Screw Alternative metal.
The songs are terrible, the vocals are terrible.
These days they definitely belong to the absolute worst metal bands in history.

Go back to listening your favorite Justin Bieber album.

First In Flames album ever I didn't even bother to check. Heard two of the singles and that was more than enough to finally entomb this band. Unfortunalety, it's too late already for a dignified burial, so someone has to bury them hastily somewhere in some filthy backyard.

Anyway, what I am really trying to say is: what RaduP said, first page, five weeks ago.

Well. At least it isn't as bad as Battles IMO. Still not good. I can see glimpses of greatness in some of the tracks here. For example, I really dig the main riff of Deep Inside. Ander's just doesn't have the vocal chops anymore and he's really straining. The songwriting is gross, like pop alternative candy.

Written by Starvynth on 27.03.2019 at 17:26

First In Flames album ever I didn't even bother to check. Heard two of the singles and that was more than enough to finally entomb this band. Unfortunalety, it's too late already for a dignified burial, so someone has to bury them hastily somewhere in some filthy backyard.

Anyway, what I am really trying to say is: what RaduP said, first page, five weeks ago.

If you have survived listening to all their albums since Soundtrack you are gonna stand this one too.
I think it is actually not as bad as Battles.
I am above, Burn, and Deep inside are worth a listen.

That said, overall this is not a good album.

Edit: If you want to bury them in some filthy backyard you will first have to unbury them from my backyard.
And I wont help you at that.

In my opinion this album is very good with respect to the previous disappointments as they were Battles and Siren Charms, this is the sound of In Flames let us forget that death sound that it had in its beginnings.

IN FLAMES rules‼

Best since their 2011 release (Sounds of a Playground Fading) for sure! Also a better album as a whole. It's an easy listen with some great solos and melodies, and no songs are offensive in particular, making it an easy album to listen through multiple times without needing to skip anything.

At this point there are more mediocre or bad In Flames albums than good ones. This is better than the last 2 though!

Maybe they could change their name to "In Shames" to reflect the current (crappy) state of the band?

2 songs that I liked on this one (which is 1 more than the previous album...). Funnily enough it's the first and the last track of the album.

They aren't spectacular or innovative by all means but I enjoy listening to those 2 songs. That being said the rest didn't really do anything for me. Well... except for "(This is Our) House" which actually made me feel something. Anger... I remember hearing that one a few months ago and already finding it abysmal. Hearing it a second time only made it worse in my mind. Quite possibly the worst In Flames song I've ever heard.

Its hilarious. In the states we have XM Satellite radio which has 2 big rock stations - Octane (New Hard Rock) and Liquid Metal. A lot of bands nowadays will have 2 singles, one for each station. It was quite obvious with this album that In Flames did this too. This is Our House was the Octane single and I Am Above was Liquid Metal. Anyway, about a month after they released Octane quit playing their garbage song and now plays the Liquid Metal one regularly. In Flames is a metal band and it should fucking stay that way.

A few months ago when I heard the first track, I thought, at least they return to metal a little bit. Then the second track came out, hmmmm.... worse than Battles.

It is not In Flames, it is a Passenger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_(Swedish_band)
Anders fooled you!

Written by frequenzangriff on 02.08.2019 at 18:32

Maybe they could change their name to "In Shames" to reflect the current (crappy) state of the band?

I was always saying that they should be playing this crap under different name.

It's funny, I think if I had read all the hate here first, I might never had given this album a try, or with a bad feeling that would have ruined it. But the first song I heard from it actually came in a Spotify radio and I instantly loved it. I think it's very good, one of my favourite IF albums for sure. It clearly isn't for those expecting another Clayman or Jester Race, but I feel the hate here is un-deserved and almost stupid. Any other band releasing that album wouldn't gather 1% of that hate. If people don't like the genre shift that's fine, but that album is good, like or not.

6.6/235 votes
that's about right

Anders Friden, the traitor of Melodic Death Metal!!1
Fortunately, he left the better Dark Tranquillity very soon before he was able to defile this band like he did with In Flames.

Did I just hear a children choir in one song???? Fits to the edgy album cover.
I better stop now, I'm shaking with rage

Anders is a fucking cuck

Somehow this escaped my ears (still undecided about that's a good or a bad thing).

My two cents: this isn't worse than most modern metal stuff nowadays, I would say it's quite good for those standards.
Obviously not by Melodeath standards, but I don't think they want to play that competition...
Yeah Anders vocals are annoying, but the music is not half bad.

All in all, I can respect the idea and the skills behind it even if stylistically is far from my taste.

obviously preffer the old ones ..... nothing like a jester race..... but i really love this album

On this record the band tries to express itself with two opposing tendencies, one that insists on the radio side (unfortunately continuing to lack personality and resorting to pre-packaged stylings) and another that wants to revive the band's more genuinely Swedish riffing (but without much conviction). While the hope is that this offers variety as well as enjoyable cues, in reality the balance between the two is lacking in the long run.
Stylistically, "I, The Mask" could be placed somewhere between the more down-to-earth "A Sense Of Purpose" from 2008 and that "Sounds Of A Playground Fading" from 2011 that marked the creative decline of the Gothenburg band after the departure of founding guitarist Jesper Strömblad. More generally, there is a partial recovery of compositional inspiration that results in greater care for vocal lines, riffs and solos than on the previous "Battles."

The discourse is clearly relative, because the final work remains uneven in terms of the quality of individual tracks. The long-established repetitive formula remains underlying, drawing from a watered-down version of the more mainstream tendencies of melodic American metalcore, emphasizing vocal melodies with mixed results and avoiding infusing more originality into the songwriting or even a minimum of sonic experimentation. This is also due to the direction obtained together with producer Howard Benson, who again participates (interferes?) in the songwriting, pandering to Fridén's ideas by giving them a pop-metal feel that is usually catchy but overly self-indulgent and dated. There are no other outside interventions, except for one track, and fortunately this limits the pompousness into which "Battles" flowed.

The guitar side, in any case, comes across as more consistent and less "plastic" overall than on the previous record. Singer Anders Fridén also seems to be more inspired and (autotune aside) less tweaked in the production phase, with a more lived-in and dynamic performance. He remains the group's weaker side, however, alternating exciting and dragging vocal lines with more bland ones that dilute the instrumental charge (particularly in the two dragging singles "I Am Above" and "Burn"), and writing poorly characterized lyrics.

The occasional welcome return of acoustic guitar should be noted: it is found mainly in the power-ballads "Follow Me" and "Stay With Me." They are also two pieces that show lights and shadows, the former combining its pleasant acoustic inserts with an emotive refrain as was fashionable in the early 2000s and energetic but overly predictable American alternative-metal band chords that would have sounded old even at the time; the latter dilutes the instrument amid expressive but formally banal atmospheric melodies.
But in general the whole record alternates between highs and lows. Some tracks see egregious guitar work put a patch on an improvable vocal, as on "All The Pain"; or, conversely, the latter is ruined by a lousy chorus, as on "Call My Name." The title track, on the other hand, is the most "beat up," albeit in a stale way.

Among the best songs, as far as the writer is concerned, are the enthralling opener "Voices," with a punchy Fridén and catchy guitars (which, however, take riffs from 2004's "Borders And Shading" and "Discover Me Like Emptiness"). Also likeable is "We Will Remember," which stands out from the rest of the record by offering a mix of post-hardcore/emocore-style riffs, some at times hard-rock, and another lowered nu-metal style, while the lyrics are an excuse to quote titles from the band's past songs.
Among the album's worst moments is "In This Life," which again plays the emotional card, but ends up sounding too melancholy and derivative: written by several hands with Benson and "guest producers" Seann Bowe and Lenny Skolnik, it comes across as flat and impersonal, recycling stereotypes from a thousand California pop-screamo bands.
But worthy of the previous, bad album is in particular the terrible "(This Is Our) House," which tries to sound anthemic and instead sounds like a bad Skillet copy.

Also of note, prior to the recordings, bassist Peter Iwers left the group 20 years after joining.