In Flames - Sounds of a Playground Fading

Malice

This could probably just as easily go in the Upcoming Releases thread but I reckon it deserves a thread of its own. The tenth In Flames album is to be release on June 15th 2011. It's the first album they have recorded without founding member Jesper Strömblad. He was replaced by Niclas Engelin who has been in and out of In Flames since 1997.



The band released a single, Deliver Us, earlier this month. My initial reaction was that I'd have noticed the similarities with more well-known In Flames songs, particularly the harmonised guitars, but it's quite a departure from their older stuff. The synths add an interesting dimension to the song and I am looking forward to the album's release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8dcFljhgAQ

chin_grin

Malice wrote: »

This could probably just as easily go in the Upcoming Releases thread but I reckon it deserves a thread of its own.

Perks of being a mod.

Nailz

Make me temporary mod and I'll moderate this mother into the Upcoming Releases thread. For shame Malice.

Hope this is a good album, much prefer the early stuff like Lunar Strain and Subterranean, as well as a few albums after that like Whoracle, but the newer was never so bad and I do enjoy a lot of it. I just hope this is a good release.

GrizzlyMan

This is the In Flames I know and Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=barjAktKhw4

Nailz

GrizzlyMan wrote: »

This is the In Flames I know and Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=barjAktKhw4

****in' A, love Lunar Strain, great album.

Malice

chin_grin wrote: »

Perks of being a mod.

Sort of. I haven't seen much discussion of In Flames lately in fairness.

Nailz wrote: »

Make me temporary mod.

What's that line about those that seek power being the ones most unsuited for it?

Anyway, I can't decide what my favourite In Flames song is but this is definitely up there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOjkX6nzEOc

Nailz

Malice wrote: »

What's that line about those that seek power being the ones most unsuited for it?

Well, I only sought power to correct the wrong doings of a rouge mod, like yourself. Anyway, I couldn't honestly care whether I ever become mod of R&M or not, it ain't my scene, let it be.

[/reverse psychology] :pac:

nacho libre

I lost interest in this band after Colony.

Malice

Nailz wrote: »

Well, I only sought power to correct the wrong doings of a rouge mod

A rouge mod? Well I suppose I am a Liverpool fan .

nacho libre wrote:

I lost interest in this band after Colony.

How come?

Joe_Dull

My favourite band Very impressed with Deliver Us, I've high hopes for the album.

Nailz

Malice wrote: »

A rouge mod? Well I suppose I am a Liverpool fan .

Case in point, people like you shouldn't be mod, your type can't be trusted .


Suppose Colony was a massive change in sound for In Flames, which started off with the Jester Race, but Colony was almost the complete change from the likes of Lunar Strain — maybe Nacho Libre did not like that transition.

spiritcrusher

Colony was alright, there was still a bit of meat in the riffs and vocals there but the change was coming. Nowhere near Lunar Strain, Jester Race and Whoracle though. I can handle one or two songs on Clayman but can't stand anything that came after. It all got a bit... forcefully American. They seemed to start copying a style that a lot of American bands had already copied from the Swedish scene (Killswitch and all that).

Dropping a lot of the speed in favour of groove, no more thrashy/deathy riffs, less and less lead guitars and licks, further downtuning... I remember Soundtrack and the one that came before it was gutting at the time.

nacho libre

Nailz wrote: »

Case in point, people like you shouldn't be mod, your type can't be trusted .


Suppose Colony was a massive change in sound for In Flames, which started off with the Jester Race, but Colony was almost the complete change from the likes of Lunar Strain — maybe Nacho Libre did not like that transition.

Yes that's the reason. I'm not a fan of the nu- metal sound they developed on subsequent albums.

Nailz

nacho libre wrote: »

Yes that's the reason. I'm not a fan of the nu- metal sound they developed on subsequent albums.

Ah I wouldn't call it Nu Metal, I don't know what that sound would be called but I wouldn't label it Nu Metal.

ride-the-spiral

Come Clarity was a very good album I thought, and ASOP had that guilty pleasure type sound to it. However STYE and RTR were just... ugh...

First four will always be the best, and Clayman is half good, half mediocre.

Nailz

I actually quite enjoyed Soundtrack To Your Escape and Reroute To Remain, had certain elements that were too cringe with the over harmonisations of everything, but I thought they are still very good in my opinion. Earlier stuff is still the best. though.

Yakult

If this is anything like ASOP I will not be buying it. To me it was a Come Clarity B side, remember being very disappointed with it.

Still, I will always love their older stuff and always have. Too many great songs to choose from but feck it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLPXAcAsLgo

Motley Crue

I like the new single and enjoyed hearing it, I've lost a lot of patience with In Flames though in recent times, mainly as I feel they don't get the recognition they deserve as a long established band - rather I feel being kicked around record companies and losing members (through no fault of the band's to be honest) means they are seen as more of a mid card band who are always there, dependable, and yet just shy of the glory they deserve

Nephilim Wolf

It's not bad although it's very commercial, and I also think the title of the album is quite silly. At least they ditched that terrible nu metal guitar sound that they had back in 2002 and 2004. I lost interest in them after the excellent 'Clayman' album because they were using that dreaded nu metal guitar sound, thankfully 'Come Clarity' was quite a good album, although still not on par with albums like 'The Jester Race, Whoracle. Colony and of course 'Clayman'. There are much better bands now than In Flames like Swallow The Sun and Dark Tranquillity. I also thought I'd mention that I really don't like In Flames new logo. I wish they kept the original logo.

Joe_Dull

Here's the video

In that it doesn't make me painfully cringe, it's a success (a rare achievement for metal videos :pac:)

Malice

Joe_Dull wrote: »

Here's the video

In that it doesn't make me painfully cringe, it's a success (a rare achievement for metal videos :pac:)

Anyone else chuckle at the ad for Ikea in the beginning? All we need now are some unfeasibly attractive blondes, some Volvo cars and that'll be most Swedish stereotypes taken care of .

TheStickyBandit

Great band, Another one to add to the must get list! I loved Clayman its probably one of my favourite of theirs actually!

Malice

I've been listening to this quite a bit over the last few days. For anyone who's wondering about getting this I think it's pretty simple. If you liked A Sense of Purpose and, to a lesser extent Come Clarity then you should like this.

There are some some memorable melodies tucked away in various songs. The pacing is a bit odd with track 7, The Attic, sounding like something to round off the album with rather than something from the middle. The same thing happens with track 9, Jester's Door, but it at least has an ominous feel to it and only lasts 2 and a half minutes.

Highlights:
The chorus and solo (from 2:54) of the title track.
The outro solo of All For me (from 3:20 - 3:31).
Track 4, The Puzzle. It's probably my favourite song off the album but especially the part from 3:12 to the end of the song.

Lowlights:
Track 7

Here is The Puzzle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qDv2FZtCak

Motley Crue

Having listened to the new album back to back I'm now really looking forward to their set at Sonisphere - my personal favourite track is "Deliver Us"

(think this is my first post here, but long time reader )

i'm having this on constant rotation at the moment.
after the last two albums, i was just expecting a few catchy songs but to be honest
wasn't expecting to like the whole album.

Am pleasantly surprised by the album and i gotta admit i really like.

as malice said there are a few curve balls thrown with The Attic and Jesters Door,
but i'm finding when they come on the speakers that i'm not skipping to the next song.

Anyone notice any differences with regard to Jesper being gone?

I think maybe there's more melody in the singing in more of the albums songs but dont
find a terribly great departure in sound from the last 4 albums.

baldshin

Loving this album! I actually really really like Jester's Door too.
It's quite clear from the sound of the guitar work that Bjorn has been writing most of the music since Clayman onwards, and it's a sound which I think may have contributed to Jesper leaving.

Looking forward to see what Jesper comes up with in his new band The Resistance.

Joe_Dull

So far so good, only given it one spin but it's really standing out for me as a departure from their other recent stuff. There's much more of the Zombie Inc/Square Nothing style clean guitar which I like, and the riff are chunky and technical. It might take me a few listens to get used to the direction Anders has taken with the vocals, but on the whole I'm impressed.

Vudgie

I quite like the album. The dance remix thing on the end is a bit of a mistake. Guilty pleasure is the track liberation. When the chorus kicked in I honestly thought eurovision.....mad stuff. Teaming this with the new Bon iver which is a great album.

MickShamrock

I'm liking it. Have given it a few listens.

Nephilim Wolf

It's actually very good. I thought intially that the guitar sound\tone be boring and downtuned like on 'Soundtrack to Your Escape' which was a terrible album, but thankfully the album has a cool clean lead guitar sound which is what I love.:D

Joe_Dull

Nephilim Wolf wrote: »

'Soundtrack to Your Escape' which was a terrible album

You are so very wrong, sir :pac:

Nephilim Wolf

Joe_Dull wrote: »

You are so very wrong, sir :pac:

Well each to his/her own.;)

Joe_Dull

Nephilim Wolf wrote: »

Well each to his/her own.;)

True enough!