Review Summary: Inaudible bass, "safe" drumming, catchy yet generic guitarwork, and whiny vocals. Standard metal at it's finest.
Have you ever had a really good friend that you admired a lot, one that you spent a lot of time with? Did you think this individual was not only a genuinely good person, but a smart, unique individual with the ability to do anything he or she chooses? Then suddenly, did your friend change, begin to think and act different, and start to alienate him or herself away from you and become something that they never wanted to be? If you answered yes, (which I'm guessing many people did) you're in the same boat as me. It's sad to see good people turn into douche bags, it's depressing to see a good young mind go to waste as it's brainwashed and warped. In Flames to me is that 29 year old guy that made $250,000 dollars when the Internet craze hit, went on a three year drug induced sex romp, only to end up living in his parents basement with $4.64, two condoms, a half-eaten Big Mac, Gonorrhea, and a lost dream.
I got my first taste for In Flames back in January 2007 at Harpos in Detroit, and actually looking back, it was a pretty big bite, and pretty easy going down. They came on stage, ran through about 15 pretty powerful songs, and they walked off, leaving me with a drenched shirt and a raspy voice. They were great, simply amazing. (Even more amazing was they had two stand-in guitarists that show) I told myself I was going to go out and buy their c.d., and about a week later, I did. And at first, I liked it. But the first alarm that went off for me was the song structure. If you take a look at the first three tracks, you'll notice that the verse is sung with a more raspy, aggressive voice, while the chorus utilizes the slower paced, catchy chorus structure with a clean vocal approach. Following a trend this strictly really made me lose respect for the band from a creative standpoint. Mixing harsh and clean vocals is great when done in a way that is clever and imaginative, but the route In Flames chooses to go on this album is very reminiscent of Killswitch Engage's “The End of Heartache”.
Take This Life, Leeches, Reflect the Storm, Vacuum, Versus Terminus, as well as
Crawl through Knives all have the raspy verse/cleaner sung chorus(although there are mixed raspy and clean singing in a few of these choruses).
Also lacking in the musical department is the drumming. While Daniel Svensson isn't necessarily a sloppy drummer, he really doesn't do anything that would take attention away from the guitar or vocals. He is predictable, and dull. There is not one moment on this c.d. that is fun to listen to from a drumming standpoint. Peter Iwers flies under the radar and delivers a textbook metal bass performance that takes me back to Jason Newsted on And Justice for All.
As uninspired and narcoleptic(yeah, I just said that) as the bass and drums are, there are however some good guitar melodies to be found. At 44 seconds in
Leeches, the music halts, and Stromblad and Gelotte deliver a dual guitar melody that is very catchy and cool sounding, only to be destroyed when the rest of the band re-enters the song, thus kicking the song down a peg. Also
Dead End gives good guitar melodies in the intro riff, and verse riff, both harmonized riffing, and although not outstanding by any measure, is pleasant to listen to. The opening riff in
Vacuum screams “SLAYER!!” and probably is the most intense section of the album, save possible the beginning of
Take This Life However, riffs like the opener in
Crawling Through Knives scream “Bullet for My Valentine!” and is so generic and lame I'm pissed off that they even considered putting it on the album.
Vocally, I'm not sure how I stand. I don't like how Anders chooses to arrange his vocals in each song, but there is a lot of emotion in his voice, and I really like some of his passages, mostly the harsher attempts. He also has a unique voice, I can compare him to a lot of other vocalists, but when it comes down to it, the timbre of his voice is just unique, and I commend him for that.
All in all, a pretty mediocre release, from a band that used to be hailed as Death Metal Gods. However, there are a few good tracks.
Take This Life, Dead End, and
Vacuum are the most fun to listen and sing along to, and the rest of the songs are basically cheap re-creations of these three. Probably a good album if you're new to heavy metal and need an “easy listen”, but a sure pass for any disciplined and well-versed metal connoisseur.
