That all actually makes a ton of sense. I think it's kinda funny that the band was recording STYE as their sort of nu metal album while the subgenre was somewhat alive, but then it fucking died in the mainstream midway through due to Wes Borland and Head leaving Limp Bizkit and Korn respectively, as well as bands like Mudvayne and Slipknot putting out more standard, slightly more alt metal/less stylized releases. It's not to say anything on the band's nor STYE's part, I just find it funny.
It's funny because of all songs, it was "The Truth" that made me discover the band (It's fucking shameful to look back at, but I was into really shitty music at the time- I'm talking my favorite band was Disturbed and generally loved alt metal kinds of shitty), but it was Come Clarity, Clayman, and Colony that made me really get into them, and into heavier music as a whole- Music was always an art, but I didn't have any idea just how little I understood it beforehand, and the sheer dichotomy of melodic death metal, particularly Jesper's interpretation of it, gripped me overnight. Ironically, the only sort of betrayal I feel from the band is shacking up with Benson in the first place, but I do understand it. When you have an album as maligned as Siren Charms, it makes sense why you'd have such little confidence, but I wish that they did because there were so many more routes they could've gone down than what they've been doing with Benson, and I say that as someone who really likes I, the Mask.
I don't really know all too much about Anders' composition skills, nor quite much about Bjorn's composition style, so I don't know exactly where they could've gone. I absolutely loved Down, Wicked, and No Good (Fuck, I forgot this in the favorite songs list), but those can't really speak to their ability to compose synth pop/rock. Anders has only done much more lo-fi stuff with If Anything, Suspicious, which is completely different than something Depeche Mode-inspired. I'd love for them to do some fully acoustic stuff, but that would likely entail Anders only doing clean vocals and the songs not translating well to live venues whatsoever. As much as it's a pipe dream, I'd kill for something shoegaze-y from them, but those sorts of guitar layers are exactly why they stopped doing the harmonized guitar leads. I'd say that if they put more faith into Niclas, we could've had something pretty akin to Passenger- And that's the only other one I'd feasibly seeing them going towards.
I guess all that's to say, yeah, I guess I don't know where else they'd go, and I kinda get it, even if I don't like Benson's influence. Even if you're a new fan, you can still very much see that it's the most anti-In Flames thing they've ever done. I do think that, yeah, they make the stuff that they like, but it's just what they like at the moment. Maybe that's why they're not proud of it (Ex. Battles) in retrospect, which now that I think about it, seriously sounds like a midlife crisis sort of thing. I dunno.
They're doing what they want, they're successful, they're happy, they're supporting their families, so fuck it. I've never really been one to demand anything in particular (Except for you, Hundredth, please go back to shoegaze), I just want the bands I love to make good music. That's pretty subjective, but I dunno, that's just how I feel.
I'm gonna seriously question this 5 AM ramble tomorrow, I can feel it in my fucking bones.
