| Reviews for In Flames's Alias |
| Brain damaged victims of a car crash with amnesia - 10% |
| Written by Sigillum_Dei_Ameth
on November 4th, 2009
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| I really don't review singles because it's extremely limiting due to you're only talking about one song in many cases. That form of review should only be reserved for songs that have had an extremely large impact on whatever musical genre it has influenced. Songs like "Yakkity Yak", "Roadhouse Blues", "Ace Of Spades", "Man In the Box" are singles that are all songs that you know when you listen to them, you can almost see the entire genre of rock, classic rock, hard rock/heavy metal be laid out in front of you like a giant spider web/tree of the genres, sub-genres, off-shoots, etc. Now if it's one song off the album with two or three originals not found, then yes you have something to work with. But with the case of In Flames, it's almost like watching a bad car crash. Their singles are like the bumps in the road that make you edgy because you know something bad is going to happen. I am referring to their musical career. Ever since "Reroute To Remains" first two singles "Cloud Connected" and "Trigger", these two were red flags warning the driver. They must have seen all the signs they passed by that clearly said "WARNING: Dangerous Area", "Falling Rocks Ahead" but paid no attention. Shortly after the driver falling asleep behind the wheel "The Quiet Place" came and the car flew off the side of a cliff. Perfect nose dive down too. The victims(being the band members) were considered dead after the crash. Then "Come Clarity" and "Take This Life" showed the victims in a sort of daze. Now with "Alias" we see the victims walking out of the vehicle wandering around in complete shock not knowing where they are or even who they fucking are. I can't say this is the worst In Flames song that they have created, but it's a clear case of the members completely not knowing how to properly create Gothenburg metal. When I first heard the song I fucking swore it was AFI trying to play Gothenburg metal. The second that chorus kicks in it sounds like a bunch of Vans Warped Tour 16 year olds singing along. The single even carries a nice little pre-packaged radio edit and the music video which looks...just like an AFI music video minus the eyeliner. Until the next collision this band has or something else that merits a worst case scenario(and I don't know how many more this band has), the viewer can almost certainly watch in horror as the victims are left to an almost fatal end. |
| Well they use to be good - 30% |
| Written by linkavitch
on December 19th, 2008
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| In Flames is one of those bands that started out with potential to become an even greater band, but they failed at that. They came a long way, from Gothenburg to modern rock/metal. Still, they kept slipping up on their past 3 releases or so, and became kind of like a media type band now, or “poser metal”. You know bands like Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engaged, Slipknot, Korn and so forth. “Money Whores” I guess you could call them now. They first track on the “Alias” single is a radio edit version of the song so just skip it because well duh, why would you want to listen to an edited version of a song. Fuck the first track and just go to the second track which is the unedited version of “Alias”. Ok so the song itself is well…mediocre, but compared to their last 2 albums I guess you could call it a good song off their A Sense of Purpose album. The song itself is kind of on the slow tempo side. It’s not anything like a fast paced melodic death song that they might have done earlier in their career. It’s not a fast song and it also has some down right stupid lyrics, that’s a problem, especially since this is only one song were dealing with. Here is what the chorus looks like: Don’t believe the mask It attempts to lie, The perfect ten, When reality caves in Don’t tell me, Tell my ghost, Cause I blame him For all I don’t want to know Also the chorus repeats like 3 other times in the song, making a song that should be like 2:50-3:05 long more like 4:49 long. So I hope you like those lyrics because you will hear them about 4 times in the song. Well there is good production on it, but then again these days that’s not that hard to do know is it. With the single you also get a DVD with the music video of the song. It’s kind of hard to explain so ill just gives you a few details of it. It starts in slow motion with lights flaring on them. About 1:43 in it Anders is balancing on his head while singing, it’s incredibly cheesy. He also spends most of the time either standing up straight or on his knees screaming into the microphone. I also noticed that his beard doesn’t match his dreadlocks…he should shave more often. So this is a disappointment I guess. A disappointment like this kind of reminds me of the Buffalo Bills in the NFL. They were good in the 90’s and now they are just plain bad. It’s like “Fuck these guys I’m becoming a Jets fan” (or in music case Soilwork instead of Jets because they also changed their music style like In Flames.) If you’re a fan of new In Flames just buy their A Sense of Purpose album. Don’t even bother with this single. |