Whats the relationship between Dark Tranquility and In Flames

[Pitiless Wanderer]

Im new to DT and even tho I've been into IF for a while I still dont know the relationship between the two bands. I take it it's some translation thing with lyrics? Is that right? Is there a rivalry between the bands?

 

[Kovenant84]

um...not so much rivalry as a common beginning....see, back in the day, stanne was in IF and friden was in DT, and .... well....i'll let the experts explain it....

Dr. Tranquillity, if you may....

 

[Arch]

I believe Fridén and Stanne along with Sundin and other were the original Dark Tranquillity. Fridén did vocals and Stanne did guitaring (Stanne profess he did poorly playing guitar). Then Fridén joined In Flames and Stanne... you know the rest.

http://www.inflames.com/band/bio/bio.html

Sundin did most of the earlier English version of In Flames lyrics.

And another relationship between Dark Tranquillity and In Flames... The early members of the band, Hammerfall, had Strömblad, Sundin, and Stanne.

 

[Final_Vision]

honestly musically there really isnt much. Most I can tell is they follow the same CD time line, besides having In Flames live cd, they had eachothers vocalists on their respective first cds...their both "gothenburg bands". Both one of the more well known bands in the melodic death scene (which of course is arguable among l33ts but im not gonna bicker on that issue).

Oh yeah and both kick ass! hehe, other than that their musically verrry different...so just general similaritys...

 

[Arch]

And one more... Sundin does the CD cover art for the newer In Flames CDs.

 

[DoAsISayNotAsIDo]

First of all i know they're good friends, Niklas made the cover of Tokyo Showdown, Anders played bass in skydancer, Stanne didd vocals on Lunar Strain and Niklas translated the lyrics till Colony...That's it!

 

[rahvin]

in flames started with mikael stanne singing (on their first record), and back then mikael was a guitarist in dt too. then, anders friden (the original dark tranquillity singer on their first release, skydancer) left the band and became the frontman of in flames.
on "the jester race" niklas sundin co-wrote some of the lyrics, and on "whoracle" he translated/adjusted some too. and yes, niklas also did the cover for "the tokyo showdown". that's about it as far as data goes... musically speaking i think they were closer back when "lunar strain" went out, but that's just because there weren't as many bands in that vein and the similarities seemed somewhat more apparent. later on they took very different paths and i don't really think there's any rivalry between the bands or the bandmembers.

rahvin.

 

[Wanderingblade]

of course, if there was any DT would be winning by now

More seriously... I think its just a common and fairly intermingled beginning (ok, so DT don't sound much like IF any more, but I still instinctively compare them to IF simply because I can't think of anyone better to compare them to )

 

[Villain]

Trying to sum it all up in a comperehensive manner:

Original DT-lineup (on Skydancer):
-Anders Fridén: Vocals
-Mikael Stanne: Guitar & Backing Vocals
-Niklas Sundin: Guitar
-Martin Henriksson: Bass (no Anders here!)
-Anders Jivarp: Drums
Lyrics written by Sundin & Stanne

Original IF-lineup (on Lunar Strain):
-Mikael Stanne: Vocals
-Jesper Strömblad: Drums & Guitar
-Glenn Ljungström: Guitar
-Carl Näslund: Guitar
-Johan Larsson: Bass
Lyrics written by Stanne

These two albums were both recorded in 1993 and afterwards both bands changed their lineups slightly. Anders Fridén left DT (but did not join IF until later) and Mikael Stanne took the vocals there, abandoning IF. To replace Stanne on guitar, DT found Fredrik Johansson. With this lineup they recorded the Of Chaos and Eternal Night MCD.

Meanwhile, IF was to record their Subterranean MCD, but didn't have a vocalist now and Näslund had left them as well. Daniel Erlandsson and Anders Jivarp (of DT) came to play drums on that MCD and Jesper concentrated only on guitars from there on. A session vocalist was also used (he wrote the poor lyrics as well).

While DT continued with the OCaEN lineup through the following three full-length albums (The Gallery, The Mind's I, Projector), IF changed members once again. Björn Gelotte came to play drums on The Jester Race and Anders Fridén became their permanent vocalist from there on. As Fridén wasn't very skilled at writing lyrics (he hadn't done any on DT), Sundin came to help him with both lyrics-writing and vocal-melodies. This continued on Whoracle as well, but on Colony Fridén had confidence enough to write the lyrics by himself - Sundin only translated three songs' lyrics to English.

In addition to that, both bands know each other pretty well and they have toured together at least in 1999.

-Villain

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

thanks for the info guys.



what do you think the new IF record will sound like? do you have high hopes for it? i know i do! 14 songs is a lot...leaves a lot of room for fillers....but, jesper said it was faster than clayman and songs had more acoustic interludes ala whoracle, so thats a good thing i guess....

 

[Wolfman Von Jones]

I think the new IF album will kick ass, just like EVERY other one has, if its like Clayman I will be slightly disapointed, but I still enjoy it emencly, but if its more like Whoreacle at TJR ill shite my pants.

Nick(colony kicks ass)

 

[ashure]

Originally posted by NicktheClayman
I think the new IF album will kick ass, just like EVERY other one has, if its like Clayman I will be slightly disapointed, but I still enjoy it emencly, but if its more like Whoreacle at TJR ill shite my pants.
Nick(colony kicks ass)

don't think IF will return to the sound of TJR or even Whoracle. Once a band turns another way from its asskicking-old style, it hardly manages to make an album in that "taste"afterwards. So I say prepare yourself to another version of Clayman(well, maybe slightly better one but still...)

 

[rahvin]

i'm not that interested in if's new vein since colony. basically, i think friden's vox are really fucked up. that's also why i'm doubtful as to whether a return to form might be possible at this point. perhaps the new album will be worth a few listenings, but unless they come up with some brand-new idea, i guess that's it about it.

rahvin.

 

[DoAsISayNotAsIDo]

Originally posted by rahvin
i'm not that interested in if's new vein since colony. basically, i think friden's vox are really fucked up. that's also why i'm doubtful as to whether a return to form might be possible at this point. perhaps the new album will be worth a few listenings, but unless they come up with some brand-new idea, i guess that's it about it.

rahvin.

Jesper said that this album will include lots of acoustic parts (like Whoracle) and heavy songs (like TJR)....And it is In flames! It isn't possible to be bad! About Anders' vocals, he is trying something different, his both vocals rock!

 

[rahvin]

i stopped believing in flames = impossible to be bad round about when colony came out. don't get me wrong, their records are still ok and friden's clean-whispered vox are ok too. but when it comes to the growls i just get the feeling he's losing his skills on a physical level, i.e., his voice is ruined or something. it sounds as if he were rasping.
as for the music, acoustic parts are good news imo - since clayman's power-death was a bit too standardized for my tastes - but i'm always a bit in awe of the "lack of new ideas" issue. there weren't new brilliant music solutions in the last two records (there were good songs, but that's not the same thing at all), so i'm inclined to believe their vein is sort of exhausted.
however, there's nothing like listening to it and then passing judgement.

rahvin.

 

[Lost Wisdom]

WOW!!! you guys know everything!

 

[DoAsISayNotAsIDo]

Originally posted by rahvin
i stopped believing in flames = impossible to be bad round about when colony came out. don't get me wrong, their records are still ok and friden's clean-whispered vox are ok too. but when it comes to the growls i just get the feeling he's losing his skills on a physical level, i.e., his voice is ruined or something. it sounds as if he were rasping.
as for the music, acoustic parts are good news imo - since clayman's power-death was a bit too standardized for my tastes - but i'm always a bit in awe of the "lack of new ideas" issue. there weren't new brilliant music solutions in the last two records (there were good songs, but that's not the same thing at all), so i'm inclined to believe their vein is sort of exhausted.
however, there's nothing like listening to it and then passing judgement.

rahvin.

I think Jesper meant it. More songs like TJR with new ideas, i think Anders vox aren't very bad on Colony and Clayman. I've listened some live stuff from 2001 and he sings great!Keep your hope alive rahvin, in flames coming to kick our ass again

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

on a side note, does anyone from DT post here?

 

[Villain]

Yep, at least Sundin, Stanne and Nicklasson post here occasionally. Browse the forum for a while and you might recognize them.

-Villain

 

[rahvin]

@doasisaynotasido: hope is quite alive, in fact. i try not to fall prey to the "another-one-bites-the-dust" syndrome before time. are samples from the new album already available anywhere? (too lazy to check)

@devy_metal:

hedon = sundin
zodijackyl = stanne
warwick = nicklasson

rahvin. (=rahvin)