In Flames – "Foregone"

2023-03-16

Comeback of the year, anyone...?

I've often gotten cute about not having listened to bands for this-and-that amount of years because of other things that are simply getting in the way. And in the case of In Flames, I deliberately left them by the wayside since they kinda started putting a spin on metal that felt more like elevator music than anything else. Coupla months ago, I even got so cute as to call them a comedy band.

Well, allow me to get the Hell offa that high horse, because "Foregone" just plain sounds like it coulda come straight in between fucking "Colony" ('99) and "Clayman" (2000).

Yeah, they're back, baby. Fucking finally. And at times, even more so, especially with a song like "State of Slow Decay" that sounds like something offa this one little At the Gates album called "Slaughter of the Soul" ('95). And yes, I just wrote that.

It's been more than 20 years since IF have been this aggressive, death-thrashing with the attitude of a pack of rabid rottweilers. And album closer "End the Transmission" involuntarily made me think of Type O Negative – not because it sounds like them, but because it's oh, so wonderfully slow, deep, and hard. You know.

When IF are at their best – say, in the first of the two title tracks, opening with a goddamn blastbeat – you won't believe you're listening to that same group that started becoming so flat and anemic since almost two fucking decades ago

Of course, this doesn't mean that the band haven't retained that melodic flair which always made them stand out. Hard and aggressive as this is, there still aren't exactly a lot of choruses on "Foregone" in which the melody couldn't, in principle, have been written for a radio single from any pop artist.

But somehow – and even though IF do tend to sound a bit too much like that horrid metalcore genre that they helped inspire – those melodies still feel somewhat justified. Perhaps because IF are, after all, among the biggest progenitors of melo-death. Hell, if not actually THE biggest. And perhaps also because some of us never expected to hear anything remotely metal out of them again.

And in a song like "Bleeding Out", the melodic aspect just fucking works. I don't care how polished and poppy that chorus is; those vocal harmonies are nothing short of beautiful. That is a goddamn hit right there, and the same thing goes for "Cynosure". In fact, those two songs are the best things IF have done since "Reroute to Remain" (2002). (And no, that's an awesome album. Fuck you.)

A lot of the time, though, neither the melodies or the rhythm figures transcend the stage from being good to being great, and from being catchy to being memorable. IF might've been investing most of their energy in getting back in the saddle here.

It's been more than 20 years since IF have been this aggressive, death-thrashing with the attitude of a pack of rabid rottweilers.

And the thing about IF is, they never made an album without a certain amount of filler material. Not necessarily in terms of expendable songs, but in terms of song sections which do entertain and stimulate as they should, but doesn't stick with the listener for that or any other reason. And "Foregone" is a good example of one such record, most tracks being solid, but none of them future classics.

But still. It's wonderful with a comeback like this from a band that's been considered such a joke among so many metalheads for so many years. And when IF are at their best – say, in the first of the two title tracks, opening with a goddamn blastbeat – you won't believe you're listening to that same group that started becoming so flat and anemic since almost two fucking decades ago.

... Depending on when you start counting, of course. Because there will still be people who'd consider this album too poppy and melodic, and who'd consider IF a flat and anemic band, period. But the rest of us don't mind a catchy melody, even among hard and aggressive sonic surroundings. Let's face it, Sweden as a music nation is simply hella catchy and melodic. I guess someone has to be. And you gotta do what you're best at.

Thank you, In Flames, for having gone back to doing exactly that.


Rating: 4.5 out of 6

Genre: Melodic death metal / pop rock
Release date: 10/2/23
Label: Nuclear Blast
Producer: Howard Benson

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