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

[Moonshield_]

Old school death metal listeners here ? New Incantation rules !

Always thought about this band as a cool one but none of their albums really did it for me.

This is not the case anymore :

 

[The Grayfox]

Orbit Culture - From The Inside
Love this song, especially the first 1:30 or so. I’ve been listening to this a lot last few days

When Spotify does the year-end wrap, this song is definitely going to be in my top 5 most played, if not number 1. I listen to this song at least once a day and it remains one of my favorites from Descent, though the entire thing is really, really good. Black Mountain might sneak its way into the top 5 too.

 

[Moonshield_]

New Marduk is wild. I have no words to describe how much I’m enjoying « Memento Mori » right now



Those drums

 

[Moonshield_]

Great new album by the mighty Cannibal Corpse :



And a very good surprise with the new Tomb Mold :

 

[Xpyro125]

Been gone for a while since life's been busy and draining, but I do have some nice developments

1. Going to become the assistant manager in my department at my job since I've been working my ass off to get there
2. Got my friend who mainly likes alt metal and metalcore into IF with Come Clarity around a month ago on a car ride to visit our other friend for his birthday, he also loved Vermillion Eclipse (Semblant) and Mind Tricks (Disarmonia Mundi), and he enjoyed SoaPF well enough, though Clayman and ASoP were just good to him- Planning on showing him Colony and Reroute next (And The Isolation Game by DM)
3. Saw Nothing More in concert, they were fantastic, really good for alt rock/alt metal

 

[DE4life]

Congrats on the promotion @Xpyro125 , sounds like your hard work has paid off.

@Moonshield_ new Marduk sounded alright. No interest whatsoever in Cannibal Corpse, can't stand them. Tomb Mold had some nice instrumental work, not a fan of that vocal style though.

 

[ThePhobiac]

On a related note, I started to get my brother up to speed on post-ASOP In Flames (ASOP was his last IF album before he drifted off to other bands and mostly moved away from metal). Played a selection of newer songs during a long drive.

Based on The Puzzle and Darker Times, he found SOAPF rather interesting and a bit unexpected in terms of composition. He was surprised by what he heard from Siren Charms (Paralyzed and the title track), saying it sounded radically different, albeit in a good way. From Battles, we heard The Truth and Before I Fall, and he was kind of puzzled and wasn't sure what to make of them, although his impressions were overall positive. He reacted somewhat negatively to I Am Above, All the Pain, and Stay With Me from I, the Mask. As far as Foregone, he liked In the Dark and said Foregone Pt. 1 surprisingly did sound like their old stuff, though he had a negative reaction to Meet Your Maker (mainly regarding the lyrics and the chorus).

We both got to talking about pre-ASOP IF and we both agreed that Colony and Reroute were their peak, even though my favorite remains TJR. He also considers STYE to be part of their "golden age." We both consider Clayman to be good, but not on the same level as Colony or Reroute.

 

[The Grayfox]

I still don't get the love for Reroute. It must be because of how disappointed I was in that album when it first came out. I never revisit it. To me, Clayman will always be miles and miles above it in quality. I know for a lot of people it was their introduction to the band, so I understand that part of it. And it was the album that broke them through (somewhat) into the more mainstream metal scene. But coming off the high of Clayman at the time, I was like "what is this garbage?"

I've tried to get into Cannibal many times and it just does nothing for me. There's been a lot of buzz around Tomb Mold recently and I don't get it to be honest. It doesn't do anything for me personally. It's definitely a vocals problem. It just kind of sounds like 90s death metal and if I want that, I'd rather listen to Death or Morbid Angel.

 

[Xpyro125]

We both got to talking about pre-ASOP IF and we both agreed that Colony and Reroute were their peak, even though my favorite remains TJR. He also considers STYE to be part of their "golden age." We both consider Clayman to be good, but not on the same level as Colony or Reroute.

I used to have Clayman as my third favorite IF album, but honestly, I think I've come to prefer the heavier, groove-centric nature of Whoracle and the speed and progressive nature of Colony over it. I couldn't give a reason why, but something about it as an album just doesn't click the same way anymore. even though I love most of the songs.

Reroute's also an album that really doesn't do nearly as much for me as it used to. I just have to be in the right mood for it, otherwise the majority of the songs just fall apart for me. I can't really explain why Clayman, Reroute, STYE, and ITM don't click for me as much anymore, but they just don't unless if I'm in the mood for them.

I've definitely come to appreciate TJR more over the last year or two though, I'm not sure why I ever had it at the same level as Reroute and ITM since it's just Graveland and Dead God in Me that don't do anything for me. Black Ash Inheritance absolutely helped it a ton though.

 

[Xpyro125]

I can't really comment on Cannibal Corpse or any of the other bands mentioned here recently. Standard death metal just isn't my thing in any sense of it. The vocals usually don't click for me, the guitarwork usually isn't melodic enough for me (Death and Jungle Rot are cool though), the drum kits are usually weak as can be, and the bass is never there (Not that it's there in that many subgenres anyways). Marduk's cool, but I haven't listened to their new album and probably won't for some time. I'm just not interested in it.

 

[DE4life]

Reroute is an interesting one. The online discourse when it came out was absolutely brutal. It was almost universally despised, at least in online fan communities. In reality the reaction to Reroute was way over the top and quite embarrassing, but people were incensed. Personally I have never had a problem with Reroute. It came out only a couple of years after I started listening to In Flames, so it was still quite early days for me. I knew it was a step down from the previous albums, but I still thought it was good. I enjoyed it. When I expressed that opinion online though, oh man. Someone actually wished death upon me for saying the album was decent, and someone else told me - in a serious way, via PM - he'd placed a curse on me, lmao. I mentioned that S&A was my favourite IF song once and was denounced as a poser and a piece of shit. Good times. Keep in mind this wasn't me doing a Jester Slave with Siren Charms and waltzing in and saying "TJR sucks but this new album, yeah, that's the ticket. What a masterpiece". This was literally just me saying Reroute was okay.

So yeah, if you think current IF fanbase is bad, you wouldn't have survived back then. It was really nasty and toxic between 2002-2005 especially. It only really started getting better when Come Clarity came out, although I'd say the toxic element remained until around Siren Charms, at which point most of the old school tr00 fans still clinging on to the IF corpse finally realised it was over, and let go.

Nowadays I like Reroute just fine. It's just behind the big four (TJR/Whoracle/Colony/Clayman) for me. Production is a negative, and there is undoubtedly some simplification and dumbing down of the past IF formula, but it's still good. I wouldn't say there are any songs on the album I actively dislike - I even think Transparent is solid. Minus is fantastic. Cloud Connected and Trigger will always be classics. I love the general tone of the title track. System is awesome. Most of the tracks on the album I'd happily listen to.

 

[The Grayfox]

Yeah, 2002-2005 was quite bad. It stopped once we got tired of complaining.

In all seriousness, I think that old fanbase, for the most part, just moved on. It became quite evident In Flames was never going to go back to an older sound and that was that.

 

[ThePhobiac]

I think part of the reason we like R2R so much is because that was our introduction to the band. It's hard to describe what made it so revolutionary for us. It wasn't just one thing, like the vocals or the groovy riffs. I think it was because, despite the fact that this vocalist was screaming all the time and the music was heavy, it came across as so fun and energetic. At the time, we were listening to stuff like Static-X and Korn and Slipknot, which was all about aggression and, in many cases, raw angst. We had no idea that screaming vocals and heavy riffs could be fun (Drifter, Egonomic, System, etc). For us, it redefined what metal could be. It's possible we could have had the same revelation if Clayman was the first album we'd heard instead, but I think R2R was uniquely positioned to help people like myself (whose only experience with metal was nu metal) cross over to this kind of music.

And I think the album is just very well-balanced. Anders delivers just the right amount of cleans and never really outside his range; there are still great guitar solos and leads throughout the album; the electronics elevate the atmosphere without being overbearing or crowding out the guitars; the lyrics are genuinely interesting (this is subjective, of course); and the album grooves like nothing else. I understand the feeling that the album was a dumbing-down of their sound, but, looking back, I felt it was them striking a perfect balance between their Colony/Clayman sound and something completely new.

We listened to STYE, which had just been released, right after, and we were big fans of that one as well. But it seemed to be going for a particular style and wasn't as balanced as Reroute was. And, personally-speaking, I thought it had some misfires.

By the time we branched out and listened to their previous material, our thoughts were "wow, this is different, but also good." It never really occurred to us that their old stuff was better or worse than Reroute. But I think that's where my opinion that TJR and Colony were their pre-Reroute peaks solidified. Whoracle and Clayman are good, but imo they're a bit uneven, each having a handful of tracks that I find just kind of okay or meh, or just missing something that their immediate predecessor lacked.

And yeah, I completely missed the controversy during 2002-2005, lol. My first contact with another In Flames fan, outside of my brother, was after Come Clarity released.

 

[DE4life]

I can understand Reroute being a gateway album, especially because of the clean choruses and such, which previous albums didn't have. Despite what people said back then, and still say today, Reroute is not where the IF magic vanished. It's still prominent on that album, the production choices just do their best to hide a lot of it, or make it more difficult to hear. There is obviously a greater focus on vocal melodies, too, but I don't necessarily think - on that album - it's to the detriment of the music. Anders' singing clearly isn't winning any awards on Reroute, but I've said many times I like that it's quite raw and earnest, and whilst it isn't great singing, it doesn't sound bad either. It fits the music. I much prefer how he sounded on Reroute compared to later on, with the likes of ASOP, SC, Battles, ITM and Foregone. Even Come Clarity has moments where he steps too far outside of his natural range (the title track being a prime example, sorry, but that is terrible singing). Much more studio effects to mask the ability level on CC, but it works for the most part so I let it slide.

It doesn't really bother me that they simplified their sound on Reroute. It's an attempt at something different and that's fine. It's only really the production that bothers me. To go from Nordstrom's excellent production to that muddy mess is ridiculous. The band even admitted Reroute production sucks in an interview around the STYE era. It doesn't stop me from enjoying the songs, but man, they could have been even better if they'd been handled properly in terms of production. The great leads and harmonies scattered across Reroute should have had more prominence, rather than being buried in the background and only just audible at times. Why they'd think they need to remaster Clayman but not Reroute is beyond me, until I remember that decision was all about milking the fans and nothing to do with actual musical integrity.

Weirdly I don't really remember the reaction to STYE online at the time, but my guess is that it was roundly hated in the same way Reroute was. It took all the elements people hated about Reroute and amplified them. No solos, even less guitar harmonies, American style chugga riffs, more Anders singing and woe is me lyrics... yeah, I imagine it was hated just as much. As much as I liked Reroute, I did not like STYE when it came out. It was too far removed from what I liked about the band when I first got into them, and once again the production sucked, albeit in a different way. Drums suffering the worst this time. I actually think Anders' growls/screams sound good on STYE though - better than Clayman and Reroute in terms of power and delivery. Just a shame the music doesn't upgrade accordingly. One thing I can remember is everyone blaming Anders for this at the time, so it was funny to read later that Anders was just as surprised and frustrated when he heard the lack of melodies in the music. So as it turns out Bjorn and Jesper are to blame for that.

When I first joined this forum in 2008 (15 years ago, wtf) there was still quite a lot of toxicity (in our cityyyy). Still a lot of older fans with a grudge shouting down anyone who complimented the newer material. Nowadays the old fans who hated IF new direction are more or less gone, leaving us old-timers who were partial to some of the newer stuff and newer fans who first started listening to IF after the big four had been released. As a result whilst there are still arguments, it's way more peaceful than it used to be overall.

 

[Moonshield_]

I think part of the reason we like R2R so much is because that was our introduction to the band. It's hard to describe what made it so revolutionary for us. It wasn't just one thing, like the vocals or the groovy riffs. I think it was because, despite the fact that this vocalist was screaming all the time and the music was heavy, it came across as so fun and energetic. At the time, we were listening to stuff like Static-X and Korn and Slipknot, which was all about aggression and, in many cases, raw angst. We had no idea that screaming vocals and heavy riffs could be fun (Drifter, Egonomic, System, etc). For us, it redefined what metal could be. It's possible we could have had the same revelation if Clayman was the first album we'd heard instead, but I think R2R was uniquely positioned to help people like myself (whose only experience with metal was nu metal) cross over to this kind of music.

And I think the album is just very well-balanced. Anders delivers just the right amount of cleans and never really outside his range; there are still great guitar solos and leads throughout the album; the electronics elevate the atmosphere without being overbearing or crowding out the guitars; the lyrics are genuinely interesting (this is subjective, of course); and the album grooves like nothing else. I understand the feeling that the album was a dumbing-down of their sound, but, looking back, I felt it was them striking a perfect balance between their Colony/Clayman sound and something completely new.

We listened to STYE, which had just been released, right after, and we were big fans of that one as well. But it seemed to be going for a particular style and wasn't as balanced as Reroute was. And, personally-speaking, I thought it had some misfires.

By the time we branched out and listened to their previous material, our thoughts were "wow, this is different, but also good." It never really occurred to us that their old stuff was better or worse than Reroute. But I think that's where my opinion that TJR and Colony were their pre-Reroute peaks solidified. Whoracle and Clayman are good, but imo they're a bit uneven, each having a handful of tracks that I find just kind of okay or meh, or just missing something that their immediate predecessor lacked.

And yeah, I completely missed the controversy during 2002-2005, lol. My first contact with another In Flames fan, outside of my brother, was after Come Clarity released.

I lived the exact same story about In Flames and also with my brother ahah. Some sentences you wrote are almost disturbing because we experienced the same feelings about the different albums and at the same time

(I’ve also met IF fans for the first time when CC was released)

 

[DE4life]

For anyone who's into straight up heavy metal with solid slices of melody, Mystic Prophecy's 'Hellriot' album is really, really good. I genuinely enjoyed every song on the record. Haven't listened to these guys in a really long time, but was pleasantly surprised that they still sound as good as they ever did.

 

[Pallbearer]

I think I've only listened to the "Killhammer" album, but I quite liked it. Heavy riffs, nice melodies and powerful delivery. Definitely some cliched songtitles and lyrics though. Maybe I should try the new album.

 

[DE4life]

I think the last full album I listened to from them was back when Gus G was still a member, so probably early or mid-2000s. I had heard a few tracks here and there since then, but those songs never made me want to check out the full albums they were from.

They definitely sound different to how I remember them. More heavy metal and less power metal. Back then they sounded very much like you'd expect a mid-2000s PM band to sound. Nowadays it's more like 80s heavy metal with a smaller dose of German PM. A bit like Dream Evil after their first two albums. It's cool to see they have the same singer from back then, he sounds more confident and powerful these days for sure.

Hellriot doesn't have much in terms of diversity - all of the tracks are under 5 minutes, fairly heavy chorus-focus on most of the tracks and the general sound is pretty consistent across the entire album. I don't necessarily class that as a bad thing, though, if it's consistently good - and imo at least, this album is.

In terms of song titles and lyrics, yeah, this one is pretty cliché as well... but I just don't think they're taking that side of things hugely seriously. A lot of PM bands don't, though, so it doesn't bother me very much.

 

[The Grayfox]

I don’t think I even knew Mystic Prophecy put out a record this year. I quite enjoyed Metal Division and listened to the shit out of it when it came out. Definitely a lot of cliches and cheesiness in their music, but I still find it enjoyable.

 

[DE4life]

From what I read on reviews for Hellriot, they're basically continuing the same formula, so if you liked Metal Division you should enjoy this one as well. I've been listening to it a lot. Hellriot, Demons of the Night, Metal Attack, Rising With the Storm, Road to Babylon (is it me or does the intro give In Plain View vibes?) and Azrael my favourites at the moment. The others are all really good too though. I don't think there's a single weak track across the entire album. The only criticism I can really come up with is that there isn't much variety - but then, not even album needs to have huge variety, and I really like this one as it is. Mystic Prophecy label themselves as heavy power metal, and that's what you get. Fair enough. Unlike a certain other band who pretend to be bringing out a back to da rootz MDM album only to stuff 50% of it with alt-metal garbage.