Well, it's certainly not going to win over In Flames critics...

Anders' clean vocals have improved a little bit from Siren Charms but I think his screams are getting progressively worse.

I really liked the opening riff.

However, is it me or is the drumming just... weak?

I have a feeling that Battles will be another mixed bag. That sucks, but it also means there will be some songs on there that are throwbacks. That's why I liked Sounds of a Playground Fading - there were several throwbacks on that album (such as "A New Dawn").

The album art of Battles is cool looking though.

I absolutely love this statement right here:



Nice to see they're finally coming out and admitting that their MO as of late has been to write songs for scene kids to cut themselves to. Honesty is the best policy, after all.

Also, the song sucks something fierce. Big surprise, I know.

It's better than Siren Charms. That's not a hard thing to accomplish so I'm not going to give them any credit for that. The only thing I like about the song is the childrens choir fortifying the chorus. Anders voice is far to weak to handle choruses by himself and it's one of the main reasons Siren Charms fell flat on it's face. The choir adds a little bit of character and freshness to the sound. The rest of the song is boring. Consisting of half assed throwback riffs and boring chugga chugs.

Battles is going to be better than Siren Charms....... Congrats?

First 20 seconds and the solo thats like a total of 35-40 seconds of ok music. Anders is better at singing which is not saying much, but his screams suck again not saying much. And if you think that this song is bad then I cant begin to imagine what you would think of the other song from the single called "The Truth".

I will give the album a casual listen, but for now I'm thinking it wont be any good. Still the cover art is kinda cool, better than most of previous albums

Yeah, that song sucked. I fully expect the rest of the album to be similarly crappy.

I heard "The Truth"

Yeah, it's more on the lines of Siren Charms stuff. It sounded freaking weird. Overdubbed Anders' vocals.

However I like the solo and some of the harmonies done in the middle of the song.

And I was thinking about "The End"... they are kinda going back to their lyrical roots.

They mention "space".

Heh.

It has been "interesting" to tap back into In Flames after all this time. I listened to Lunar Strain A LOT back when it was released. I still have fond memories of The Jester Race, and even Whoracle is an enjoyable (and nostalgic) listen for me. I recall always appreciating the lyrics from Mr. Sundin. I never purchased anything after Whoracle ... oops, I take that back ... looking at my archive, I did buy Colony when it came out. I remember thinking that it just did not feel the same, and pretty much lost interest in them. I think it was the vocals that turned me off the most ... I could never deal with the cleans. I remember liking a song called Resin because it sounded a little more like I was used to, and the vocals had a nice edge to them still. Listening to this brand new song that just came out, I do not think I would even be able to recognize it as In Flames, to be honest. Just my opinion, but it sounds like a radio tune. Melodic, sure ... but so are a lot of bands, and this feels very weak. The vocals are atrocious, and lack any of the feral quality that I was used to. The clean vocals ... just need to go away. I actually feel embarrassed when I hear them.

^ I actually liked Colony, but that was the last album for me - none of that Clayman shit. Anders was never a good vocalist, but he made it work well enough back then.

Wow, this song is actually amazing. Said no one ever.

[Update: Nah they still do.]

Never doubt about

I dug out my copy of Colony to give it a listen after all this time. Much of the material on here is better than I remembered. There are a few sections where the vocals just ruin it, though, and that must be what I recalled the most. I have actually always quite liked Anders vocals/growls from back in the early days. They always had a genuine, desperate, 'wildness' to them ... to my ear. I just listened (or attempted to listen) to some of the Clayman to see what happened to them right after they fell off of my radar ... yikes ... completely embarrassing.

The Thruth is pretty catchy, I must admit. It wont be such a different album but I have the feeling that it will be better than Siren Charms, which is quite easy haha.

Still sounds like that whiny emo melometal, alternative teens will gobbled it all up. Get out your A Nightmare Before Christmas gloves and raise the fists.

Now that's an insult to The Nightmare Before Christmas to be associated with modern In Flames.

For shame, volute. FOR SHAME, I SAY.

Meh, some friends and I tried to watch that movie last Christmas and we ended up turning it off about 20 minutes in. Got no problem with volute's comment.

In Flames have never sucked but some of their so-called fans sure have for quite some time now. I get it, they haven't released anything good since ''Clayman'', they make whiny alternative rock with trendy electronic samples, simplistic pop choruses and overtly emotional lyrics and they look like hipsters with all their beards and tattoos. Year after year and album after album, I get to see the same comments by the same people. If you think this band has sucked for sixteen years in a row now, why do you still bother about that group and try to convince those who are enjoying it that the band is abysmal? Are you so jealous of the band's commercial success that your true metal heart just can't take it and you are unable to shut your mouth? Really, I'm curious why the numerous haters still feel the need to follow this band and review its albums. And no matter what people on these archives say, mallcore doesn't exist as a genre and even if you don't like it, bands such as In Flames are still metal.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I reviewed Siren Charms solely because of your review, actually. I didn't like the tone where you assumed everyone who hated it was some elitist snob who only liked metal, so I heard it, rightfully thought it was absolute shit, and eventually reviewed it. It was pure spite and took me exactly the time of one lunch break on a work day, so no skin off my nose there.

That's perfectly fine but it doesn't explain why you still post in an In Flames thread in 2016 if you consider the band's most recent records utter crap. The question is: Why do so many people still care about the band today?

By the way, I still stand by what I wrote in that review. I could basically copy and paste the opening paragraph for a review of the upcoming album and it would still be true in my book. I won't do that however, I will choose something else. Don't feel obliged to waste another lunch break for another review of a band that you despise though

I still haven't read one single solid review that compares In Flames' new style to another band of that style that the reviewer honestly appreciates and explains why In Flames' sound is inferior (simply mentioning shitty lyrics or crybaby vocals are too subjective to be convincing since people who purchase the band's records obviously feel they suit the overall sound and style). Not everyone but a stunning majority of people really simply give closed-minded elitist arguments describing the band angrily as traitors who make music for teenage girls with Borderline personality disorder or similar crap which proves that these people don't know much about both the new generation of teenagers and mental disorders.

I like the album cover, but the title is kind of shit for me. Battles? Come on...

Haven't heard the new song. Listening to Insomnium right now. I'll be back in a few.

I posted in here a few times because I can and nobody can stop me.

And honestly, your review basically laughing at 'metal nerds' for hating the band's change in style is plenty elitist all its own. It's a two way street. "The plebeian metalheads who hate this just can't appreciate the erudite majesty behind it..." My review compares it to Muse and Depeche Mode though, two bands I like a lot.

Well of course you can do whatever you like. I would never even question this. I'm just curious about the motivations behind being still interested in a band whose last record wasn't even worth one single percent for you. If I think about records that would be worth zero percent, bands like Sabazius or Sloth come to my mind or the last Manowar album. Personally, I wouldn't spend any more time on any of these bands. But In Flames seems to be a band people seem to love to hate.

I'm aware that my review was provocative and elitist. That was actually my goal. After that band received so much cheap criticism, I felt like fighting back on a similar rhetoric level and exposing the stereotypes of many critics which are sadly shockingly close to reality.

Why does there have to be a motivation? Why can't it simply be, "oh, I heard their new track and I liked it. good for them".

I'm exclusively talking about the majority of people here who continue to bash the band. If Sabazius, Sloth or Manowar were to release a new song, I wouldn't even listen to it at this point. I'm just wondering why people are so masochist to keep listening to music they have hated for a whopping sixteen years by now. I'm just being curious.

You're also being deliberately insulting and elitist, by your own admission. So you're not "just" being curious.

Sabazius 0%? Are even into drone metal, kluseba?

As I said before, Sabazius aren't even worth to be discussed in my opinion. This would be a waste of time.

I'm simply being curious right now. Once I got some answers (or an absence of answers as well), I might have some conclusions and then I might be more than curious.

Edit: By the way, the new review by Napalm_Satan summarizes all the stereotypes of a butt-hurt critic I have mentioned in my review of the same album and in my first post on this page today. I guess he just wants to get some attention but thanks for confirming my opinions. The funniest thing is the comparison to Soilwork whose tracks on the last record all sound the same without any changes at all.

Its the same thing as Star Wars. Most people hate the prequels and some even the sequel, but we still have a connection to the band because they were so important once. For a lot of people, the early In Flames was the first death metal they ever heard and introduced them to this whole world.

I get that people are very obnoxious sometimes and should stop trolling the band on Facebook because they don't give a fuck about any of it, but it should make sense perfectly why people think this way because what the band is doing today is basically the polar opposite of what a lot of people loved them for.

They're not just doing it today. They have been doing it for sixteen years. I understand why some people dislike what they are doing. However, at a certain point, one has to get used to it. The band just won't release a record like ''The Jester Race'' again, ever. And some of those who criticize the band for what they are, weren't even old enough to grow up with the band's first records. I might not sympathize with them but I can understand veterans who are thirty-five years old and grew up adoring ''Whoracle'', ''Colony'' and ''Clayman'' but I can't understand someone who is seventeen or so praising ''the good old days''.

Who's the elitist now?

But in all seriousness, that's just a testament to the timelessness of those albums, and how important they were for many people. The same can be said, obviously to a much larger extent, for Metallica, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, as well as Death, Bathory, Mercyful Fate, etc. And basically any widespread cultural phenomenon, like Star Wars as I said...it's the same way. It's just something universal to culture itself, we have a connection to the product itself, the timeframe of when it came out is totally irrelevant.

Oops, another of those threads!
P.S: I like the OP's update to the title:

Update part made me giggle at work. I enjoy giggling at work.

I agree with what True Death said. People care about this band because they have fond memories of them when they were still good and still relevant, and they once connected with their material.

When they can no longer connect with their music, or their music no longer possesses the great qualities it once did, people find that to be disappointing. It can be frustrating. Like following the 49ers or the Cowboys during their Super Bowl era 25 years ago, and trying to root for them now. Myself, I haven't cared what this band has been up to in over 10 years, haven't even listened to any of their new stuff (except for a couple tracks on the radio which were, well, decidedly mediocre), and I don't plan to. but I still dig their old stuff and probably always will.

This was me

Also, Kluseba is the equivalent of ANTIFA in regards to elitism in metal.

If it hurts kluseba, I think it's plenty worth reviewing and talking shit about more In Flames albums. Carry on then.

You sound butthurt more than anyone.

So basically, most of you guys are telling me that you are unable to give up on the band because of some fond teenage memories because that band introduced you to extreme metal? That's like jerking off to an ex-girlfriend you had fifteen years ago and that has become really ugly as time went by. I certainly wouldn't do that. I would look for a new one instead and even if I couldn't find one, I wouldn't dwell on the past. But to each his own

@Metantoine: Once you compared me to Lord Durham and now to ANTIFA. Interesting. What's next? As long as it isn't Donald Trump or his equivalent from Quebec, Pierre Karl Péladeau, or some Third Reich asshole, I guess I'm gonna take it

No matter how crudely and ham-fistedly people have been writing about recent In Flames, they're effectively acting as critics in the community. I don't bother reading it anymore, because it really is a dead horse, but not only it can be quite cathartic to read harsh criticism of a band that has completely embarrassed themselves in terms of musical integrity - not just by embracing the mainstream, but by choosing a very low common denominator at that, and struggling for relevance now, humorously enough - and secondly, given the false advertising as seen in the press releases for this new song (reflected in the thread title), it's a good sign that this kind of publicity is met with ridicule.

You must be very insecure about your own tastes to display such thin skin. Let people have their fun, and don't be so insulted about opinions.

A Blaze in the Butthurt Sky
Blood Fire Butthurt
Butthurt from the Heavens
Butthurtfleet
The IVth Butthurt
Ride the Butthurt
Transcendence into the Butthurt
Unquestionable Butthurt

That said, I'm in concurrence with Ilwhyan.