Its time for these guys to release a new album, but this seems to be more related to a DVD, film o an special re-recording of something.

By the way, the artwork is great, the third image is simply awesome.

haha

it's always blown my mind that people willingly listen to post-clayman in flames. even clayman is a load of shit - it just ended up at the good end of their discography after everything since has been so amazingly bad. i normally have a soft spot for bands who change their sound drastically (sepultura, anthrax, metallica, sentenced, amorphis, etc), but in flames can get unbelievably fucked.

I like those teaser pics, they should just release more of them and _not_ do anything else.
As for the discography, I have a weird relationship with them. I love Whoracle, hands down the best IF release. Subterranean is a close second. I don't like anything after the big W, but I'll take Colony and STYE (funny ain't it) over Clayman any day of the week. In my books, STYE isn't nearly as bad as the albums that followed it, or RtR for that matters.
CC has two good tracks and the albums after that have done absolutely nothing for me.
So, yeah, I guess Anders to the sun sounds allrite.

My first guess would have been a complete performance of an album like Whoracle album or some such. But that wouldn't make a lot of sense as each of the characters is tied to a particular album.

According to a couple of interviews, a new album is probably going to be in the works by the end of this year for release in early 2014.

So that more or less rules out a new album for whatever this teaser is.

With each character representing a particular album it seems, it could be either a best of compilation or a live album. They do still play old stuff, they played quite a few old songs when I saw them in March.

As for their recent stuff - that's all a matter of perspective. I like their most recent couple of albums. I even dig STYE at times since that's one of the first In Flames albums I got. I can hear why fans of the older stuff would hate it though, it's so different from their classic albums. However they do the modern metal style moderately well, which cannot be said about Morbid Angel and their shoddy attempt at Industrial metal, or Cryptopsy and their failed deathcore album.

Maybe a box set à la that new Blind Giardian release... bundled with a comic book AND a video game!

I'm not particularly into any In Flames album, but I'd take Cryptopsy's deathcore or Illud Divinum over new In Flames by a fair margin.

As far as their new material goes, I don't mind the metal-core, but the faggy clean singing is what kills me. It's just so wimpy sounding... If they released a metal-core album with a bit more aggression, or something a la Lamb of God, well I'd be okay with that I think. Either way I am rather indifferent

I don't remember who said it, but someone here said it best when they said that trying to make a vocal-driven record with Anders Friden doing the singing could only be a bad thing. Doesn't help either that the music and songwriting on SoaPF kind of stunk.

You have to be one of the few ones who like those albums. But hey it’s a matter of taste so I have no problems with it.

Anyway, IF has played quite good modern metal in the recent years, I really like Reroute to Remain and Come Claritiy, the last one which was a quite inspired mixture between the old and new sound. The evolution sounds quite nautural in their compositions which I cannot say in the embarrassing albums of Morbid Angel and Cryptosy. Only wait and see how these bands are going to release albums returning to the old sound (as Cryptopsy has already done partially). On the other hand IF has continued releasing albums with this modern style because of the success and because they are happy doing this.

I think it's a two hour movie stating their return to playing melodic death metal. In Flames returns!

That doesn't seem like a jester to me, I would say that is a weapon he is holding, some type of polearm, and I don't see why they would depict a muscular jester (which doesn't necessarily mean muscular jesters have never existed).

Man, I take this over the wimpy IF any day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDpz4odGRP4

Illud might have some turds, but it also features some pure death metal tracks which are not so far from the style they've been doing and praised for. Are IF doing at least ocasionally some decent melodic death metal in the vein of their old albums? Anders knew about Korn and decided to rip off Jonathan Davis the hardest he could and the music is bland as a grandgrandgrandfather's penis.

Regarding the pics in a more serious way, I guess they might release a live DVD or something. To expect another Jester Race from these clowns is seriously hopeless and feeble.

Not intending to join this bandwagon for the sake of it but seriously In Flames started sucking so bad with 'Reroute to Remain' onwards. I, personally, didn't mind that album too much but it was terrible to see them take on the nu-metal sound. Everything after that was plain terrible, no originality, no good melodeath sound. Ugh. So in that regard, I quite agree with these folks why they'd choose Illud over In Flames' material from the last decade.

As far as these images go, yeah they look good and stylized but artwork doesn't mean shit if your music is godawful.

Kveldulfr

Its true that Morbid Angel´s last opus has some decent death metal songs, but these songs were quite mediocre if you compare them to the usual standards of the band. And the rest was shit. That album is a compilation of a nonsense, of a band which has not a fucking idea of what is doing.

You can hate IFs music but at least they knew what they wanted to do and the albums sounded/sound in a much more coherent way. They fucking belive in what they are doing(even it is a pile of shit), now just wait and we will see MA going back to the previos sound as Cryptopy is doing.

Nope, I thoroughly detest those albums.

It's sad to see so much hate for In Flames. I like all of their albums - even Sounds of a Playground Fading. You just have to take it for what it is.

Anyway, on topic:
Awesome fucking artwork! Especially like the raven.

Coming from someone who actually really likes A Sense Of Purpose, Sounds of a Playground Fading is a crappy album.... It's just one vapid mid paced groove after another while Anders spews forth his emo drabble. And yes, I take it for what it is. ASOP still has horrible lyrics (and vocals, but I really don't feel strongly about them one way or another) but I can forgive them for that because the guitar work on ASOP was their best since Clayman.

That's it! I never realised this. Now I can enjoy all the In Flames albums.

I take In Flames' output for what it is. That's precisely the reason why they bore me to tears, for the most part.

In Flames released another piece of artwork...

Quite surprising artwork, a great change from the previous albums work. And its a great idea to keep the interest in the band alive.

Maybe they're going to make a concept and/or theme album all about the Jester. That'd actually be kinda cool.

If its a return to their classic sound I'll probably throw myself off of a high building. I'm not holding my breath by why so many artwork snippets if its just a DVD?

Watch my throwaway joke guess be totally correct. Comic book is my official guess now. I've got forty pengo on it.

Artwork looks totally great, don't really give two shits about the band though. I'm with the folks saying its probably going to be a comic book.

Comic book would be my bet too OR an animated feature, something like a short film backed by their brand of music.

What would be the point of a comic book? And for that matter what the hell relation would it hold to the bad or their music?

It could(and should) be a very special mediabook edition with an extended booklet for a new album. The comic could ba visual representation of the concept of the album.

In my opinion this would be a great idea.

I like it when bands do get out of the way to do something extra for the fans. I'm not here to judge In Flames for their music and shit on them by saying that this a marketing gimmick to get their fans thinking that they're not obsolete. Maybe I'm implying that but seriously, for any band to do that with the right intention then I'd say it's great! Not sure if some of you are into Novembers Doom but their Novella Reservoir limited edition album release came with a really nice book (80 page+) adorned with some history, pictures etc. If bands can do that genuinely, sure fans would/should pay top dollar for such things.

In Flames tabletop rpg?

Maybe a boxset containing all their albums, remastered and with new artwork.

Goliath Disarm Their Davids?

i dunno if you've noticed, but in flames' fanbase tends towards that sort of shit. the overlap between their brand of half-metal and stuff like anime, comic books, cosplaying, games workshop, LARP, etc etc is massive. it has no relation to their music, of course, but that hasn't stopped anyone in the past, and i doubt it'll stop anyone anytime soon. manowar sells branded condoms on their website, after all.

edit: i'm betting on comic book now too.

In Flames hasn't put out "something big" since The Jester Race. And I still like everything up to and including Clayman. But that's just me. I'd like to see what they do next though so I can laugh at them.

But will the comic be written in their blood?

I hope it's not a live album, The Tokyo Showdown was lifeless and weak, and Used & Abused was no better, perhaps worse even if the quality of material isn't concerned. Unfortunately, much of the band's strongest material is strongly geared towards the studio, from the 3-4 guitar tracks of The Jester Race to the thick production of Clayman that gave the songs great power. Even a song like "Trigger" sounds weaker live, so I hope it isn't live material.

A comic book would be pretty cool though.

What I was trying to say was that if you listen to In Flames and expect to hear anything even remotely associated to DM you're gonna have a bad time. But if you want some pop with heavy guitars it's much, much better than most of the music thats played on the radio (at least here in Sweden).

First off: Manowar condoms, that's awesome and if I still needed condoms I would totally buy those. As for the comic book it sounds incredibly stupid and like another way for them to just cash in on being a crappy "modern metal" band. I seriously hope it isn't cause then I will lose the shred of respect I have left for them.

That last bit of artwork is awesome. I don't listen to this band aside from Colony (and that for the intro of the first track) but yeah it looks decent.