As we’ve established over the years, I tend to like my heavy metal fast, attacking, but with cleaner vocals. So any incarnation of Death Metal is either an acquired taste for me, or a listen at request of friends. In Flames, is definitely a band where friends have tried to turn me on to them. Admittedly, Clayman was a great album, but I found myself very hit and miss with them after that point.

This album however, started off with a strong single of Meet Your Maker and reminded me that Chris Broderick recently joined up with the band. Chris was the touring guitarist for Nevermore a few times and spent 7 years as the lead guitarist of Megadeth. So my bias for those bands helped to stoke the fires of interest. It is time to see if my dislike for the band is foregone conclusion; or if the judgment hammer will swing the other way!

In Flames is: Bjorn Gelotte (Lead Guitar), Anders Friden (Lead Vocals), Chris Broderick (Rhythm Guitar), Tanner Wayne (Drums). Bryce Paul (Bass)

• Artist: In Flames
• Album: Foregone (2023)
• Label: Nuclear Blast
• Total Track Time: 46:49

The Beginning of All Things That Will End is an acoustic and nearly bardic instrumental that kicks off the album. Somber, soothing, nice implementation of violin and what I believe sounds like a cello. Not how I anticipated things kicking off, but its beautiful and I’m not mad. State of Slow Decay immediately punches you in the mouth with crunchy rhythms, double bass and the quicker expected death metal instrumentation. Lyrically it analogizes the state of the world with slowly slipping through a portal to something worse. The slow decay where you can’t even necessarily recognize yourself anymore. While it doesn’t quite stick the landing, it was a fairly good song to get the blood flowing after the melodic opening song. Meet Your Maker is the most recent single from the album and it fuses the Death Metal backbeats with more Metalcore arrangements, including the pre-chorus and chorus being sung cleanly. Continuing the imagery of speaking your mind when things are coming to end, this sticks the landing much better. The color and tone are more rebellious and give the aura of fighting for something to believe in. Bleeding Out while it stays in the lyrical tone the album has set so far, this definitely is a miss. It feels like something that Bullet For My Valentine left on the cutting room floor and In Flames just decided to grab it up. Taking a slower tempo and feeling like “fighting to survive” it just struggles to really hit a groove with the arrangement.

Foregone Pt. 1 at least starts off promising, sounds like a Dethklok song. “And the world has closed its eyes, Mother time draws her final breath, The innocent washed away, The condemned, the dance of death”, not a new concept, but I just liked the phrasing of the chorus here. Interesting aspect with this song is its very fast and attacking, except for moments after the chorus. A quick like acoustic sound interlude the first time, and then the harmonic dual guitar breakdown is more mid tempo. So it sets up the verses well to stay aggressive by taking the foot off the gas just a little after choruses. Foregone Pt. 2 definitely has more of the Metalcore elements. It reminds me more of a God Forbid or All That Remains song. “Nothing is holy for the clouded eye, The tremors, the thunder, the lights go out, With all the lies, the ultimate consequence, We all know what’s the end of this route”, again, this is more of me just liking the lyric for this one. Given that it is the part two, the first being more aggressive and rebellious while the second is slower and coming to terms with the harsh reality; gives an imagery of both growing up and growing complacent. Which the past few years have been an odd combination of those for many of us.

Pure Light of Mind is a song I wanted to dislike immediately, but it really just strikes the right balance. Its definitely a little whiny/ballad-esque, but the imagery is cute in regard to someone being the thing that saved him. Getting pulled out of the darkness, walking a mile…its sweet without being too sappy. A weird balance I didn’t know if it would work, but I’m happy to say that I feel like it does. The Great Deceiver is sonically surprising. I wasn’t expecting a Demons & Wizards sounding song. This has an interesting mid verse tempo change before firing back into a pretty heavy and overall attacking sound. There is more complexity in this song than I was expecting, and I’m here for all of it. Which the complexity of the music fits the lyrics perfectly since its about all the fake news and false flags of the past few years. Just a damn great song from structure to lyrics, everything. In The Dark has a very dark, heavy, marching first half; “We have to fight through the shadows, I feel we’ve lost the spark, Ignite the dampened spirits, And build a brand new arc”. It has a weird little stripped down interlude before the first chorus, and I feel like that hurts the song a bit. If they kept the marching, dark, torrent of Soulfly-esque instrumentation; this would’ve been a great song. That little breakdown is either going to have to grow on me, or it ruined the song. A Dialogue in B Flat Minor is sadly a victim of saying too much of the same as the rest of the album. The lyrics aren’t as clever, and the inclusion of the Metalcore harmonies and tone isn’t doing anything for me except making me consider the skip button. So sufficed to say…the song falls flat.

Cynosure opens with a very prominent bass line akin to Aerials from System of a Down. It is more in the classic Heavy Metal variety, and its very interesting. The song doesn’t do too much, keeps you locked in with the rhythm section and is generally a little captivating with the simplicity. End the Transmission takes a little bit of a spin on the general tone of the album. Its not just about the decay of society, it very bluntly states humanity is a cancer, so we need to end the transmission. “We got to end the transmission, Nothing makes sense and we’re running out of graves, We got to end the transmission, Nothing makes sense and no one is listening”, this is a much more direct way of stating their point. Its got a fantastic groove for the chorus, while the verses are short and frustrated. Another song beautifully painted with the lyrics and musical accompaniment. Agree or disagree, there are valid points and the general feeling is shared by many of people.

I am pleasantly surprised with how little I disliked about this album. I have noticed that over the last few years my opinion on some the harsher vocal stylings I used to have disdain for; has lessened quite a bit. Plus I do always enjoy double meanings, and the fact that End the Transmission ends the album and the lyrics are talking more about ending the transmission of the cancer…its a nice play on words. I really can’t be too upset honestly. Two songs didn’t sit well with me at all, the two part Foregone song I feel is the type that needs to grow on you and In the Dark just makes me mad with the seemingly random breakdown.

All in all, its a solid album and gives me hope that In Flames are back on track to being a band I consider more hit than miss. Good stuff.

Final Judgment: 7.45/10