In Flames
In Flames are:
Peter Iwers – Bass Player
Jesper Strömblad – Guitar
Daniel Svensson – Drum
Björn Gelotte – Guitars
Anders Friden – Vocals
There are keyboards and synthesizers present on this album, but I don’t know who recorded that.
The Review
The first (?) metal band with the famous Gothenburg sound. Today many people call it “melodic death metal” and I’m one of them. I love melodic music, classic, hip-hop, electronica or even black metal. I don’t care. In Flames successfully mix heavy with beautiful (My Sweet Shadow, anyone?) but still manage to be headbangeable (From now on, I consider that as a real word!)
Just as in their other albums, they changed their style a tiny little bit. In STYE they tried some lighter stuff. Anders sings more often, and keyboards are more introduced. The guitars take a step back as there are few to none melodies in the songs. Most of the guitar work is just rhythmical power chords. Of course there are some exceptions, as in My Sweet Shadow (or is it a synthesizer? Hard to hear) and F(r)iend with 2 guitars that somehow don’t make the cut to sound good.
This review is a “The good, the bad and the ugly” review. I wanted to try it at least once…
Soundtrack to Your Escape
The good:
This one is easy. People who have read my music lists know which song I’m talking about.
The song is called:
Evil in a Closet.
Although many people don’t agree with me, I think this is the best song I’ve ever heard. The chorus features 3 different vocals from Friden: low clean vocals, high clean vocals and a high pitched screaming vocal. The high guitar (or is it synthesizer) sound is also heavenly good (I’m a Christ-guy so you’ll know how good that is for me).
The solo is an easy one, but well constructed and nice to hum along with, as for the verses and pre-chorus. The song ends with a clean guitar line that is played the whole time in the verse. Dam*, it’s such a good song…
Although many other songs are really good, this is the best.
Some other good songs include
My Sweet Shadow, a beautiful keyboard orientated song,
Bottled a bouncy song with a perfect “sing-a-long” chorus.
Like You Better Dead has a very nice chorus but is repetive and too predictable to see it as a real highlights. It’s a very good song nonetheless.
The Quiet Place is just as good as
My Sweet Shadow. It also has some cool synthesizers in it.
Superhero of the Computer Rage is also a very good song, although it’s a bit unpredictable (what’s that part after the short pause?) but doesn’t “stand out of place”. It’s just a nice different song from what you’ve heard till now.
The Bad:
Of course, there are also some bad songs, although I wouldn’t consider them bad, but more as repetive and filler. They just don’t give that extra spark that good songs do. They lack originality and don’t have some good riffs. One exception of this is
F(r)iend. It’s a song that is meant to be scary and heavy but it just doesn’t make it. The riffs sound weird and after the first minute the song is getting boring and more boring until the end. The other songs that aren’t really “bad” but more “filler” such as
Dial 595-escape, Touch of Red, Borders and Shadings and
In Search for I. They don’t really need an explanation because they really don’t differ much from the tracks I explained above. The only difference is that they just don’t do it for me.
The Ugly:
Just as most albums there are also some really bad songs. “Ugly songs”. The last song is one of the two.
Discover Me Like Emptiness is an utterly boring track and is too repetive to even give it a listen. It is meant to be epic, but instead of being that, the song is too “un-catchy” (is that a word?). The chorus has the same synthesizer sound in
My Sweet Shadow but instead of making it more epic and beautiful it sounds recycled. The other ugly song is
Dead Alone. In Flames probably wanted to make another melodic song but still wanted to keep their roots. They really failed in doing that. Instead of making a beautiful, fast but interesting song like
Take My Life (Come Clarity album) they make a song that is just not cool to listen to. Of course there are some good moments, like at 1:39 till 1:56, but they are short lived. All in all, it’s an ugly song…
Verdict:
Even though there are lots of filler tracks, this album is still one of my favourites of In Flames. Maybe it is because of the fantastic song that has the name “Evil in a Closet”. But it could also be that there are lots of standout tracks. Of course the drumming is sometimes weak and the guitars aren’t really as special as in their previous albums. Anders vocals however seem to be at his best, and well, as for the bass. Huh, what? Do they have a bass? Oh, I didn’t heard one…
Recommended Tracks:
Evil in a Closet (if you don’t like this song, shame on you. I’m serious)
My Sweet Shadow
Bottled
Superhero of the Computer Rage
Pros:
-Evil in a Closet
-Friden screaming vocals
-The Choruses are compared to their other albums quite overruling.
-While the drumming is still not very notable, Svensson definitely improved.
Cons:
-At first and most notably, the clean vocals. Personally I quite like them, but I still can see that there is few to none quality in it.
-The guitars aren’t as powerful and leading as in their previous albums.
-Lack of good solos. (Except for Evil in a Closet of course)
Final verdict: 4/5
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