Monday, October 8, 2012

In Flames

If you read this blog often, then you know that I love In Flames. In fact, I generally grant them the title of my favorite band, though that is definitely weighted in favor of their early releases. As I was sitting here, I began reflecting for the millionth time on how much In Flames have changed over the years. As most metal fans can attest, the changes have largely been bad ones. It's funny, though, because I've known people who complain that new In Flames is bad while "their old stuff like Soundtrack to Your Escape was awesome" which of course horrifies me to hear, but that's as far back as their knowledge of the band goes. For more active metal fans, many people start at The Jester Race and move forward from there. Some people actually do go back as far as their full-length debut Lunar Strain, which is a totally different animal, and for them the changes seem even bigger. But even Lunar Strain was a polishing of their sound from the truly primordial days. The first recording In Flames ever released was a 3 song demo in 1993, and if you listened to a track from that, you'd never even guess it was the same band that produced the records from a few years later.

Well, to amuse myself, here's a walking tour of In Flames starting with that first recording and bringing us right up to date.

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1993: In Flames release a 3 song demo entitled simply Demo '93. At this point founder Jesper Strömblad played the drums in addition to doing some guitar work, Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquillity sat in as a guest vocalist for them (he was never formally a member of In Flames, and at the time he was the bassist in DT), Johan Larsson played bass, and Glen Ljungström and Carl Näslund played guitar. At this early stage the band had a hostile, low-fi sound that would never really be found again once they entered a professional studio setting. Jesper Strömblad served as the group's primary songwriter, a position which he gradually began to share more and more over time, though the first several releases depended almost exclusively on his material.


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1994: In Flames record their first studio album, with the same lineup (though Jesper also added keyboards and violin on this record). At times this album could almost be considered early folk metal, though it was primarily important as an early entry in the melodic death metal world. To illustrate the often overlooked folk metal aspect of the band, I've selected the instrumental "Hårgalåten", and to illustrate the difference between this record and their original demo, I've selected the updated studio version of the above demo track "Upon An Oaken Throne".



After Lunar Strain, Mikael Stanne stopped recording with the band, and near the end of the year In Flames released the EP Subterranean  with the lead vocals provided by Henke Forss from the Swedish black metal act Dawn. By now the official lineup had been stripped down to just Jesper, Johan, and Glen. Many hardcore fans of early melodic death metal consider this record the band's best effort.


On later reissues, the album and EP are generally found combined.

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1996: In Flames, now armed for the first time with a full-time vocalist (Anders Fridén, who had been the vocalist for Dark Tranquillity on their first album) released their best-known early album, The Jester Race. At this time Björn Gelotte joined the band as the new drummer so that Jesper could move to lead guitar. This was also their first record on which the brilliant Fredrik Nordström stepped up from his engineering duties to act as their producer, a role he filled from this point through Clayman  in 2000. With all these factors working together, this album became one of the recognized classics of the "Gothenburg sound" of melodic death metal. In later pressings, this album is always combined with the 1997 EP Black Ash Inheritance. The opener "Moonshield" is often considered the band's best song.


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1997: With the same lineup, In Flames released Whoracle near the end of the following year. Anders Fridén took over lyrical duties at this point, though they had to be translated into English for him. This was the last album to feature original members Johan Larsson and Glen Ljungström, with their departure standing as the first sign of trouble in the eyes of some fans. Additionally, it was at this point that In Flames moved to a much larger label by signing with Nuclear Blast, and it was the first appearance of their second band logo. The album's opening song "Jotun" is a personal favorite of mine.


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1999: Björn Gelotte moved from drums to rhythm guitar, and he would later assume equal duties as co-lead guitarist. Daniel Svenssen took his seat behind the drum kit, and Peter Iwers joined as the new bassist. Along with Anders and Jesper, these five would become the best known and longest lasting lineup the band ever had. There would not be another personnel change until Jesper's departure in 2010. Their album Colony  therefore became the first record with the full band as most fans know it. This was also their first record to feature any clean vocals, though they played only a very minor role at the time. This is the opening track, "Embody the Invisible".


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2000: Often considered the last "old" In Flames album, Clayman  marked a jumping-off point for the band. This was their final album with Fredrick Nordström, who had been involved in some technical capacity with all their previous efforts. It was also the first In Flames album to make significant use of clean vocals, and it was right around this point that writing duties began to be spread more evenly between Gelotte, Fridén, and Strömblad. The signs of change were already clear in their sound, but they still remained firmly rooted in their established identity. For this reason, Clayman  is an interestingly diverse album which is in many ways stronger for the disparate elements at work in it. I have selected the crowd-pleasing anthem "Only For the Weak" as well as the more traditional track "...As the Future Repeats Today".



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2001: In Flames release The Tokyo Showdown, their only full-length live album. All the tracks that appear on it can be found on their previous records, and the recording quality is not great, so the record is largely ignored.

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2002: Reroute to Remain, with a new production team and a new lyrical focus, became the first of the "new" In Flames records. At the time it was seen as a low point for the band, but they were still carrying enough of their death metal roots around to bring some bite to the table. This record was the logical continuation of the changes begun in Clayman, causing it to stand alongside its immediate predecessor as a key transitional album. And, given the changes that followed, it has come to be seen by many fans as the last glimmer of what In Flames once was. "Cloud Connected" has become one of the band's better known songs, and they routinely include it in their live shows.


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2004: The real low-water mark for the band came with the release of Soundtrack to Your Escape. Electronics began to find their way into the music, the vocals lost almost all of their previous death metal sensibility and became something more akin to those found on a Korn record, and the band's writing duties slipped largely out of Jesper's hands. Though a few tracks still had catchy riffs and interesting sounds, the bulk of the record was terribly written. This is the first In Flames album that really can't be considered melodic death metal any longer. And as a tidbit of trivia, this was the band's first studio album that didn't have a title track. "The Quiet Place" became the album's best known song, a staple at their live shows, and despite its intentionally radio-friendly nature it's one of the few tracks on this album that I personally enjoy.


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2006: In Flames fans get a ray of hope in the form of Come Clarity. This is not really a "return to form" for the band, because it doesn't sound anything like their older style. Rather, it stands out as clearly the best record of their modern sound and it gave fans hope that this new version of In Flames might very well produce some good material. Heavier, less electronic, and more stripped-down than STYE, this was the record responsible for grabbing the interest of many new fans who had not been following metal during the group's formative years. I am one such fan, so for that reason Come Clarity  has always held a special place for me. The album opener "Take This Life" took over as the band's new signature anthem at live shows.


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2008: In Flames backslide on their previous progress when they release A Sense of Purpose. This record picks up where STYE  left off, albeit with slightly better material. Sadly, this would be their last record to feature Jesper Strömblad, whose departure severed the band's last tie to its original lineup. This record marked the first appearance of the current In Flames logo, it became their second album not to have a title track, and it marked the completion of the band's transition to a Hot Topic aesthetic. "The Mirror's Truth" was the lead-off single from the album, and it has even made appearances in some video games.


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2010: Jesper, after sitting out several tour appearances, formally leaves the band. The departure is by all accounts amicable, and the group states that the door is always open to him should he choose to return.

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2011: In Flames release their first ever record without Jesper Strömblad's participation. Niclas Engelin sits in on guitar for a while before the band formally makes him a full member. Sounds of a Playground Fading  really just continues on with the band's current trend. It's pretty much exactly what a listener would expect at this point in the band's career, though I personally like it better than its immediate predecessor. The record is primarily of note because of the fact that it is their most recent full-length, it is their first release with Century Media Records, and it is their first album with this new lineup.


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That pretty much brings us up to date. So, if you read this whole thing and listened to the sample songs, then congratulations. You are now an expert on the now-infamous transition In Flames has made from a pioneering melodic death metal powerhouse to a listenable but relatively unremarkable modern metal band. Most of the band's old fans have abandoned them at this point, only to be replaced by a very different breed of music audience. In the end, though, they're still my favorite band.

1 comment:

  1. I actually discovered In Flames at the time Reroute to Remain was released. Perhaps that is why that album still holds a place in my heart.

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