IN FLAMES TRY TO FIND THEIR SENSE OF PURPOSE BUT MISS BY A LITTLE
Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 2:31pm by Vince Neilstein
There’s been much argued over and said about the new In Flames record A Sense of Purpose, but until now not much has been said by us; better late than never. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed by A Sense of Purpose, In Flames ninth proper album. It’s not that the band haven’t moved forward — they have — or that I feel they’re “selling out” — I don’t. It’s just that A Sense of Purpose feels like In Flames settling into a groove, getting a little too comfortable, and not pushing themselves to write an amazing album. Rather than opting to push the envelope, the band seem content to do what’s expected of them. The bottom line: A Sense of Purpose sounds like In Flames trying to write In Flames songs, or songs in the style of In Flames… as opposed to In Flames just writing songs.
And the songs on A Sense of Purpose are a great place to start since the songs have always made this band so great. While there are some good tunes like “Sleepless Again,” “I’m the Highway,” and “March to the Shore,” nothing here has the immediacy and punch of a “Pinball Map” or “Behind Space,” or even “Only for the Weak” or “Take This Life.” The songwriting strikes me as a real swing and a miss, seeing as In Flames seems to have chosen a consciously more pop-friendly format and sound this time around. So if songs were the focus, where are they great ones? Not here.
Pop song structures or production aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but this just wasn’t the direction I hoped In Flames would go. Instead of experimentation and branching out In Flames have opted for the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” maxim with their song structures. The 8+ minute “The Chosen Pessimist” is a welcome departure and an album highlight, with neo-classical clean electric guitars and various electronic bibs and bobs serving as the basis for the 2:20 intro before Anders even mutters one vocal. The rest of the song is an emotional roller coaster, altering between down-tempo, atmospheric — but not ballady — passages, and soaring distorted guitar / string crescendos. It’s kind of a Swedish, rockified Portishead, very un-pop and a departure for the band for sure, a welcome one at that. I wish the band had explored this direction a bit more.
But back to the 11 other songs, the production doesn’t help matters. The guitars sound empty and weak, the drums dull and lifeless, and Anders has opted for his sung scream/whine approach pretty much the whole time which is always out front in the mix. There are plenty of great riffs, harmonies, and solos too, courtesy of band-founder Jesper Stromblad and Bjorn Gelotte — it’s too bad they aren’t emphasized. The one plus: for once in the year 2008 the bass on a metal record is actually audible.
Still, In Flames should be commended for choosing not to repeat themselves and moving forward, even if the direction forward they’ve chosen isn’t one that I like. The band should be saluted for never repeating themselves throughout their career, and with A Sense of Purpose they certainly didn’t repeat what they did with 2006’s Come Clarity, a record which drew ire from many but I actually loved. It had aggressive progression and was chock full o’ songs all the way through, two traits this new record lacks.
Ultimately if In Flames end up having a long, prolific career — and they’re already off to a great start — I doubt A Sense of Purpose will be one of those albums that’s looked back upon as a must-own. There have been and will be better and there have been and will be worse. This record? In the year 2020 we’ll look back and it won’t be essential.
-VN
(two and a half horns)
Hey man, I agree pretty much spot on with your review. Nothing too special about the album at all.
That said, your line about “Ultimately if In Flames end up having a long, prolific career”, kind of confused me.
A band that has been together since 1990 and released nine albums doesn’t have a long and prolific career?
Granted, they aren’t the Rolling Stones.
But in today’s music scene, where a ton of bands break up after releasing 1 or 2 albums, In Flames has already become legendary.
That review sounds about the way I would’ve described it the first time I heard it. However, the more I’ve listened to it, the more I’ve come to enjoy. I will agree tho, that I think the production is a rather week point of the record.
But overall, this is one of 4 of their cds that I find I can listen to all the way through and enjoy it everytime.
I’ve thought previous In Flames albums had weak production, thin guitars, “cheap” sounding, etc.. It’s one thing that’s kept me from really getting into them.
I see your point, but I agree with Kye, I’m a Huge IN FLAMES fan, but the first time I Heard the album, was kinda dissapointing.. but the more I listen to it, the more I liked… I think you should do it too, hear the album a couple more times and look back at your review… MORE IN FLAMES COULDN’T HURT ANYBODY, does it???
Explain to me how a review of In Flames can bring up a Google advert for Rachel Ray ring tones. And exactly what would a Rachel Ray ringtone sound like? A squealy laugh while screaming “EVOO”?
And before anyone starts “flaming” me as being, well, a flamer, yeah I watch the Food Network. So fuck you and your families too.
Like all the others posting, I’m a big IF fan, but this album left a sour note. It’s good to hear something from the band, but it literally lasted a week in my CD player and I haven’t reached for it since. I was really hoping for something along the lines of Come Clarity. I thought that was the perfect (new style) IF album. I give Sense of Purpose 3/5.
I gots me no Rachel Ray ringtones on my monitor.
Hey guys I’m huge In Flames i would buy their cd if it was just them sitting around farting into a microphone. This new album however has the best drumming I have heard Daniel (their drummer)play and just because they have a catchy hook does not mean its pop. This album just pushes forward from the beginning to the end and is just a big sounding album and i agree with Sammy when i say that In Flames early albums like jester race and lunar strain have a weak production even know the songs are bad ass.
I have to agree with NuMallCore Pwns YoMama . At first I was like ” WTF is this” and then I did not touch it for a bit. Thinking about it more I thought “I need to give it a try”. Some songs grew on me but all in all I took it out again. I just could not get into the HO HUM sound.
It is like they did not even try. I never look at peoples comments on “selling out” or ” it’s not Lunar strain, clayman etc.” To me it is all presentation. I am extremely disappointed in the lack of aggressiveness. They need to take a lesson from their Swedish counter parts Soilwork who changed their sound in such a different way and still put on a fucking amazing show.
Guess I’ll use the cd as a frizbe for my dog.
why hasn’t anyone pointed out that anders’ new style of singing, whinning like a little emo kid who got kicked in the nuts, is goddamned fucking annoying. this band is no longer the great swedish deathmetal band they once were. i will always love this band and all their previous albums (yes even come clarity) but this piece of shit sounds like a highschool version of in flames. glad to own all their previous albums, glad i pirated this before going out and buying it
I heard a bunch of songs off this album on their myspace page. Bland, boring… I wasn’t impressed. Shame, as I like everything else they’ve done (apart from Soundtrack-)
Come Clarity pisses all over this from a very great height.
as for the guitar sounds, someone please go buy these guys some new amps!
The peavey 5150/6505 sound is fucking tired. I’d rather hear a mesa with a MXR micro amp infront of it!
Play an amp with some guts or maybe
at least change the tubes in the amps you guys have? You don’t have to sound like the 500 metalcore bands that already make fun of.
Song Writing: I think I remember hearing this record is the first one in awhile where there was working together as a unit instead of one guy doing his part and emailing it over to the next guy so he can do his thing on it.
I imagine we will hear better things on the next release. They had to make this record first though after the tough time they we’re going through personally.
But I still think they could have done better with the friggin guitars!!!
It kind of reminded me of Judas Priest’s couple of albums before Painkiller…listenable but nothing really earthshattering. It stayed in the CD player for maybe 5 days until I got my order from Century Media with my Warrel Dane and Mercenary imports in it. I stuck it in an ipod playlist with my last 6-8 album purchases so it gets played in hour 5 in the garage if I don’t touch it.
Great review, Vince. I feel the same way. It’s not bad, exactly, but it doesn’t inspire any great feelings of any kind, either. I feel that there are some good hooks in the first 5 or so songs of the record, but the further on you go the more same-y it starts getting, and it gets pretty repetitive. Bands need to know when to start chopping songs. This album is too long for what it is.
thease guys kick ass but this album aint worth shit
I’ll die an IF fan (bug me on AIM at inflamesarebest), but this is the first IF album I will not buy. It just isn’t there. It isn’t anything. It’s not even worth hating on, it’s just a half a retard in every category.
Also, weird jab about the “long and prolific career.” IF have that. They are easily one of the most influential bands in melodeath, right next to ATG’s SOTS. And at least IF had several memorable releases.
[...] though I’m not such a fan of In Flames’ latest album A Sense of Purpose, I will always love this band to death. The [...]
It’s funny how people are saying the production is weak, personally I find it’s a big step up from come clarity at least, which is so compressed it actually induces a headache
Picked it up at Circuit City last weekend (40% off, fuck yeah!). Sounds like an Emo/hardcore album. It’s probably going in my GoodWill box. :(