especially since it's likely an old school fan kind of song that also doesn't translate to high energy live.

I feel like Scream and Everything's Gone are far better than the rest of those on that list. I would've said TCP too, but upon listening to it again, I realize that it absolutely could've been a six or seven minute song, and that would've served it way better than being the eight minute song it is. I'm not saying that as someone who dislikes long songs- Deafheaven's one of my other favorite bands- but it just doesn't do enough within that length to justify it.

Fuck House.

 

[DE4life]

That's fucking awesome. It's pretty much my dream (And even moreso my father's dream) to see them play Satellites and Astronauts live, so the fact that you got to is just incredible. It's just something that I don't see ever happening again, especially since it's likely an old school fan kind of song that also doesn't translate to high energy live.

I feel like Scream and Everything's Gone are far better than the rest of those on that list. I would've said TCP too, but upon listening to it again, I realize that it absolutely could've been a six or seven minute song, and that would've served it way better than being the eight minute song it is. I'm not saying that as someone who dislikes long songs- Deafheaven's one of my other favorite bands- but it just doesn't do enough within that length to justify it.

Fuck House.

Having seen Stand Ablaze return to the set list I'd say anything's possible, and Clayman is an album the band and fans hold in high esteem, so I wouldn't rule it out completely. Unlikely, yes, but not impossible. As far as it translating live... I was ecstatic, of course, but not sure how the rest of the crowd felt about it.

Scream is fine until the chorus, but that just turns the song to shit. A shame. Everything's Gone is better live than on CD, but still not a song I ever really wanted to hear live. TCP in 2010 was very different to TCP in 2019, for what it's worth. I still don't want to hear it live, but the 2019 version was abridged and Anders did some incredible growling. 2010 version was basically exactly as it is on CD and it just sucked hugely as an opener. IMO bands like IF should be opening shows with high energy tracks, not 8 minute ballads.

 

[miniroch]

I went to IF gig 3 days ago. First of all, loved Orbit Culture, astonishing band with a bright future ahead of them.
Sadly, they had only 30 minutes, just like Imminence, which is the usual metalcore band for 14-year old broken hearted girls, so that's a waste of time.

I finally got to see At the Gates, so I think I've seen all the most important MDM bands live by now. Melodic-wise they were astounding, but Tomas Lindberg... he's same age as Anders, but moves like De Niro in The Irishman, while his vocal performance ranged from terrible to acceptable at times. They would have benefitted from either dropping vocals entirely or replacing the old man. Still, I've enjoyed it, though the setlist was kind of meh, it's supposed to be The Nightmare of Being tour, but they only played 1 track, compared to 4 from At War with Reality.

I think it's 5 or 6th time I saw IF, first time somewhere in 2011, but I'm fairly certain they're in the best shape since. In live environment Anders does really well to hide his poor singing, he kind of mastered sing/scream blend, plus overall loudness don't allow you to focus on that part as much as you can by watching it on YT. I'm also a fan of his contact with audience, it was a nice refreshment after AtG just doing their job.

I wish I got to see Stand Ablaze or My Sweet Shadow, but other than that, setlist is nice, going through most of their albums. Don't know why they dropped SOAPF entirely, I wish they replaced Alias with pretty much anything.
Graveland doesn't seem to resonate well with people, kind of a strange choice from TJR, but it's fine by me. Wallflower live is so much better, the plastic sound from Battles is 30% of what this track could have been with some proper mixing. Loved the new tracks, especially Foregone - the light effects combined with heavy drums at the end is really awesome.

I wasn't even sure I was going before they started to release the singles, but now I'm glad I did, especially with great support acts (minus the whiny metalcore).

 

[DE4life]

Considering the current setlist and Anders being in his best shape vocally since mid-2000s it's a good time to check them out, even if it's only 20% of the band most of us originally gravitated towards.

 

[The Grayfox]

I think Graveland is Anders' favorite song from TJR, which is why it's in the setlist so often. I remember when Artifacts was the token song from that album for a while. Too bad that isn't the case anymore. Moonshield obviously had it's run also. The problem with Graveland, or I should say the reason it gets no reaction is because most people who go to their shows these days just don't know the song. Which is probably why Stand Ablaze got canned too. There are a handful of old songs that some of that crowd will know. Graveland isn't in that rotation.

I know it's a cliche at this point, but they really did lose most of their original fanbase. They haven't really been part of the MDM scene in over 20 years. Most people didn't wait around to see if they were going to go back to that style. The last time I saw IF, which has been a REALLY long time, I was one of a few people reacting to songs from Clayman that weren't OFTW. The window of time where IF was truly great (imo), was really small, which is easy to forget. It was basically 4-5 years. I remember going to a Nevermore/Opeth show in 2001 and talking to a guy I met outside. We started talking about IF and this dude didn't even like Colony and Clayman. That change from Whoracle was too much for him, which is interesting because any old school fans that are still around would kill for records like that now. Point is, all those guys are gone and with the way music is digested now (streaming, only listening to singles, etc.), a lot of the younger people that listen to IF aren't going back and discovering those old albums. So when In Flames plays Graveland or The Hive, of course nobody knows what the fuck is going on. A good start would be putting out some live albums that don't just consist of the singles people already know.

 

[DE4life]

Yep, and most of us were saying this years and years ago when Anders was crying about the older songs not getting much of a reaction. Dude, it's your fault. You put your best material on the backburner in favour of attempted 3 minute metal radio hits. Don't be surprised that you've cultivated a fanbase that knows nothing about your past - you've never given them a reason to think it's important as the band themselves have never treated it as important.

Now here we are at modern day and all of a sudden the band are crawling back to the fanbase they left in the dust, no doubt making the shocked pikachu face in the back when 1 or 2 people max know that Stand Ablaze is even an In Flames song. They need to realise that in many circles within the metal community they made themselves a joke and an object of ridicule. On any YouTube video that features a decent MDM track you'd see comments of "remember when In Flames were good", "hey In Flames check this out", and so on. People were and to this day still are angry at what the band did and how they handled moving away from the genre they helped pioneer. They can't expect the old fans to suddenly turn up again like nothing's happened. People have moved on, and up until very recently it seemed like the band had as well.

 

[Xpyro125]

Just listened to Whoracle again a few times over the past few days, and I have no idea why, but it's seriously hitting harder for me than it ever did before. It's fucking awesome, and it really embodies the death metal sound of melodeath (With some groove, at least from what I can hear). I don't know how I had it at the middle of my placings in their discography before because aside from the annoying backing vocal line in "Gyroscope"'s chorus, everything in the album is phenomenal. Easily shot up to my third favorite album by them (Second depending on the day). It sucks too because this feels like the one album out of the four classic ones that receives the least attention from non-old school fans of IF, melodeath, and later IF-inspired metalcore groups.