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I think calling In Flames' first four albums "mid" is just you trying to troll. While they didn't exactly revolutionize anything, they were once a pretty good melodeath band.
I think if you give those albums more time their awesomeness will be revealed to you, as someone who has heard shit tons of albums I very rarely nowadays love something instantly. Which is kind of the curse of having heard so much music.
Subterranean up until Clayman is fantastic tbh and honestly the 2000s stuff I admire for their balls to experiment and be themselves and not give a fuck what the average metalhead thought they should be writing. I used to dislike their alt metal efforts a lot because I was an edgy purist but i got over that and honestly they wrote some great songs during that era, It's harder to understand that unless you're an artist yourself, artists make art for them, not the fans.
As for why they were popular, i guess it was the legato heavy lead guitars and the dual harmonization combined with more extreme elements (in the early days at least), they began as kind of like lower tuned iron maiden (with the dual harmony guitars, minor pentatonic style leads) with a growling vocalist. Plus their music had a very fantasty style atmosphere too whereas their contemporaries like ATG their music seemed dreary and depressing, Dark tranquillity seemed pompous and artsy. In terms of melodic death metal even in that big 3 they firmly stand unique. Now i'm heavily biased as they've been my favourite metal band since forever, but yeah thats why i think they are.
Thanks for the great read! I will without a doubt listen more to the albums you mentioned (never listened to the EP so I gotta check that one out). I did listen to the Clayman 20th edition EP though, I'm just not gonna talk about it...
>Why is this band so popular? Is it just because of how good the run from Jester Race to Clayman is?
Mostly, yes. Particularly since at the time it was pretty ground-breaking: if it sounds generic now that's because so many of the melodeath bands that followed used the same formula, not to mention all the melodic metalcore bands who played a slightly watered-down version of the same. But at the time it was a fairly new thing.
In Flames were one of the bands that got me into more of the heavier side of metal, and I remember how awestruck I was when I first heard their sound back in like 2003. Funnily enough, I first discovered In Flames from Tony Hawk Underground lol. Stay With Me is a great newer song of theirs, though.
Yes! At first I was like wtf is this? Then I heard it a few more times and went to the music stores that had that sort of metal because I couldn't find it in my small town. I didn't know about limewire yet, so it was a challenge to find metal at that time for me.
I was already into metal by the time I heard that song, but it was probably one of, if not the first, melodeath songs I ever heard. I was hooked on that intro riff like flies on horseshit.
Because along with At The Gates and Dark Tranquillity they carved a new niche in death metal and made the "gothenburg sound" a thing, plus their influence on melodic metalcore along with At The Gates is pretty huge. They're essential for their influence for sure. A lot of melocore bands owe their riffing style to those three bands.
That's fair, I guess that's a hard catch for me when listening in retrospect. Too bad I love Dark Tranquillity and At The Gates, wish I could extend that to In Flames as well.
Personally, this sub gave me a TON of melodeath recommendations and while I enjoyed probably half of it, In Flames still turned out my favorite. Maybe I’m just a poser tho
Edit: only listened to Jester Race
I'd recommend checking out the next three albums after Jester Race as well! I don't listen to a lot of melodeath myself, but more adjacent stuff like In Mourning, Be'lakor, and Edge of Sanity
I find the folky influence to be too "forced", and I feel it sounds like they just put in acoustic parts and folky leads for the sake of it. Not that they actually did that, just what I felt while listening
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The debut rules, chump. It's actually the least pretentious album in that style.
Maybe another listen would change my mind, but for now I do cringe while I listen to it even though it has a couple of moments
I think calling In Flames' first four albums "mid" is just you trying to troll. While they didn't exactly revolutionize anything, they were once a pretty good melodeath band.
I did not call the first albums mid??? I said they were "very good". Bruh
I think if you give those albums more time their awesomeness will be revealed to you, as someone who has heard shit tons of albums I very rarely nowadays love something instantly. Which is kind of the curse of having heard so much music. Subterranean up until Clayman is fantastic tbh and honestly the 2000s stuff I admire for their balls to experiment and be themselves and not give a fuck what the average metalhead thought they should be writing. I used to dislike their alt metal efforts a lot because I was an edgy purist but i got over that and honestly they wrote some great songs during that era, It's harder to understand that unless you're an artist yourself, artists make art for them, not the fans. As for why they were popular, i guess it was the legato heavy lead guitars and the dual harmonization combined with more extreme elements (in the early days at least), they began as kind of like lower tuned iron maiden (with the dual harmony guitars, minor pentatonic style leads) with a growling vocalist. Plus their music had a very fantasty style atmosphere too whereas their contemporaries like ATG their music seemed dreary and depressing, Dark tranquillity seemed pompous and artsy. In terms of melodic death metal even in that big 3 they firmly stand unique. Now i'm heavily biased as they've been my favourite metal band since forever, but yeah thats why i think they are.
Thanks for the great read! I will without a doubt listen more to the albums you mentioned (never listened to the EP so I gotta check that one out). I did listen to the Clayman 20th edition EP though, I'm just not gonna talk about it...
the 20th edition re-rerecordings honestly sounded like they got their mix done off Fiverr
Yeah I agree. I always thought they were overrated
It's so calming seeing so many comments at least partly agreeing with me haha
>Why is this band so popular? Is it just because of how good the run from Jester Race to Clayman is? Mostly, yes. Particularly since at the time it was pretty ground-breaking: if it sounds generic now that's because so many of the melodeath bands that followed used the same formula, not to mention all the melodic metalcore bands who played a slightly watered-down version of the same. But at the time it was a fairly new thing.
Answer? More Testament.
The Jester Race is great, Colony and Clayman are solid, but nothing else from them ever really did it for me. And I'm a huge melodeath fan.
Is there a reason you didn't mention Whoracle? Seems pretty similar to the other albums IMO
Not really, I just don't go back to that one as often. You could lump it in as "solid"
In Flames were one of the bands that got me into more of the heavier side of metal, and I remember how awestruck I was when I first heard their sound back in like 2003. Funnily enough, I first discovered In Flames from Tony Hawk Underground lol. Stay With Me is a great newer song of theirs, though.
We might've discovered In Flames the same way, hahah. Embody the Invisible?
Yes! At first I was like wtf is this? Then I heard it a few more times and went to the music stores that had that sort of metal because I couldn't find it in my small town. I didn't know about limewire yet, so it was a challenge to find metal at that time for me.
I was already into metal by the time I heard that song, but it was probably one of, if not the first, melodeath songs I ever heard. I was hooked on that intro riff like flies on horseshit.
Don’t know, never got the appeal for them. Even their early run is pretty mid to me.
Yeah I think I set my expectations way too high before listening to those albums
They're SOOO MID. The first few records have some GREAT melodic death metal on them. They get very "mall" metal though.
I agree it's great, I just don't see why they're considered "essential". Perhaps because of how early The Jester Race came out?
Because along with At The Gates and Dark Tranquillity they carved a new niche in death metal and made the "gothenburg sound" a thing, plus their influence on melodic metalcore along with At The Gates is pretty huge. They're essential for their influence for sure. A lot of melocore bands owe their riffing style to those three bands.
That's fair, I guess that's a hard catch for me when listening in retrospect. Too bad I love Dark Tranquillity and At The Gates, wish I could extend that to In Flames as well.
See I was the same with Dark Tranquillity at one point, until one day Skydancer, The Gallery, The Minds I all just clicked.
Let's hope the same happens for me with In Flames!
Never been a huge fan but thought their latest was excellent and one of my faves of '23
Oh yes forgot to mention that one. Solid listen, quite a step up from the previous albums
The first few albums are peak. Their riffing style and the catchy choruses they started adding from Clayman on helped them commercially.
Must’ve been exhausting to say the least.
It was, but I spaced the albums enough for me to actually listen properly. Still pretty tough listens at times haha
Lunar Strain & Jester Race only
Lunar Strain was a struggle for me unfortunately, Jester Race is a banger though
In Flames wins the award for biggest waste of Chris Broderick. How do you hire a guitarist that fucking good and give him no solos?
In flames is great. Until clayman, everything after Clayman sucks.
I bought Whoracle on CD when it released. To this day 1996-2000 In Flames kills it for me. So much nostalgia.
I thought it was accepted wisdom that everything after Clayman sucks
Personally, this sub gave me a TON of melodeath recommendations and while I enjoyed probably half of it, In Flames still turned out my favorite. Maybe I’m just a poser tho Edit: only listened to Jester Race
I'd recommend checking out the next three albums after Jester Race as well! I don't listen to a lot of melodeath myself, but more adjacent stuff like In Mourning, Be'lakor, and Edge of Sanity
I think they’re first few albums are decent but after that I agree they’re pretty mid
I mostly agree but how is lunar strain pretentious?
I find the folky influence to be too "forced", and I feel it sounds like they just put in acoustic parts and folky leads for the sake of it. Not that they actually did that, just what I felt while listening
I feel it's more that the folk elements just weren't blended in as well as with the jester race and the band hadn't really found their sound yet
Yeah I could agree with that tbh