The good, the bad and the ugly

A88

Bottled - really not the worst IF song ever.
May 4, 2011
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Serbia
Let us play a game... Not that game, you sick puppies!

There are some 30+ songs on SC, Battles and ITM.

Mix and combine them into 3 albums of similar size.

One good, one not so much and another reserved for all the Houses, Truths and InThisLife... Like Anders wet dream horror album level of bad.

Also, think of a name for your album if you can.
 
I don't want to listen to battles ever again.

What would be the ugly?
 
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I'll have a think about this later... although I think "the ugly" might end up being a double album :D
 
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Brother, why would you even mention EP? I totally suppressed the memory of its existence.

I'll do the albums tomorrow, but damn does SC sucks! I can locate some good individual songs on battles and itm, but sc is killing me. There is something wrong in at least some part of every fucking song. I would pretty much have to butcher individual riffs, melodies and choruses to make something good.

As for ITM, I can honestly say that a 1/3 of the album has good songs (Soapf/asop/experiment), 1/3 is Battles-style forgettable, and 1/3 is absofuckinglutely terrible just like... well, heavily autotuned SC with Battles influences.
 
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I can't really think of album names and stuff, so I'm just going to list what I think are the good songs, average songs and bad songs...

Good:

Through Oblivion
With Eyes Wide Open
Dead Eyes
Become the Sky
The End
Before I Fall
Battles
Greatest Greed
Us Against the World
I, the Mask
I Am Above
Burn
Deep Inside
Stay With Me

Average:

In Plain View
Paralyzed
Siren Charms
The Chase
The Truth
In My Room
Wallflower
Voices
Follow Me
We Will Remember

Bad:

Everything's Gone
When the World Explodes
Rusted Nail
Monsters in the Ballroom
Filtered Truth
Drained
Like Sand
Through My Eyes
Here Until Forever
Underneath My Skin
Save Me
Call My Name
(This is Our) House
In This Life
All the Pain

I was being quite generous here. So overall...

Good (14)

Siren Charms: 4
Battles: 5
ITM: 5

Average (10)

Siren Charms: 4
Battles: 3
ITM: 3

Bad (15)

Siren Charms: 5
Battles: 6
ITM: 4

So it's actually pretty similar across the board for the last three albums, for me. Roughly the same amount of tracks I consider "good" across all three of the latest albums (basically, I'll enjoy listening to them when they come on). More or less the same amount of average tracks too (songs I don't mind if they come on in my playlist but wouldn't seek out to play) and the most bad songs (ones I will never listen to again) coming from Battles with Siren Charms close behind. ITM doing slightly better than the previous two.

I actually thought this would be more heavily weighted towards SC/Battles but actually neither of them are that far away from ITM. To use SOAPF as a comparative yardstick...

Good: (10)

SOAPF
Deliver Us
The Puzzle
Fear is the Weakness
Where the Dead Ships Dwell
Darker Times
Ropes
Enter Tragedy
A New Dawn
Liberation

Average: (2)

The Attic
Jester's Door (neither of these are proper songs though)

Bad: (1)

All For Me

So realistically I, the Mask is still way off SOAPF in my perception. It's more like a slight improvement on SC & Battles.
 
I prefer to pretend the EP doesn't exist. We talk about In Flames changing their name, but that EP should simply not have been released under the In Flames name. It was an Anders & Bjorn vanity project and that's how it should have been labelled.

Anders Fríden & Bjorn Gelotte - Ruining Songs You Used To Love (EP)
 
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I can't really think of album names and stuff, so I'm just going to list what I think are the good songs, average songs and bad songs...

Bad:

Everything's Gone

I'm not a huge fan of the verses on Everything's Gone, but damn do I love the chorus. So powerful in my opinion. Also, I like Filtered Truth a lot. Probably because I think that has a really strong chorus as well.
 
I'm not a huge fan of the verses on Everything's Gone, but damn do I love the chorus. So powerful in my opinion. Also, I like Filtered Truth a lot. Probably because I think that has a really strong chorus as well.

Everything's Gone just sounds so fake to me, especially on Siren Charms. It's like they think they're throwing the fans a bone because they know people are going to be pissed by the general atmosphere and tone of the album. But much like When the World Explodes I don't feel like their heart was in songs like this during that time period - or ever, really, In Flames have never been a band doing "brutal" songs and this one just falls so flat for me. It's just like... if you don't want to make songs like this, then don't. Nobody is expecting it and EG just feels so out of place on Siren Charms.

Filtered Truth is one of those that's more of a personal dislike for me. I know a lot of people do dig it and that's cool, it just isn't my kind of sound. Production does not help, and if better produced I might have put it in the average category. I just really dislike how this track sounds overall. Personal taste though, I can see why others would like it even if I don't.
 
The new EP is better than Battles in its entirety.

I played this game. Only the third album is bad.

Voices from the Edge of the Earth
---

In Plain View
I, the Mask
Paralyzed
Through Oblivion
With Eyes Wide Open
Siren Charms
Voices
All the Pain
Dead Eyes
The Chase
Stay With Me
When the World Explodes
Filtered Truth

Earth | Moon | Sun
---
I Am Above
Everything's Gone
Rusted Nail
Drained
The End
Call My Name
Before I Fall
Follow Me
Burn
Monsters in the Ballroom
The Truth
Become the Sky

That Which Makes ThePhobiac Want to Kill Himself
---
Here Until Forever
We Will Remember
Underneath My Skin
Save Me
In This Life
(This is Our) House
Like Sand
In My Room
Through My Eyes
Battles
Greatest Greed
Us Against the World
Deep Inside
Wallflower
 
[Insert Interesting Album Title Here]:

In Plain View
I, The Mask
The End
I Am Above
Paralyzed
The Chase
Dead Eyes
Become the Sky
Burn
Wallflower
Filtered Truth
Stay With Me


The Half-Assed One:

Voices
Everything's Gone
Call My Name
Like Sand
Follow Me
Deep Inside
Us Against The World
Rusted Nail
When The World Explodes

A Collection of Failures:

Drained
The Truth
In My Room
Before I Fall
Through My Eyes
Battles
Here Until Forever
Underneath my Skin
Save Me
(This Is Our) House
We Will Remember
In This Life
All The Pain
Not Alone
With Eyes Wide Open
Siren Charms
Monsters In The Ballroom
Through Oblivion
 
I'll make my good, average, bad listing a three-disc set titled "Sounds of Our Inspiration Fading". Each disc gets progressively shittier.
 
Brother, why would you even mention EP? I totally suppressed the memory of its existence.

I'll do the albums tomorrow, but damn does SC sucks! I can locate some good individual songs on battles and itm, but sc is killing me. There is something wrong in at least some part of every fucking song. I would pretty much have to butcher individual riffs, melodies and choruses to make something good.

As for ITM, I can honestly say that a 1/3 of the album has good songs (Soapf/asop/experiment), 1/3 is Battles-style forgettable, and 1/3 is absofuckinglutely terrible just like... well, heavily autotuned SC with Battles influences.
You deaerve it for wanting me to listen to battles. I have not listened to it since its release and have erased almost all my memories of it.
 
You deaerve it for wanting me to listen to battles. I have not listened to it since its release and have erased almost all my memories of it.

Why wouldn't you want to listen to such classic melodies as "somebody savveee meeehhhh, i've been trying so HARD but I can't see that far sooo save mehhhhhhhhhh"
 
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Why wouldn't you want to listen to such classic melodies as "somebody savveee meeehhhh, i've been trying so HARD but I can't see that far sooo save mehhhhhhhhhh"
Anders should make a song about my trauma.
 
So, I completed my "good" album. For ITM songs it was a no brainer, I had The End and Wallflower too, butfor the rest I had to suffer through entire SC and Battles.

SC has a deeply flawed songs, and I can't think of any song I like completely. Also, too much similar song with zero dynamics. I went with WEWO and Paralyzed. Filtered Truth was in the mix, but I couldn't make it fit somewhere on the "album".

With Battles things are more uniform,but also cringy (you...heart out) and so empty. Even though SC is bad, this is more empty and meaningless. Finally I settled for safe bet The End, my favorite Wallflower and interesting and commercial BIF.

So that leaves me with a problem of naming this fantastic collection of songs. Let's go with something with flamess and something cheesy.

In Flames - The Flame Within
(The Best of the Worst)

01. Voices
02. I Am Above
03. With Eyes Wide Open
04. The End
05. Paralyzed
06. Deep Inside
07. Before I Fall
08. Wallflower
09. Burn
10. Stay With Me

Make a playlist, and try it out as an album. Works just fine.

Voices is a proper song, and has an intro, so its an opener. IAA continues strong, but it is also a single material. After two heavier songs there is wewo, a nice, mellow piece. We are back to life with The End. Things continue stable with Paralyzed, then we go metal again with Deep Inside. BIF is short and light to prepare us for 7 minute of Anders emotions in epic Wallflower. We not going to end this without another fast song. And in the end, a perfect closing with a halfacoustic emotional breakdown.

44-45 minutes in total. Proper album with singles. For me, it would rate behind the classics and 2-3 albums of post 2000 era.
 
So I'm downloading battles and my computer is like

tenor.gif