Whoracle

After their major label debut and breakthrough release "The Jester Race", In Flames went on down the path they started to tread with one of their best albums to date, "Whoracle". Strong from a finally stable line-up (although both Glenn Ljungström and Johan Larsson would leave the band right after the recoring of the record) and willing to establish their status as one of the contenders for the Melodic Death Metal throne, the Swedish five-piece shows a more personal approach here: the NWOBHM influences are fewer and less apparent than on the previous album, the songs are generally more catchy although never predicatble or unoriginal and - sadly - gone are almost all the folk echoes of the band's underground days.

The first thing that must be noted is that "Whoracle" is actually a concept album. After the lyrical success showcased on "The Jester Race", Anders Friden and Dark Tranqullity's Niklas Sunding pushed their collaboration to a further level. The two men had a long series of dialogues concerning the patterns of human behavior in the present and past, with a rather disquieting glance at a possible future, and then Anders asked Niklas if he could cut the essential content of such discussions into verses, which he did. The result is a remarkable work of great deep content-wise, whose message interacts with the spirit of the music in an intimate coexistence that enhances the general emotive feedback. This brings us to another crucial point: no matter how catchy and uplifting the riffs may be - "Whoracle" is not a happy album. Lyrics deal with themes such as detrsuctive, false progress ("Jotun", "Jester Script Transifgured" and even "Gyroscope") and the lack of a coherent evolution in the human species ("The Hive" or "Morphing Into Primal"), and also embrace themes of isolation and suicide ("Food for the Gods"). In this respect, the surprising cover version of Depeche Mode's "Everything Counts", with its bitter tale of materialistic oppurtunism, comes across as the artist's finishing touch, as well as another document of the band's stylistic progression.

However, "Whoracle" doesn't fail to impress in the musical department either. This is where the typical In Flames sound and style came together as a whole, as the album opener "Jotun" witnesses: powerful guitar harmonies and varied dynamics between verses and choruses provide a solid, aggressive yet melodic texture which in turn incorprates harmonized guitar sub-riffs and powerful vocals. Anders switches from a semi-clean moaning in the verses to his trademark growl when the dynamics go up, closely following the variation in the arrangement as well as the lyrical content.
"Food for the Gods" rumbles along as groove-fueled riffmachine, packed with highly memorable melodic guitar interactions and perfected by Anders's intense performance, with Björn drumming the song's 12/8 rhythm in that typically Swedish doubled-tempo feeling pattern that At The Gates had been pioneering. The band uses this particular drumming in another song, "Morphing Into Primal", where they cleverly switch from 4/4 to 12/8 and back again while keeping the same beat pattern in the background; it's very disorienting at first but then again it's a great display of inventive and cohesive playing from the whole band.

There are also trademark In Flames headbanging numbers to be found here, and once again the strength of the material shines. "The Hive" is the album's most Classic Metal-influenced episode, and one of the band's greatest achievements in this direction. The song is built upon a generous amount of strong riffs as well as some interesting tonality tricks between the verses and the chorus, and also features one of the album's best solos (yes, it's a Randy Rhoads tribute what you hear).
"Episode 666" is equally rocksteady in its chugging, and more straight to the point than the previous one; its highly catchy factor has quickly elected it one of the band's longest lasting live staples, a status which it still holds to this day.
"Words Within the Margin" is slower and more "abstract", and also incoroprates promonent albeit basic keyboard lines for the first time in teh band's history.

"Whoracle" also sports a couple of slower and more acoustic based tracks, in the vein of the band's fan favourite "Moonshield". The first one, "Gyroscope", has been another standard live number since the album was released, and while not as onventive as other In Flames songs, it still has a good deal of strong melodic ideas going on; the clever arrangement, part from the classic switches between acoustic and electric moments, also includes some distant clean vocals in the chorus (apired with the growling in the foreground) and very good bass lines from Johan.
"Jester Script Transifgured", however, is where this formula reaches its expressive peak. Beautiful, acoustic filled verses backed by light vcoals and sitant clean guitar effects lead into the sonic explosion of the choruses, and back again. The middle section introduces a nice key change to enhance the variety, and a brief excursion from the track's 6/8 rhythm to a more square 4/4 creates the space for a short but overwhelmingly beautiful melodic solo. Check out the "reverse" effect on the acoustic break before the last chorus, and you'll see why this song ranks among the band's absolute masterpieces in my book.

Like its predecessor, the album has a couple of instrumentals to complete the picture. "A Dialogue With the Stars" is first, and it's quite simply one of the most amazing moments in the band's history. Built upon dual guitar harmonies from start to finish, the track also incorporates acoustic backgrounds in its progress, and despite its brief durationit also has a nice number of dynamic variations. I could play the minute between 1:05 and 2:05 forever, or almost, and I'm not kidding.
The second intrumental, the title track, is actually more of an outro rather than a "real" song, as it's just an acoustic melody backed by some percussion and backing femal chantings. Nothing groundbreaking, but a nice way to round off the album.
This just leaves us with the already mentioned cover of "Everything Counts"; the band did a great job in making it sound like one o ftheir songs without erasing all the spirit o fthe original, and although Anders's clean vocals in the chorus aren't his best he pulls off a memorable performance ("It's competitive wwwoooooorrrrrld!!") - after all he's a big Depeche Mode fan so he must have put all his heart into this song.

"Whoracle" is right up there with "The Jester Race" in my In Flames album ranking. I honestly can't pick one above the other, as I love each of them for its particular vibe. As with his predecessor, this works great as an introduction to the band's sound, and while essential for any fan of the genre, it's recommended to any other Metal fan all the same.