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In Flames - Soundtrack To Your Escape

 

	RELEASED: March 29, 2004 PRODUCER: Daniel Bergstrand LABEL: Nuclear Blast BAND: Anders Friden Jesper Stromblad Bjorn Gelotte Peter Iwers Daniel Svensson
+ Musicianship, experimentation, variety - Sometimes experimentation isn’t good, where’d the guitar solos go?	TRACKS: 1.F(r)iend 2. The Quiet Place 3. Dead Alone 4.Touch of Red 5. Like You Better Dead 6. My Sweet Shadow 7. Evil in a Closet 8. In Search for I 9. Borders and Shading 10. Superhero of the Computer Rage ..... 11. Dial 595-Escape 12. Bottled

OVERVIEW

If I were a real metal fan, I would rip this album apart.  I’d babble on for awhile about how In Flames made one good album and the rest has all been a downhill sell-out slide, make all kinds of gratuitous, unfounded nu-metal references, talk about The Jester Race some more, and probably make fun of vocalist Anders Friden for putting his hair into dreads.  Cause I’m just that serious of a metal fan.

Fortunately, I happen to be a real MUSIC fan, and I’ll be the first to say loud and clear that this is by no means a bad album.  Far from it.  It’s not the abysmal piece of junk that most metal reviewers made it out to be, nor is it the death-metal-goes-mainstream extravaganza that people like AllMusicGuide labeled it.  In fact, I’m no death metal purist, but it’s safe to say this is most definitely not a death metal album.  It’s got plenty of In Flames’ signature unrelenting riffage, Anders’ vocals are still positively throat-shredding (he keeps his newly adapted high-pitched rasp for this one, just like Reroute), and I’d eat my running shoes with Tabasco and a Corona if you can find me a more airtight, technically adept drummer than Daniel Svensson in today’s hard rock scene.

            Ok, so on to why this album has created such an outcry from the old-timers – the keyboards, synths, and atmospheric effects are out in full force, and sometimes they work with smashingly good results – the cascading, everywhere-at-once guitar tones on “The Quiet Place” are almost frighteningly catchy, and in plenty of other places, they work to add color to songs that otherwise might fall on their face.  But sometimes, it honestly either overpowers the song or comes across as a way to disguise weaker songwriting, and there’s a few instances in particular where you’ll be glad the “skip” button is close by.

SONGS

In Flames start off with the machine-gun-like sledgehammer precision of “F(r)iend”, and the layered vocals on this one ought to erase anyone’s doubts that Anders can still kick out the death growls.  Decent, but then we’ve got the single that gave metalheads everywhere a premature case of PMS – “The Quiet Place” – except that it’s one of the best written songs on the record, absurdly catchy, and one of In Flames’ most successful flirtations with electronics and such.  “Dead Alone” is a straight-up gut-punch and one of my favorite songs on here, and “Touch of Red” features another great layered-vocal chorus.  Hard to see it working live, but on CD it sounds pretty darn good.  “Like You Better Dead” is, again, a solid song with a decent melodic chorus, and unfortunately, I just don’t think that the 2nd single “My Sweet Shadow” is that great of a song, although it does feature a pretty darn cool electronic loop towards the end.  “Evil In A Closet” gets off to such a slow, boring start that I almost skip it every time, but the chorus on this one redeems it, and from out of nowhere comes the almost thrashy, explosive riffing of “In Search For I”, which is one of the only songs on the record to feature anything resembling a real guitar solo.  “Borders and Shading” is one of those ones I usually skip – nothing in particular’s wrong with it, but the songwriting just isn’t that great.  Things shape up some with “Superhero of the Computer Age”, another rocker with fast riffing and halfway decent layered vocals (noticing how often they’re popping up?), and “Dial 595-Escape” succeeds at juxtaposing slow and fast, singing and screaming, solos and chunky chords, and just about everything else.  This leaves us with “Bottled”, a track that most definitely should’ve hit the cutting room floor and stayed there.  Sorry, but this one just doesn’t work on any level, and looks like an absolute afterthought compared to some of the stronger tracks that make Soundtrack worth revisiting.

CONCLUSION

I’ve already stated this isn’t a bad album.  That’s my shtick and I’m sticking to it.  It’s about a 60/40 mix of pretty good songs mixed with songs that range from decent to borderline abysmal, and only a fool would ignore it just because In Flames refuses to make the same album 8 times in a row.  If metallic riffing mixed with a dark vibe, keyboards and synths galore, and a varied vocal performance is your bag, you’ll love this album.  If not, I still maintain it’s a respectable effort from a Swedish metal titan that has yet to show any signs of slowing down.

Review by Matt Rewinski

 

 

 

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