By Ben Richardson
In 1994, as most of the musical world mourned the death of Kurt Cobain, a humble band from Gothenburg, Sweden, released an album called Lunar Strain, which would go on to help situate the sleepy Scandinavian university town at the center of a swirling metal maelstrom. The band was In Flames, and their incendiary interpretation of the nascent death metal genre would go on to spawn a legion of imitators on both sides of the Atlantic.
The fulcrum of the In Flames sound was a keen ear for neoclassical melody, which they fused seamlessly with the groovy thrash 'n' roll that defined the Swedish Death scene at the time. This penchant for soaring arpeggios and Iron Maiden-style close-harmony leads made their music accessible, adaptable, and widely popular. Subsequent LP's The Jester Race and Whoracle won critical and fan acclaim.
Six years and five albums later, the fire had begun to dwindle. The band had undergone numerous lineup changes, and a seismic sonic shift had been set in motion. By the release of 2000's Clayman, In Flames was experimenting with slower tempos and crunchier, dumbed-down riffs, while retaining enough soaring leads and double-bass gallop to keep their fanbase placated. 2002's Reroute to Remain was a different story, a galling stumble into gussied-up nü-metal pablum that introduced triggered trip-hop drumbeats and vocalist Anders Friden's ghastly embrace of both clean singing and dreadlocks
By the next year, the champions of the "Gothenburg Sound" had completed their transition into a commercialized nightmare, swan-diving into the world of uninspired arena balladeering with an enthusiasm rivaled only by Load-era Metallica. On Soundtrack to your Escape, In Flames seemed to have their sights set on the Evanescence crowd, tempering their once slaytanic sound with goth-lite programming and synth-pop keyboard swells, distinctly unwelcome additions that served as the basis for an album full of clunkers, with Hot Topic-ready song titles like "The Quiet Place" and "Evil in a Closet."
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. The band left stalwart European metal label Nuclear Blast to record with Ferret Music, an American indie that is mainly focused on the kind of money-hungry metalcore that is the bane of older-sister jean wardrobes everywhere. Featuring laughably rote artwork by overexposed inksman Derek Hess, 2006's Come Clarity promised a return to thrashing form without actually delivering.
On Sept. 4, the band reached their absolute nadir, pimping themselves out to eyeliner-abusing Jackass alum Bam Margera for the second volume of Viva La Bands. Their insipid contribution "Abnegation" - available for listen on their MySpace at your peril - is a new low for the band, who trot out a lazily familiar verse before giving way to a cringe-inducing chorus that suggests melodic death by way of Nickleback.
Will In Flames ever recover their lost fire, quenched as it is by the deluge of shit they've put out over the last seven years? Come Clarity had hopeful moments in between the radio-ready anthems and the singer-songwriter duets, but "Abnegation" is a gigantic step backwards. While the band is currently in the studio, it's hard to be even cautiously optimistic at this point. Mostly, I just sit around and ponder how something as awesome as this:
Could turn into something as terrible as what I heard on the group's MySpace.
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Comments (4)
In Flames is an excellent band!
Posted by halloween music | October 5, 2007 10:30 AM
Yeah, that's the problem! They need to relearn how to translate that excellence into some decent music!
Posted by Ben Richardson | October 6, 2007 04:18 PM
I quit listening to In Flames after Clayman, and seeing them play a couple lackluster shows in support of "Reroute to Remain." Sounds like I made the right decision.. Their current evolution has me scratching my head too. At least we still have Dark Tranquillity.
Posted by Chris | October 7, 2007 11:07 PM
If it weren't for Dark Tranquility, I would operate under the assumption that all that is good in Gothenburg eventually turns to shit, thanks to the direction Soilwork and In Flames have been taking. Thankfully, DT haven't lost a step - "Fiction" and especially "Character" are great albums that rival their 90's classics.
Posted by Ben Richardson | October 8, 2007 01:11 PM