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Old 06-17-2011, 09:11 PM   #167 (permalink)
LOLPOCALYPSE
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Indiana
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Deckard View Post
Heavier does not mean better.
Certainly not. I was just pointing out that some newer albums were heavier than older ones in response to a general opinion I've noticed on MB and other sites. Some say the old stuff is was better because it was "heavier" and "true death" where as in many cases it isn't.

Anyway, if I were to rate my In Flames albums with the addition of the newest, I would do so this way:

Pre R2R:
1. Colony
2. The Jester Race
3. Whoracle
4. Clayman
5. Lunar Strain

I put Lunar Strain so low because Stanne's vocals hadn't developed yet, just like Anders had not yet developed in The Gallery with DT. Also the songs that were re-done later in Colony sound far better. I enjoy Colony quite a bit, for reasons I can't explain. The Jester Race is brilliant, as most would agree (my favorites are "Moonshield" and "Artifacts of the Black Rain"). Whoracle to me is great and similar to JR, but doesn't do it as well. Clayman is IMO the weakest of all In Flames albums aside from Lunar Strain.

R2R and on:
1. Come Clarity
2. Reroute to Remain
3. Sounds of a Playground Fading
4. A Sense of Purpose
5. Soundtrack to Your Escape

Come Clarity has a lot of variety and to me is the most distinctive post-R2R album and not overly synth-heavy. I think it was Anders best work as well. Reroute to Remain is surprisingly a great album despite being the band's transitional piece. Usually these transitional-stage records are a little weaker because the bands are trying to find their footing, but In Flames put forth an excellent piece. SOAPF is very good. The band finally found a way to augment the riffs with the synths/electronics rather than simply having them underlying the guitar. A Sense of Purpose didn't stand out to me as much as the others and had many emo-ish themes, but was solid. Soundtrack to Your Escape is easily the weakest of the group. It has a few excellent songs but much of it is very repetitive. The guitar is distorted in a way that makes the riffs boring to me, and the synths sound like they were just dropped in at the end of production and aren't incorporated well into the music.

Full Discography:
1. Colony
2. The Jester Race
3. Come Clarity
4. Reroute to Remain
5. Whoracle

To pick a top five I looked at the music as objectively as possible. Obviously if I based it on which albums were the most melodeath the list would have been different. But from solely a music standpoint, this is what I came up with.

After being able to give the newest a multiple listens, I would say it is a very good album. R2R haters...well...they have their minds made up already...but if you don't mind the newer stuff I would look into it. I wouldn't categorize it as melodic death, but rather alt metal. Some of the songs are even hard/alt rock songs, such as "Liberation". But even an In Flames hater would have to admit that it shows they can do hard/alt rock much better than most bands of those genres anyway, even though there isn't much added originality.
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