A Journey Through Bands - In Flames

Because of the extreme amount of ass-kissing and good feedback, I've decided to give this, "Journey" a second go. If you got shitty comments, or generous words please leave them at the bottom.

In my life, there are thousands of bands I love to listen to, and choosing just one for a review is hard, so I decided to start where, well, my musical journey started, namely; In Flames. Where are they today? Well, they're super duper pink-fluff popular, and one of the most recognized bands in metal history. Compared to all of the new Death/Thrash/Technical Metal bands, they're not what I would call very innovative, but they used to be pioneers within their genre. Wherever you go, you can mention their name and there will be someone who'll make a hearty cheer of approval, or someone who'll go into great lengths describing their downfall. In any case, In Flames has made their mark upon musical history, and they were the ones who made sure music became an important part of my life.

I can still remember that day. I was fifteen, with no musical preference, at, all... I didn't know the difference between Iron Maiden and Slayer, and the hardest thing I would listen to was Metallica. I went in to our local music store, without any real purpose, just browsing.. Then I saw the cover depicted above, and I thought to myself: "Huh, this looks interesting". I pulled the CD down from the shelf, and told the store manager I wanted to give it a listen. He worked his obscure magic, gave me a pair of the shittiest, most horribly gruesome headphones I'd ever seen, and put on the album for me to enjoy.

When "Bullet Ride" hit my eardrums, I can remember vaguely my knees loosing the ability to keep me standing straight. I was so stunned by the amount of musical jizz that was getting pumped into my brain that I was no longer paying attention to the world around me. I maxed out the volume and just stood there. I couldn't understand the lyrics, I had never heard anyone just yell words into a microphone, the anger, the angst... In Flames had musically purified me, and opened a whole new world for me to explore. I paid the capitalist swine his money, and hastened myself home so that I could continue listening to this new wonder I had discovered.

To this day, I can't seem to remember having an experience that powerful except maybe my first self-inflicted orgasm, or my first cigarette. Anyway, as I was saying. In Flames had set my life on a whole new course. They empowered my exact feelings with their senseless screaming and melodic music, and it felt good. In fact, it felt so good, that for the next year, I would listen to nothing but that album. I was a fanboy. I remember just tripping around, waiting for their next album, listening to older albums, jerking off with their music in the background... It followed me everywhere I went.

Then came the downfall.

For the next decade, In Flames kept creeping down my musical ladder. Their new albums which seemed incapable of giving me the same mental stimuli, made me grow bored with whatever new shit they came up with. "Reroute to Remain" was powerful, "Soundtrack to your Escape" came close, but after that it just went downhill. It seemed like the world was creeping towards a new age where Death Metal was taking over, but In Flames lagged behind without ever seeming to really WANT to keep up. Their anger had disappeared, their original sound was gone and replaced with sob-stories, lame energy and a vocalist who just didn't seem to be that into it anymore... They just seemed to churn out albums because that's what people expected of them. 

So what happened? You know what, I don't really give a shit what happened. I still feel that tingling inside me when I hear that they're about to release a new album, but in the end I'll be like that kid who's told Santa isn't real. The hurt, it's just... It's like their continued existence is an open wound on my back, and it just keeps reminding me of how they used to make me feel. Today they're all just a bunch of old guys trying to keep up their image, whatever that is, with songs like "The Attic", "Where the Dead Ships Dwell" and "Ropes" (All from their last album "Sounds of a Playground Fading"). Their energy is gone, replaced with sour vocals, tedious synthetic sounds and guitars that won't even impress my soon three year old son.

Sure, I'll recommend them to anyone who ask me, but only because maybe they'll experience what I did back in 2000, and just maybe it'll change their lives, like In Flames once changed mine.

Who knows.

Band Awesomeness - It used to be 10/10. Now it's like, 3.5/10