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01. In Plain View |
Verdict: 4
In Flames - Siren Charms
In Flames, one of the best mello death bands ever. A band that forged the Gothenburg sound and produced a number of gerne shaping albums.
In the end of the last millennium In Flames were a formidable explosion on stage, determined not to leave a single concertgoer untouched by their force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qa9-mbMUT8
Its easy to understand that a band like In Flames has to evolve in some way over the years, it must be incredibly hard to balance between what you want to do as an artist and what the fans expect.
In Flames shifted their style slightly with Reroute to Remain, the band constantly strive to keep melodic elements to balance the grind. At some point In Flames weren't hard core music for the hard core fans anymore, they just became to big and entered the mainstream music scene.
Respected artists like Liza Miskovsky and Timo Räisänen tread forth and stated that they loved the band. Timo did a fantastic cover of Alias at the Rockbjörnen ceremony in 2009, but at the same time as it was and achievement when the Swedish music establishment surrender to In Flames it was a double edged sword.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC3rw74cfG4
In Flames were played on the mainstream radio in Sweden all the time, they had become as big and respected as any well established rock act. They certainly wasn't a pop band but on the other hand they weren't dangerous anymore either.
Since then In Flames has evolved into a new kind o f monster delivering a mix of their old trade mark death metal blended with all sorts of modern metal were synthetic background sounds are ever present and Anders vocal performance is lesser and lesser screaming and more and more.
Well singing...
But In Flames hasn't perished as many of the old fans foresaw but rather continued to grow an even larger fan base over the years. The old fans continue to complain over that they are sounding more and more like any random metal core band, deserting the style that they actually invented.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhUY-6ghM0k
So now in 2014 it is time to deliver yet another album, Siren Charms and it sure is interesting to listen to the brand new In Flames .The album is sounding claustrophobic, all the reverbtails are short and Anders voice is sitting a few decimeters from the tip of your nose. The sound is in your face and loud, it feels like Siren Charms is a winner in the decibel war.
But the overall feel of the album is bark rather than evil, moody rather than aggressive. This is a band that is making a statement. We are moving towards the mainstream listeners and we won't care if we dislocate parts of our old fan base completely.
I actually enjoy the album quite a bit, is is packed with good songs if I am to judge this as an In Flames album it is a huge disappointment. There are at least five radio singles on here but if you expect to find another Trigger or Cloud connected don't even bother to pick up the album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D8fG63dnmM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9lCXVFCs20