Sounds of a Playground Fading

With the release of this record, In Flames continue in the style of their great and diversified predecessor "A sense of purpose...". That means that they do further experimentations and get away from their death metal roots. Anybody that is waiting for the band to dig in its own past and come back to where they were might be disappointed by this release and should bury its hopes. But anybody that liked the more experimental tracks from the last album such as the modern and diversified single "Alias" or the overlong psychedelic ballad "The chosen pessimist" will adore this album. The modern electronic sounds of the single "Deliver us" should be a good idea for anyone if he or she should really check this album out. The great opener and title track that opens with a calm and spiritual melody that could also fit to a ballad by "Dream Theater" or "Metallica" and surprises with a heavily addicting chorus also gives a good hint at what we should expect to come further on this release.

I know that most metal maniacs won't like this. The ratings for this album might be very low in the near future and anything else would be a surprise to me. Those reviewers will tell you that the band forgets about its roots, sounds more like an alternative rock act, tends towards too commercial melodies, lacks of heaviness and writes strange lyrics about inner struggles and all those things are eventually right. But the band fact that this band tries out something new, does some great experimentations and continues its way even if a long time band member quit them and many fans were rather disappointed by the last records proves that they do what they like and don't do what we expect from them or what would be a commercial success.

The thing that changed in comparison to the last record is that the single tracks are less outstanding but that the album as a whole is very coherent and strong and no song sounds too similar to any other on here. I must also underline the diversified vocals that are more powerful and yet more diversified as before and don't sound as whiny as on the last record.

At some points, the band heads into an as experimental direction as the surprising last album from "Linkin Park" with electronic sounds in "Deliver us", atmospheric sound collages in "The attic" or the psychedelic experiment "Jester's Door". Clean vocal passages in the potential next single hits "Ropes" or the stunning closing "Liberation" where the band sounds as melodic and commercial and free from any metal boundaries as never before remind me of modern alternative rock acts such as the emotional "Thirty seconds to Mars", the more and more interesting "My Chemical Romance" and even the more progressive "Muse". Especially the second part of the album heads into such a direction and makes me think that the band could even go further into this direction on an upcoming record.

That doesn't mean that there are no more heavy riffs or scratched vocals like in "The puzzle" or "Enter tragedy" that should please to all fans of the band and that remind more of the songs of the last records. Some tracks also mix melodic death metal passages with surprising alternative rock passages and even orchestral arrangements like in the amazing "A new dawn" where the title indicated the style and direction. The changes are progressive on this record and not done in a radical way like "Linkin Park" did it. Anybody that listened to the last record should have been mentally prepared for this next step which is "Sounds of a playground fading". But any purist metal head that doesn't care at all about progressive alternative rock will have many problems to get an approach to this record.

In the end it really depends on how open minded you are if you are able to accept and eventually adore this record. Accept that you don't have a melodic death metal album in front of you but a potpourri of modern metal music with some major progressive metal and alternative rock influences that follow the style of the last record. As i liked the last record, I adore this album and this is a thing I never expected from a band like In Flames a few years ago when I was rather into heavy and power metal music. I have opened my mind and musically grown up and I think that this is a very refreshing piece of music that isn't comparable to any album I have in my collection until today. "Sounds of a playground fading" makes now a true In Flames fan out of me and I recently discovered their whole back catalogue which is different from what I hear here but very great in a different way. This record is a solid candidate for my top ten album list of the year 2011 and better than all those boring old fashioned bands such as "Saxon" or "HammerFall" or the revival groups such as "Hell" that bore me to death with their new nostalgic releases. But I let them live in their past while I listen to some modern music from time to time such as In Flames do with this record where I can't find one single filler. After a great last decade I'm now sure that the new decade will be musically as interesting and modern metal music must not hide in the shadows of the legendary eighties. I don't need to be wrongfully nostalgic as I feel happy to grow up in a time where music like this is made. This album is more than music, it's a statement and only a few chosen ones will follow In Flames on their way towards future records and I will surely be with them.

In Flames we trust!