Review Summary: In Flames second release was not only important as a succesor of the genre, on it's own it's also a really enjoyable album. Low riffing, steady drumming, loud screaming, deep bassing and brilliant use of lead riffing. All in here.
Whoracle
Anders Friden = vocals
Bjorn Gelotte = drums
Jesper Stromblad = guitars
Glenn Ljungstrom = guitars
Johan Larsson = Bass
The Gothenburg style made a really remarkable step at the beginning of band such as Dark Tranquillity, or In Flames. Inspired by bands such as Carcass; bands developing the melodic tones to a new way. Mixing heavy with melodic was barely used before, mainly in solo’s but not along with the vocalist. In Flames changed that taboo, with their first release. The Jester Race was pretty much the album that placed In Flames and the Gothenburg genre on the map. People have however decided to like the albums less and less. For those people, The Jester Race was pretty much the opus of In Flames, with Whoracle and Colony as remarkable efforts, but STYE and Reroute To Remain as pathetic tries to be “new” and “original”. Whether you agree or not, (personally I think that every album is as strong as it is), Whoracle was primary in the top 3 albums of every In Flames fan. While not copying The Jester Race, they didn’t stray far of the original sound. Melodies were still as important as everything else, and so where the acoustic parts. The difference though was that Whoracle was slower than their first release. Where The Jester Dance tends to be too fast to fully organize every melody and riff, Whoracle fixed that fault. Whoracle would later be perfected by their 3rd release: Colony.
Jotun starts the album with the typical Gothenburg sound. A melodic lead guitar along with some easy yet fine drumming and rhythm guitar. The chorus is memorable, yet somehow doesn’t blend well in the song. The same goes for the bridge and verse, as it seems that In Flames just thought of some nice tunes but forgot to click them together. A so-so track, the guitars however make up much for the song.
The next song,
Food For The Gods, is much better composed. The song is great to headbang because of it’s addictive, heavy guitar riffs. The heaviness barely lets down, until the solo, where the melodic side of In Flames goes on the front. The solo is very short though, and could have been a minute longer if they’d hold that beauty. The final chorus ends heavy, with Friden screaming “Food For The Gods”. Very nice track, yet it’s nothing compared to the work later on this album.
Finally a top 5 track comes up.
Gyroscope is more slow and droning than their other work. (no, don’t expect things like Sunn o))) ) The song starts with a acoustic guitar part that barely changes throughout the song. Verses are short, just as the chorus’s, but the melodic parts in the middle are some of In Flames finest work.
An Instrumental!
Dialogue With The Stars is pretty much a mix of the 2 songs before this one. With
FFTG for the reasonable speed and
Gyroscope for the melodies and acoustic parts. There is nothing wrong with this good composed melodic instrumental, but after several listens the song tends to be somewhat weaker. Yet this song is good enough to be in the top 5.
After
Dialogue With The Stars the album doesn’t let down. In fact, it’s only getting better. I’m sure that all of you In Flames would agree if I’d say that
The Hive is a classic In Flames song. The song starts with a riff that Atreyu later inspired (I will not say copied, that will only result into discussions whether Atreyu did rip-off the intro or not) and blends very well into the verse. The lead guitars are probably the best on this song, with the verse having a more creepy and psycho lead. The pre-chorus is just In Flames kickin’ some good riffs, with the chorus as the slow and darkish headbanger. After the second chorus, the part comes in that makes
The Hive such a brilliant song: the solo’s. The first part is a masterfully written melodic part that ends with a classical tone on it. The second part however seems to be more for the speed, and speedy it is.
Just when you think the album couldn’t get better, the stunning
Jester Script Transfigured enters the speakers. This song is probably the most epic and breathtaking song on the album, and of In Flames entire discography. The song starts with some computer sound, immediately adding some mysteriousness to the song, followed by some great acoustic guitars. While not every part is acoustic (the chorus’s are all in distortion, along with Friden screaming), the song feels as a ballad. Partly, though. This song feels partly as a ballad, and partly as an epic giant. The reasons for this is the massive bridge that completely turns over every misprinted look at the death metal genre. The bridge starts with a mellow acoustic guitar piece, slowly getting heavier until the switch from acoustic and distortion is suddenly turned over. It has Friden’s signature scream, being a tad high, yet with a low rasp on it. After that, the song changes the time signature from a 3/4 to a 4/4 (correct me if I’m wrong, I always mix up 3/4 and 6/8). With the sudden change, it feels more upbeat and with the high leads and low rhythm guitar, it creates a strength that equals In Flames other works. At the end of the bridge, the guitars go back to their original time signature, and to finish their epic bridge, they play the acoustic part with backwards recorded sound. The chorus comes again, followed by an excellent solo as a closure from the song. Awesome…
After this sheer brilliance, the album sadly drags down very much, presenting the two worst songs of the album.
Morphing Into Primal is the fast song on the album. At first it may sound very interesting, but as the song goes further, few changes are made to the song, making it dull and boring. Even the solo isn’t up to the standards of other In Flames solo’s. It sounds like a Kerry King solo, but even worse.
After the speedy
MIP, {B]Worlds Into Margins[/b] seems to be slower than it actually is. But it’s slow anyways so what am I talking about… Anyways, this song isn’t as bad as
MIP, yet it’s pretty much a low point of the album. This song has Friden worst vocal performance ever, with an effect used at different parts throughout the song, and really bad screaming. The verse’s are keyboard based, but with Friden’s screaming present it makes a weird mix of being laidback and heavy. The chorus is just like anything other, nothing special, but misses the spark to be “good”. The bridge is however better than the average composition on this album. It has a guitar solo in it, while not being as good as
The Hive, it’s decent. After that the laidback keyboards come in, without Friden’s screaming. That’s a big plus.
Back into the good stuff.
Episode 666 is much like the second song the heaviest song on the album, but this song is also very in-your-face. Nice, very nice. The song starts with a riff that’s reminiscent of
The Hive’s one, but develops faster into the verse. The verse is nothing special, again like
The Hive one, without the psycho guitars. The pre-chorus is however an improvement as it features a great lead guitar. The chorus is more energetic than their earlier work, which makes the song somewhat more diverse. It’s a mighty fine song, but if a bit originality would be put while they made this song, this track would be on second place (with
Jester Script Transfigured being a tad higher)
Everything Counts is very upbeat. The song starts with a rhythmical beat composed of the drums and guitars. The chorus is just as the verse, very happy, but also a bit sloppy. That’s probably the worst of this song. It’s good nonetheless, plus it’s a cover from Depeche Mode, which shows that In Flames not only to metal alone.
At last, we have the peacefully S/T track of the album. Just like
Dialogue With The Stars, it’s an instrumental. And just like that one, it’s features some
Gyroscope feelings. The guitars are acoustic the whole way through the song, creating a soft ambience over the other instruments. A nice way to end the album, if only the song would be longer than 2-and-a-half minutes…
As a overview, I find it funny to see that the album is merely put into 4 pieces.
At first we have 2 average songs, while not being bad, they’re nowhere the best. Then we have 4 of the best songs of the album, all packed together. After that the low point of the CD comes up with 2 “fillers”. The album ends on a good tone with the good last 3 tracks.
To summarize, it’s like this:
2 average
4 brilliant
2 bad
2 good
Okay that was funny…
Conclusion
This album is a Gothenburg masterpiece, which should be purchased right now for everyone that loves the mix of rhythm and melody. I’m not kidding, the things “The Jester Race” did wrong are all made up on this album. There are a few letdowns, like the two songs at the middle, and the lack of originality in some songs. It’s all however made up with some brilliant lead guitar riffs, and Fridens his powerful screaming.
Top 5 tracks:
1. Jester Script Transfigured
2. The Hive
3. Gyroscope
4. Dialogue With The Stars
5. Episode 666
Songs that I don’t care for:
Worlds Within The Margin
Morphing Into Primal
