Review Summary: All aboard the money train!
The Trigger E.P was actually my first introduction to In Flames when I discovered the band in my early high school years. At the time I wasn’t aware of the historical significance or cultural status that these guys held for melodic death metal so I went for the cheapest product available which happened to be Trigger E.P. What i failed to notice while acquiring this was that this happened to be an E.P not the full length record I was expecting to find. This E.P essentially is a single that was released after the previous album, Reroute To Remain in 2003. More than anything, this is just a collectors item for the rabid In Flames fan base.
The Trigger E.P features five tracks in total with 1 new song, an edited version of Trigger from Reroute To Remain, a cover of Genesis’s Land Of Confusion, and two remixes of Cloud Connected[ Club Connected Remix] and Moonshield[ C64 Karaoke Version]. The band also added two music videos to the disk for added comfort. Club Connected and Trigger were added to make this seem like a worthy pickup but I can assure you if you hate post Clayman era In Flames than you probably don’t want to drop seven bucks on this. This E.P picks up where they left off on Reroute To Remain and moves straight ahead to Soundtrack To Your Escape territory. “Trigger” also the single for Reroute To Remain opens up on positive note with some catchy guitar work balancing between heavy grooving and melodic outlining. The chorus is pretty heavy on the electronic effects and vocal processing but manages to be rather catchy. It goes without saying that most people don’t really enjoy Ander’s new angst ridden vocal style but I think Trigger happens to be one of the more accessible songs in their post melodic death metal phase. My only complaint for this track would be the unnecessary editing. They cut out just about a minute of material from the original version bringing the question to mind, what was the point of that?
The next song, and the only new track on Trigger is “Watch Them Feed“, a rather uneventful three minute Reroute To Remain reject that features uninspired songwriting, a lackluster vocal performance, and dull guitar riffing. The redeeming factor is a solo albeit nothing special, it at least saves the song from being complete crap. Song number three fares a little better than the previous two. Land Of Confusion, famously covered by Disturbed get’s a Gothenburg makeover this time around. Very melodic and catchy, my only complaint would be Ander’s off-putting vocal delivery. Track 4, Cloud Connected[ Cloud Connected Remix] is by far my favorite song on the album. Picture a Euro pop inflicted remake from one of Soundtrack To Your Escape’s B side’s and this is what you’ll find. The electronics really shine on this track, lending a pulsating, danceable feeling to the song’s atmosphere than let’s say aggressive melodic metal. The finale, Moonshield[ C64 Karaoke Version] is a very strange instrumental that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Horse The Band Record. This song sounds straight out of an old school video game and quite frankly it sounds out of place here. The two music videos are a nice addition especially Trigger which features a cameo from Soilwork. The all Swede bro-down in the end alone is worth checking out. Funny enough roles are reversed in Soilwork’s Rejection Role music video so it’s good to see that the unity is strong between the Swede’s.
All in all, this isn’t really necessary to acquire unless you download it. This E.P has a few cool features worth checking out it but it’s mostly just a cash grab. I do reccomend that people check out Cloud Connected, it's a pretty tight song with cool synth effects. If you happen to obsess over In Flames in the same way that most Americans fellate over Michael Phelps, by all means get it.
