The Halo Effect (a bunch of ex-In Flames, including Mikael Stanne and Jesper Strömblad)

[narad]

"Days of the Lost" is really giving me classic In Flames vibes. Caveat: I like "A Sense of Purpose"

 

[Lorcan Ward]

"Days of the Lost" is really giving me classic In Flames vibes. Caveat: I like "A Sense of Purpose"

I was thinking the other day what is classic In Flames. The first four albums Lunar Strain to Colony have a distinct sound, you could mix and match songs across them and they'd mostly fit. Colony had elements that would lead to Clayman but was much closer to the earlier albums. Clayman had a new sound, bigger mix, new lyric concepts, Anders new vocal style, tempo dialled back, much more emphasis on vocals and less guitar leads. Then just two years later they drop Reroute to Remain which a big change in style, more riff orientated but less riffs and more synth, the "In Flames" sound absent for most of the album. Then Soundtrack which was another change in style, the In Flames sound was gone from a lot of songs, guitars heavily neutered, lots of synths, different vocal concepts and Anders changing completely to his new style.

Then comes Come Clarity and the band have kept that sound for 6 albums. So we have early In Flames which is classic, experimental In Flames and then modern In Flames which more of their music is that what they always wanted to sound like? It's a bit like Children of Bodom where Are You dead yet became Bodom's sound for the rest of their career. Both bands are loved for their early sound but when they adopted their new sound they stuck with it.

 

[p0ke]

I was thinking the other day what is classic In Flames. The first four albums Lunar Strain to Colony have a distinct sound, you could mix and match songs across them and they'd mostly fit. Colony had elements that would lead to Clayman but was much closer to the earlier albums. Clayman had a new sound, bigger mix, new lyric concepts, Anders new vocal style, tempo dialled back, much more emphasis on vocals and less guitar leads. Then just two years later they drop Reroute to Remain which a big change in style, more riff orientated but less riffs and more synth, the "In Flames" sound absent for most of the album. Then Soundtrack which was another change in style, the In Flames sound was gone from a lot of songs, guitars heavily neutered, lots of synths, different vocal concepts and Anders changing completely to his new style.

Then comes Come Clarity and the band have kept that sound for 6 albums. So we have early In Flames which is classic, experimental In Flames and then modern In Flames which more of their music is that what they always wanted to sound like? It's a bit like Children of Bodom where Are You dead yet became Bodom's sound for the rest of their career. Both bands are loved for their early sound but when they adopted their new sound they stuck with it.

Classic In Flames to me means Clayman and everything before that. Reroute to Remain is special because it came out when I was just getting into death metal, but I don't consider it classic and I probably wouldn't like it as much if I had gotten into the older material first.

Either way, to me these new In Flames songs are way more exciting than The Halo Effect album. I just get bored with it after a couple of songs, whereas I can easily loop these IF songs multiple times, no problem.

 

[MFB]

Classic In Flames to me means Clayman and everything before that. Reroute to Remain is special because it came out when I was just getting into death metal, but I don't consider it classic and I probably wouldn't like it as much if I had gotten into the older material first.

Either way, to me these new In Flames songs are way more exciting than The Halo Effect album. I just get bored with it after a couple of songs, whereas I can easily loop these IF songs multiple times, no problem.

Same here, like I consider "Reroute to Remain" a classic IF record because it's the one that got me into them, but sound-wise, it's a turning point for them and sort of a line in the sand for old fans; I love both sounds honestly, and I've said it before and I'll die on the hill, everything up through Sounds of a Playground Fading is a solid album, they've just run out of steam since then.

 

[p0ke]

Same here, like I consider "Reroute to Remain" a classic IF record because it's the one that got me into them, but sound-wise, it's a turning point for them and sort of a line in the sand for old fans; I love both sounds honestly, and I've said it before and I'll die on the hill, everything up through Sounds of a Playground Fading is a solid album, they've just run out of steam since then.

Yeah, I'm not gonna argue about that. I never got into their new sound and I especially disliked the fact that the songs became so synth-based even though they don't have a keyboard player (I guess they do these days, at least a live session guy), but I can't deny that there's good stuff on all those albums.

The 2-3 latest ones are pretty weak though, I couldn't even get through them once while working...

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Reroute is the transitional album. It's still got some classic IF, but you can hear the nu/alt metal influences creeping in. Soundtrack is the defacto beginning of that "new" IF sound.

 

[soul_lip_mike]

Colony is where they changed. Go listen to Whoracle and Colony back to back and tell me the style change isn't jarring. They're both great albums but they are soooo different.

 

[soul_lip_mike]

I wonder what Jesper’s deal is - I saw a halo effect video pop up on YouTube at Wacken and he wasn’t there. He also doesn’t play with Cyhra any more. I know he had an alcoholism problem before….

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

I wonder what Jesper’s deal is - I saw a halo effect video pop up on YouTube at Wacken and he wasn’t there. He also doesn’t play with Cyhra any more. I know he had an alcoholism problem before….

He's in rehab atm IIRC

 

[gunshow86de]

New single already...

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

New single already...

Well that was fucking great.
EDIT: Apparently this was just a B-side too? Damn this shoulda made the actual album.

 

[MetalDestroyer]

catchy af but also made me kinda sad 9/10 das da gud shtuff