Reroute to Remain

I've never been the biggest fan of In Flames. Forgive me for not fellating them for the most part of the late 90's when they were supposed to be the daughters of the metal community when just because they are Swedish means all attention should be focused towards them. I think there should be certian laws place in the said metal community that if one doesn't pay much attention to a certian band that is doing the right thing, don't ostricize him whenever he speaks his mind. God forbid a metal head should speak his mind under any reason other than fellatting a band in sheep-like manner.

With that said, when In Flames' "Reroute To Remain" came out I knew what to expect. I KNEW what the band sounded like before and I knew what to expect when I first purchased because I was reading a lot of mostly scathing, but a good percentage of decent reviews based on the album's change of pace. So I kept an open mind completely un-biased towards them and sat down to listen to it pretty thoroughly. Surprised to say I didn't find too much wrong with the album because I knew what In Flames was trying to do; take their Gothenburg sound and try to find a place snug-like next to Disturbed in an attempt to gain new fans.

Let's get to the musicians. Guitarists Jesper Strömblad and Björn Gelotte may not be "teH bEstEst eva!" but that's not to say they know what they are doing. They are completely highly-skilled guitarist who can easily perform riffs up there with the classics such as "...And Justice For All", "Bomber", or even "Fear, Emptiness, Despair", but albums that this certian LP cannot touch for the sole fact that a lot of songs where Jesper and Bjorn trying so hard to SOUND hard when they end up repeating a lot of un-necessary riffs that in turn only rise to the level of filler songs. Even the drummer and bassist(Daniel Svensson and Peter Iwers) whom I don't pay much attention to are providing the heavy bottom end to their well-constructed Swedish melodies when Jesper and Bjorn are completely on. It's just the lead singer Anders Fridén that brings the band down from FULLY realizing their potential. Even with his best performance on "The Jester Race", he lacked the gruffness and conviction to REALLY push that album over the edge. Here on "Reroute To Remains", it is apparent that he's taken a certian likeness to Korn due to his whiny fucking vocals. I mean there are parts where he stills sounds ok, but then other parts where I just want to smack him in the back of the head and ask him was he born without testosterone. But this is all due to the fact that it's more acceptable for front men of Metal bands to show more of their feminine side these days then say 15 years ago. Also there are some guest musicians on "Reroute To Remain" such as Örjan Örnkloo providing keyboards and synths that definitely give it it's catchy pop sensibilities and the amazing Fiol-Olof whom I'll discuss more later on.

Sound production and artwork is going to be obvious with In Flames. Squeaky clean sound and hi-glossy printed artwork. I mean they're not going to put out any album that has a balls-ripping raw sound like Morbid Saint or even something dirty and grimy like early 90's Ministry because they are European and they are soooo beyond that "basement sound". Whatever, fuck them. Keep on progressing with your Pop Rock productions and see where it gets you.

I wont go into a song-by-song review for many reasons. Mainly because with In Flames you know what to expect. The songs presented are half and half. Half are them are really good and very catchy while the other half ride between filler and just annoying. Here's the evidence;

Good: Title track, "Trigger", "Cloud Connected", "Metaphor", "Free Fall", "Dark Signs" and "Black And White" where we see what I refer to them as Disturbed going Swedish. In fact this is probably the best song Disturbed didn't write. It's still a good song nonetheless. This batch of songs shows In Flames do everything correctly when it comes to direction, groove, how well everything flows. General good songs. 5 to 10 points a piece.

Bad: "Dismiss The Cynics", "Transparent", "Dawn of A New Day", "Minus", and "Egonomic". Now that last song I mentioned is because it's one of those fast songs for the sake of being fucking fast and In Flames has to at least always put one or two fast songs on every album since they turned for the worst due to the fact that they still want be perceived as Gothernburg metal. Other reasons for a song might be put here is that the song doesn't know what the fuck it wants to be and this is mainly due to Anders wanting to try to sound serious and yet sounding whiny as fuck at the same time. Also we see more Korn/Disturbed riffs pop-up in places where they don't need to be. Regardless of them being bad I'll still the songs a point each for trying.

Ugly: "System". Fuck this shit. Anders is a whiny little bitch at times, but here I can imagine him standing in a Morrissey-like posture, staring at the ground all doe-eyed, cradling the microphone with his limp wrists trying to sound all "deep" and "emotional". Then we see In Flames going COUNTRY! Starts out with a nice little folk-like acoustic and then comes Anders' whiny fucking vocals again and....what the fuck.....country-inspired violins. Now after a few listens it doesn't sound completely annoying, where it goes more into a completely listenable break from 1:50 to 2:32 but it doesn't belong on a Metal album. Fiol-Olof is talented. She can go from folk-ish melodies to country twang to a more classical sound at the drop of a hat. But it doesn’t sit well on the album. Sorry. I live in the south and it's bad enough. No points. Sorry.

Well, bottom line is that I am in a generous mood considering that I pained myself to sit through the new Five Finger Dick Plower album so when comparing the two albums, this one sounds NOTHING like that in terms of sheer shittiness. It’s not that bad of an album folks. C minus grade.