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Goatfangs
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 12:14 pm 
 

This September In Flames is releasing their 11th studio album. They are taking their sweet old time though, since they finished recording in January.

The album art has just been revealed along with some audio snippets - they are definitely teasing their fans.

www.inflames.com

To be honest, I think Siren Charms is an awesome album title. Going by album title alone isn't an indicator of how the album sounds, but the album art is pretty wicked. It reminds me of a John Baizley work, but it doesn't quite look like his style. It fits the album title - Sirens being magical bitches that sang really great and lured seafarers to their horrible deaths.

The audio snippet has been released in snippetlets since they announced the title. First it was just the acoustic intro (which reminds me of Sounds of a Playground Fading) then that chugga-chugga riff that reminded me of Soundtrack To Your Escape. In fact, I thought it was taken from one of the STYE songs, but no, that's definitely part of the first single. The album art reveal showed more of it in context, so it seems to precede a pretty sweet guitar solo.

In Flames have been teasing this album in one way or another through social media for what seems like a whole freaking year. The #IF2014 and #SC hashtags, the latter of which has been a bit of a mystery, have been posted on facebook and probably twitter for a while now. They claim this is their best album they ever did (but then again doesn't every band want to say that about their upcoming album?) I doubt that's true, but it wouldn't be impossible for it to be the best album later In Flames did, or the best album post-Jesper In Flames did.

It's going to be a long wait for some, since the release is five months away, but I want to keep this thread going until September at least, so please hold your "LOL IN FLAMES SUX" comments. Or at least construct them in a way that isn't just retarded like "LOLOL IN FLAMES SUX0RZ". Negative opinions are welcome as long as it doesn't derail the thread.

I'm not sure if a thread like this has been created already, however I haven't seen any. Since this has been teased for a while - before they even announced The Jester's Curse series of comics, there might have been a thread.
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druivo
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Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2014 10:15 am
Posts: 80
PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 2:32 pm 
 

cool, i still like in flames, even though, YES, their best material is from the debut up to clayman, IMHO.

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ClaymanOnFire
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Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2011 8:13 pm
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 3:52 pm 
 

You're right about that STYE, that riff was lifted from Superhero of the Computer Rage.
http://youtu.be/g9ko2QB4MsM?t=2m59s

Yeah, album title and art is pretty cool, but that little teaser just sounds like what they've been doing for a while. I'm not expecting much, but I'll be following this just for old time's sake. In Flames was responsible for lifting me out of metalcore.
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henkkjelle
Metal freak

Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2011 3:54 pm
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Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 4:02 pm 
 

That teaser sounds a hell of a lot better than anything on Playground Fading though.
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MorbidEngel
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Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 9:37 pm
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Location: New Jersey
PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 4:13 pm 
 

IMO, In Flames jumped the shark with Soundtrack to Your Escape.

That being said, this might be good. Hopefully it is
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Folkemon_
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:40 pm 
 

Ive no expectations for this album, stopped listening after Come Clarity, which i doubt they'll top (post clayman i mean).

Come Clarity is a decent album which mixed modern with a bit of old, they really got worse again after that.
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Zodijackyl
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Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:39 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 8:07 pm 
 

Goatfangs wrote:
The audio snippet has been released in snippetlets since they announced the title. First it was just the acoustic intro (which reminds me of Sounds of a Playground Fading) then that chugga-chugga riff that reminded me of Soundtrack To Your Escape. In fact, I thought it was taken from one of the STYE songs, but no, that's definitely part of the first single. The album art reveal showed more of it in context, so it seems to precede a pretty sweet guitar solo.


I'm a bit disappointed that they don't seem to be building on "A Sense of Purpose" because the melodic but guitar-heavy and self-conscious rock direction seemed to work well on that one. I think their biggest failure has been that somewhat before, but especially on STYE, they went very keyboard-heavy while not having a keyboard player in the band, and it seems like the songs are composed with the keyboards being both in the forefront and an afterthought in composition. I think they worked them in very well with their producer and longtime collaborator Fredrik Nordstrom on their 80s-worship album "Colony" but Orjan Ornkloo has never really felt like a part of the band. Dark Tranquillity succeeded in the same way, but it felt like In Flames diminished the role of the guitars without really wanting to fully reconcile the direction they were going in. While I like Bjorn, "Sounds" seemed to really suffer from single-songwriter syndrome, while the band thrived on a variety and interplay of guitarists. Writing a "vocal-driven" album with Anders Friden singing was also wretched, and that one totally felt like the guitars had already been resigned to half-assing grooves and letting the keyboards lead, then tried to let the vocals take the front even more, and they completely phased out the characteristic elements that made the guitar work of In Flames so special. It's like melodies were killed in several phases.

Every album since "Clayman" has also been too long. I understand that variety is essential to composing a coherent full-length album, but the last five albums have had some material that really should've been cut.

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ClaymanOnFire
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Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2011 8:13 pm
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:37 pm 
 

I agree 100% with you, Zodi. ASOP was my favorite post-Clayman album, too. And on your last point, it was funny that ASOP included some bland filler yet The Mirror's Truth EP contained some of their best stuff in a very long time.
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ghroth
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:19 am
Posts: 151
PostPosted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 2:44 am 
 

Pretty spot on comments, Zodijackyl. The thing I've never understood about modern In Flames is the prevalence of keyboards. I remember reading interviews back in the Clayman/RTR days where they said they wanted to drop the guitar harmonies because they couldn't be accurately reproduced live. But ever since then, they've written these songs with prominent lead keyboards, multiple vocal layers in the choruses, etc... It makes NO sense.

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Oddeye
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Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:24 pm
Posts: 2281
Location: Sweden
PostPosted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 6:45 am 
 

I guess I'm one of the few here who likes Sounds of a Playground Fading. Even if it's not as heavy as the rest of the discography it contains some great songs.

Though I agree with everyone that the post Clayman-material is worse than the early discography though, my personal favourite being Colony.

With that said I am looking forward to the new album.

Oh, and if you want some great melodic death metal that doesn't sound like In Flames, check out Jesper Strömblad's other band Dimension Zero. They are friggin awesome.

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ghroth
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Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:19 am
Posts: 151
PostPosted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 2:03 pm 
 

There were some decent riffs and melodies on Sounds, but the awful clean vocals and prominence of chug riffs really ruin the whole album for me. I don't understand why Anders Friden got it in his head that he's a singer.

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ClaymanOnFire
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:20 pm 
 

The tracklist was released on Facebook:
01. In Plain View
02. Everything’s Gone
03. Paralyzed
04. Through Oblivion
05. With Eyes Wide Open
06. Siren Charms
07. When The World Explodes
08. Rusted Nail
09. Dead Eyes
10. Monsters In The Ballroom
11. Filtered Truth

Quick, did you see that? Those were my expectations.
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Paganbasque
Metal freak

Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:28 am
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 4:07 am 
 

I am a huge fan of albums like Come Clarity and Reroute to Remain, I also liked the last two albums though they were clearly worse.

I would like if they recover some strenght and speed in their compositions and some more poweful vocals.

The little teaser doesnt say too much, perhaps it sounds too similar to the last albums but its too short to judge it properly. The album cover loooks nice.

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Oddeye
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:24 pm
Posts: 2281
Location: Sweden
PostPosted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 5:52 am 
 

Am I the only one who thinks that the cover for the Rusted Nail single is much better than the album artwork?

Image

vs

Image

In my opinion the single artwork is ten times better.

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lupin99
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 12:58 pm
Posts: 251
PostPosted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:31 pm 
 

I am really excited, Ive always enjoyed In Flames old and new. Hopefully it will be good.

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ghroth
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:19 am
Posts: 151
PostPosted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 11:10 pm 
 

I definitely like the aesthetics of the single cover art more, but the concept is kind of weird. Is it supposed to be a hybrid of a ghost ship and a...shark?

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CF_Mono
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Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2010 5:21 pm
Posts: 1793
PostPosted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 11:21 pm 
 

I agree, the single artwork is leagues better haha. Too many bands settle with just slapping a generic quasicircular design in the middle of the cover.

Spoiler: show
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cultofkraken
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 12:04 am 
 

Anyone think Soundtrack to Your Escape gets a bit of a bum wrap? I really don't like much of anything past Clayman but STYE at least has some enjoyable writing and heaviness. It's sort of a guilty pleasure but I find it a great album to work out to.
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ghroth
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Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:19 am
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 12:23 am 
 

cultofkraken wrote:
Anyone think Soundtrack to Your Escape gets a bit of a bum wrap? I really don't like much of anything past Clayman but STYE at least has some enjoyable writing and heaviness. It's sort of a guilty pleasure but I find it a great album to work out to.


Haha STYE is the only In Flames album I COMPLETELY hate. It was the extreme of their nu metal leanings, barely has any good melodies, has the worst Anders vocals, etc... Plus the production is atrocious. I don't know what the hell they were thinking.

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~Guest 171512
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Oct 09, 2008 9:18 am
Posts: 2099
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 12:48 am 
 

Holy shit, did they get Stephen Gammell to do the artwork for the single?

Edit: Evidently not, according to the info on MA, but holy shit does that look exactly like something out of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

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OzzyApu
Metal freak

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:11 am
Posts: 10821
Location: Seattle
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 11:57 am 
 

If anyone remembers the movie James and the Giant Peach, then that single cover reminded me of the shark from that. Don't care for the music, though.
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sparklewhooves1
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Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 1:44 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 7:55 pm 
 

I just can't get into In Flames, i'll admit Jester Race was an alright album but in all truth i just can't get into their new stuff.
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Morfiend
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Joined: Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:54 pm
Posts: 701
Location: WA
PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2014 2:03 pm 
 

They lost me after Clayman but what a great run from Lunar Strain up until that point. The Jester Race is still one of my favorite metal albums.
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Murtal
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Joined: Fri May 02, 2014 12:48 pm
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PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2014 9:35 am 
 

Waiting it!!! :thumbsup:

I liked "sounds of playground fading"

and I think that this "in flames" new style albums are great,like old
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Goatfangs
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 12:37 pm 
 

http://www.inflames.com/whywait/

This page has a snippet of the new single Rusted Nail that displays what the vocals sound like.

Anders Friden cannot sing for shit.

The guitarwork is decent though, despite the chugging being a total rip off of one of their earlier (STYE era) songs.
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ClaymanOnFire
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:23 pm 
 

I actually thought the cleans were decent. That little bit of screaming though... troubling.
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Evoken
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:31 pm 
 

Well that sounded awful.

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VampireofTheNazereth
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Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2012 2:14 pm
Posts: 102
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:37 am 
 

New full track has been released on spotify, but only to scandanavian countries.
However, you can search and listen on youtube.



Jesus christ. What the hell happened? I thought the last album was good, but this is bad (at least right now).
It's like they recycled riffs, and copied and pasted a bunch of vocal parts.

I knew they would go this direction after the psuedo-rock song "Liberation" that ended the last album. They actually sound like Passenger (anders side project), but not as good.

What do you all think?

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ClaymanOnFire
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:01 am 
 

That was so much worse than I expected. This song just sounds so uninspired. Riffs don't lead into the other, there's no tension or excitement, and the chorus wasn't even catchy (which is about the nicest thing you could say of the last album).

The only interesting part was the little intro with clean guitars. But like everything else, it ended up going no where. This is by far the worst In Flames has been. You could almost say it puts the last (rusted) nail in the coffin. *snickers and and cries*
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adace
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Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 10:30 pm
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Location: USA
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:36 am 
 

I actually enjoyed the last album but this doesn't have me excited at all. Really boring and uninspired.

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Deviante
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:59 pm
Posts: 651
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 3:53 am 
 

Hahaha, I've never really been a fan of these guys but decided to give the new song a listen anyway... Well, that was laughably bad. Very disjointed, very boring chugga riffage, no catchiness, no impact - the vocals being super weak on top of that. At least their stuff like Colony was catchy.
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henkkjelle
Metal freak

Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2011 3:54 pm
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Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:17 am 
 

You guys are making it sound worse than it actually is. It's still not much, but I prefer this to yet another half-assed attempt to rekindle the magic of their earlier records. A Sense Of Purpose was the only modern In Flames album that (partly) succeeded in this.

Remember the first Playground single? That was much worse than this.
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puggy
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Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2013 7:08 am
Posts: 79
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:30 am 
 

I liked Björn's soloing. Mostly disappointed though.
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Bicro
Metal newbie

Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 1:21 pm
Posts: 88
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 6:35 am 
 

I'm gonna buy this because I have the rest of their discography. In Flames fan fo lyfe!

Seriously though, I'm in the minority that actually enjoyed SoaPF. May not do it for most, but it sounds okay. It's an odd thing to say, because I cannot stand Soilwork or Dark Tranquility. There's always been something about IF that vaulted them above their peers. Who knows?

Full disclosure: I consider Reroute to Remain and Soundtrack to Your Escape to be the low marks in their catalog. Everything Come Clarity and after has been fine for what it is. (Quite fond of CC)

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Folkemon_
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Location: Triggered
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 8:35 am 
 

Oh god it sounds like half Korn half STYE In Flames.
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themicrulah
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Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:00 am
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 9:34 am 
 

Sounds like total shit. This band got me into metal and they are pure mallcore garbage now.
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sushiman
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Joined: Wed Nov 26, 2008 10:41 pm
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:00 am 
 

I got quite excited when I, just for fun, tried the preview. Haven't bothered even trying to listen to anything from 'em since the one after Soundtrack, but with the cool guitar leads I thought maybe I'd missed something. Based on the rest of the song sadly not, though it's an improvement over that previous one I heard. Friden is the problem. Not only does he seem to look more and more like Jonathan Davis, his vocal performances seem to have been totally awful ever since Soundtrack. Maybe before, my knowledge of their discography post-Jester Race and Black Ash Inheritance is shaky.

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Goatfangs
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:51 am 
 

That song was awful to say the least. But every In Flames album has had several absolutely awful songs that they felt were single-worthy or whatever.

But that has to be the most annoying vocal performance from Anders Friden I have ever heard. That's saying a lot since I can tolerate him to a degree even on STYE. The riffs and song sounded disjointed and pasted together, not even Bjorn's solo seems to fit in place.
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Schmengie
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Posts: 517
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:58 pm 
 

I wouldn't go so far as to call it nu metal, nor do I think Friden is half as terrible a vocalist as he is made out to be. However, I will agree that this feels rather unremarkable and extremely "safe". It's basically straight alternative metal, which, as a base template, is quite fine, but needs more ingredients. It's just rather bland. Very "been-there-done-that".

But In Flames singles aren't typically album highlights, and I would like to hear more before dismissing this latest effort.
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A Backwards 6
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Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:38 am
Posts: 183
PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 7:12 am 
 

Friden really pisses me off. Is he the big chief of the band and nobody dares to fire him as he deserves? He ruined the whole band to me. Any melodeath singer would be a better replacement ffs.

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