In Flames Challenge - Battles (the last one, finally)

2016's Battles


I didn't enjoy this. Nothing stood out. It was all pretty lame.

Like all of their late-catalog, there are moments of good guitar work, but the abundance of weird clean parts, dancey programmed drums, pop rock parts and the menagerie of variously styled, but ultimately saccharine, breathy and effects drenched vocals ruin it for me. This album, in particular, has more than you average number of pop-metal parts and there's a children's children's choir in multiple songs.

At times, it sounds like late period Offspring, of which I am also not a fan, although I would blast through an Offspring Challenge.




In light of how little this record impacted me, let's see what other people had to say:

Amazon 1-star Review:

I had the displeasure of listening to this album a few times in the past few days at work and on my commute. Unfortunately, this album was very poor compared to In Flames' other works... There isn't a single track from the album that I can recommend.

Amazon 5-star Review:

Great album. I heard other reviews claiming that there was a nu-metal touch, like that's a bad thing... Very mature and evolved album that follows their current trend of albums, only better. 

Four reviews from Youtube, which I can only assume are, respectively, two positive reviews and two negative reviews:

It also teaches us that the Russians speak Spanish, and also that liking the new In Flames is un-American.

All in all. I think current In Flames sounds like they'd be the dopest, phatest, most turnt Christian Metal band. So bad. I'm so happy this is over. 0 Goats.

In Flames Challenge - Siren Charms

2014's Siren Charms


"Forgettable" is how I would describe this album. I listened to it on Friday and, as I sit here on Tuesday, all lasting impression is gone. This album came and went and was fine, I guess.

I have notes from when I listened to it, though:

The all clean vocal songs make it feel more proggy, which isn't terrible, I guess. Like listening to the second Sons of Aurelius album:


After falling in love with the first Sons of Aurelius album:

Ultimately, it took some getting used to, but I like both albums now. I commented that, similarly, maybe I could get to like newer In Flames. That was past-Josh. Present Josh is much less open-minded.

It's more industrial metal or nu-metal than or Alt Metal than other In Flames.

There are several notes saying that I'm not enjoying it.

I compared part of a song to Creed.

I apparently really didn't like when the World Exploded (dumb title).

I noted that my mind wandered alot, again. For instance, how does writing in In Flames work? Like, does one guy come in with some heat like "Hey guys, I have this gnarly metal riff" and everyone gets pumped and Anders is like "yeah, then I can cry-yell over this part and we'll layer in some synths" and everyone just begrudgingly agrees, because they're getting paid, or are they all on board with this nonsense?

I commented that Rusted Nail started promising, but would turn bad, then it turned bad.



I don't remember much about this listen, so here's what other people have to say:

The album Charted well, for the most part. #1 on Swedish, Finnish and US Hard Rock charts

It was not universally loved, #87 on French charts - they do not give a shit about alternative metal.

Allmusic.com says it's: 

"a bit too casual... a solidly written and executed metal album" and that fans of the bands latest material will likely enjoy it.

An About.com reviewer says it's:

"not the abomination some have made it out to be."

Sputnikmusic says it's:

"an unforgivable misstep containing oversights in both songwriting and execution that such a veteran band should be able to spot and correct."

I think those are probably accurate-ish. Ultimately, the guitar work is on point. The vocals and the general performance are not. If this is your thing, whatever it is, then it's a great example of this thing. One with stellar guitar work and dynamic song writing at times, synth washes and very emotive vocals at others. It strikes me as music that would get angst-riddled teens into Soilwork and Dark Tranquility. Ultimately, not for me.




So what now, you ask? The Challenge is over, you say? There are no more In Flames albums, you propose! NAY, I SAY TO THEE!

I found Battles on a Russian metal blog. Up next, 2016's Battles!

In Flames Challenge - Sounds of a Playground Fading

2011's Sounds of a Playground Fading


First - the title is the worst. I hope it's a "lost in translation" thing.

Second, I don't know how much real review I have for this album. But first, it's an official video party:

Sounds of Playground Fading


Where Dead Ships Dwell - go to around 2 minutes - killer solo. That's one of two cogent memories I have about this record.

Deliver Us


That said - these are a pretty accurate representation of the record. It's all fine, I guess. Most songs have cool parts, but overall feel nu-metallish. The vocals are all pretty terrible.

So I remember three things from this record:

Where Dead Ships Dwell is an  un-stellar song with a stellar solo, by late-period In Flames standards.

The Attic is a terrible song. Hated it. I didn't like Ropes, but Anders sings without any additional effects, which is ballsy and not awful on Ropes.

This album was powerfully mediocre. It failed to hold my attention. My mind kept wandering while I was listening and I zoned out for vast swaths of the record. You have to understand - I listen to these in the car on the way to and from work. It's the only time I can listen to music, so it's me and my radio and sitting still in rush out traffic.

So, while sitting still, with nothing to focus on but this music and the inner workings of my mind.
Two instances come to mind.

First, I found myself actually humming a Dimension Zero song, because Jesper Stromblad posted lyrics to the song on Facebook that day, filling me with hopes for a new Dimension Zero album. It was this song (so good)

Later, I found myself thing about Archer. I think here's how I ended up there:
I went from Ander's vocals
to singing vs screaming
to coughing
to coughing blood as a death metal thing
to my death metal band (Servant Girl Annihilator)
to that band's unrealized drunk cover-album idea called Monsters of Rot
to thinking about other title puns like something on Now That's What I Call Music (no joke - How Splats Blood I Scrawl Music)
to sex puns (Now That's What I Call Blown Dick?)
to sex
to the part in Archer where it's a flashback of the blonde guy (Barry?) who was kidnapped with Lana and he deflected the laser with a mirror and he's like "Sorry I'm inside you right now" because they were tied up together naked
to Archer

Not attention grabbing music.

So unattention-grabbing, in fact, that when I grabbed the full album video from Youtube, the advertisement was a full length official video for a whole other band. Not a great band either.



Anyway, long story short - furiously forgettable record. Decent riffs, sometimes, but not great. Two goats. Also, maybe this takes the cake for most videos in a post.

In Flames Challenge - A Sense of Purpose

2008's A Sense of Purpose


This one will be short, too, I think. Increasingly, I'm finding that later In Flames is very stylistically consistent. It's musically fine, I guess, but the vocals are too voicy and emotive. I think Anders was not a great singer, and he is really not a good clean singer at all, and he's ruining it for me. Even if he just didn't sing, I wouldn't mind these later records. But he does, so I do.

This was the last record with Jesper Stromblad. He should do more Dimension Zero,

Disconnected, a song that I didn't enjoy, was in a Guitar Hero game, woot woot.

Anders says "shit" on this record, which is the only In Flames song with cursing that I can think of. I'm proud of them, though. I didn't think they had a deep enough grasp of English to drop metaphoric gems (actually, it's a simile... so simileric gems?) like "I feel like shit." again, woot woot.

According to Wikipedia, according to sputnikmusic:

 "...A Sense of Purpose shows getting rid of what was intrinsically In Flames, the harmonies. Now in their place are hackneyed synth passages and down tuned nu-metal style riffing. In an attempt to grab the attention of the fans of nu-metal's corpse, In Flames have stuck it to their old fans, again ... I'm sorry to say it, but In Flames are out of any worthwhile ideas. They even admit it in the opening track of the album, 'Without even trying' shrieks Anders on 'The Mirror's Truth'. At least he's being honest."

By and large, I agree. Way to go In Flames. The last track was my favorite one, it was like 10% better than the other songs.