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In Flames

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In Flames are a Swedish Melodic Death Metal band from the city of Gothenburg. While it is questionable whether they were the creators of the genre, their heavy influence on it is not disputed.

In Flames' line-up underwent constant changes throughout their early career. Their first stable line-up was composed by the founding members Jesper Strömblad, Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström, with Mikael Stanne on vocals. With this line-up, they proceeded to record the album Lunar Strain, but Stanne left the band after the relese and joined Dark Tranquillity, and he was replaced by Henke Forss, and the drummer Daniel Erlandsson, and they made the album Subterranean. But Henke left the band, too, so Anders Fridén was set on the vocals and Bjorn Gelotte on the drum, and they recorded The Jester Race, which made the band known to the world, especially in Europe and Japan.

Among fans of Death Metal, In Flames is perhaps best known for their albums The Jester Race, Whoracle, Colony and Clayman. However, the group came to mainstream attention with Reroute to Remain, Soundtrack To Your Escape and their most recent studio album Come Clarity.

Contents

History

In Flames began when three members of Ceremonial Oath — Jesper Strömblad, Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström — quit the band in order to start a musical project of their own. They recorded a short demo which was sent to a few recording labels. The owner of Wrong Again Records thought the band had promise, and soon closed a recording deal with them. From this deal surfaced In Flames' first album - entitled Lunar Strain which relied on aggressive instrumental work, at times combined with acoustic sections. Session vocals for the album were recorded by Mikael Stanne, though soon after he would leave to sing for Dark Tranquillity (having already played guitar for them), with then Dark Tranquillity vocalist Anders Fridén replacing him. The album obtained success on the Swedish underground scene and received positive critics from the specialized press. However, In Flames soon became known to most of Europe with the release of the EP from 1995 Subterranean. The EP attracted the attention of the Nuclear Blast label, which offered them a contract for an European release the same year. A short tour with Kreator followed.

Due to the band's increasing success, Johan Larsson and guitarist Glenn Ljungström — who were already part of other established bands — decided to quit In Flames due to the difficulties of sharing time between different projects. Their last contribution to the band was the album Whoracle, from 1997. Peter Iwers(on the bass) and Niklas Engelin(on the guitar) were then invited to accompany In Flames in the joint tour with Dimmu Borgir that followed Whoracle's release. This line-up worked rather well, and by the end of the tour the musicians became permanent members of In Flames. Together they travelled Europe and made the band's first concert outside of Europe, in Japan. However, by the end of that tour, Niklas Engelin quit the band due to musical differences. Drummer Björn Gelotte assumed the guitars and Sacrilige's Daniel Svensson assumed the drums. This line-up recorded Colony, and a partial world tour followed.

2000 saw the release of Clayman. By this time, the band had already become widely known, and played with bands of major recognition such as Dream Theater, Slipknot and Testament. Peter Iwers' first daughter was born, and he temporarily left the band. He was replaced by Dick Löwgren for a year. When he came back to the band, the live album The Tokyo Showdown was recorded. In 2002, Reroute To Remain was the first release of In Flames not produced in the Studio Fredman. This album was the first real experimental album that the band made, introducing extensive use of clean vocals instead of just death vocals, and a great deal more keyboard and electronics than previous albums, causing many death metal fans to stop listening to their music. Their seventh album, Soundtrack To Your Escape, in 2004, took another step in this direction, and In Flames were written off as sell-outs by traditionally minded death metal fans.

A DVD box set was released in September 2005 entitled Used and Abused... In Live We Trust. The band toured on the 2005 Ozzfest on the main stages and supported Motörhead on its 30th anniversary tour in Autumn 2005. The band sold over 1 million records all over the world before the release of Come Clarity. This album, released in early 2006 but recorded in March 2005, is the band's most successful album to date and regarded by many as something of a return to form for the band. Come Clarity has been widely acclaimed by fans and critics alike, particularly many of those that felt the previous two albums to be a major departure. It was on the top of the charts in Sweden and in Finland in its first week of sales. Also, the band figured in position #58 in the US Billboard chart, with 24,000 albums solds, in the first week of the sale. Despite this success, many long time fans have criticized the band and their move towards a more mainstream and commercially accessible sound.

Influence

Along with Dark Tranquillity, Soilwork, At The Gates and Sentenced, In Flames are widely thought of as some of the first practitioners, if not inventors of the melodic death metal genre, although it is true that Carcass's Heartwork, which precedes In Flames' noteworthy album The Jester Race, features some excellent examples of this subgenre as well. Advocates of this theory claim that is notable in its best form on songs such as "Episode 666" and "Jotun". In any case, bands such as Arch Enemy name In Flames as a vital influence. It should also be known that In Flames have been disliked by a few for "softening" their music in the recent years. The album "Soundtrack to Your Escape" is a prime example of this. However this move has been welcomed by some others who believe they are expanding their music to include more of their talent, especially Anders Friden's vocals.

Awards

In Flames were honored with the "Swedish Music Export" prize at Sweden's "Grammis" awards, which were held Tuesday night, February 7 2006 at Cirkus in Stockholm. In Flames were the first metal band ever to win this award. "Thanks to In Flames, Sweden now has a metal band in the absolute world elite," the Swedish economy minister Thomas Östros said of the award.

Line-up

Former members

Vocals

Guitars

Bass

Drums

Discography

Albums

Album Cover Date of Release Title Label US Billboard Peak US sales
August, 1994 Lunar Strain Wrong Again Records - -
June 15, 1995 Subterranean (EP) Wrong Again Records - -
February 20, 1996 The Jester Race Nuclear Blast - -
October 28, 1997 Black-Ash Inheritance (MCD) Nuclear Blast - -
November 18, 1997 Whoracle Nuclear Blast - -
June 14, 1999 Colony Nuclear Blast - -
July 25, 2000 Clayman Nuclear Blast - -
September 4, 2001 The Tokyo Showdown (Live) Nuclear Blast - -
September 3, 2002 Reroute to Remain Nuclear Blast - -
June 17, 2003 Trigger (EP) Nuclear Blast - -
April 6, 2004 Soundtrack to Your Escape Nuclear Blast #145 -
February 7, 2006 Come Clarity Nuclear Blast (EU including UK), Ferret Records (US) #58 70,000+

Singles

DVDs

External links

In Flames
Anders Fridén | Jesper Strömblad | Björn Gelotte | Peter Iwers | Daniel Svensson
Mikael Stanne | Henke Forss | Joakim Göthberg | Glenn Ljungström | Niklas Engelin | Anders Iwers | Martin Mathisen | Carl Näslund | Johann Larsson | Anders Jivarp | Daniel Erlandsson
Discography
Albums and EPs: Lunar Strain | Subterranean | The Jester Race | Black-Ash Inheritance | Whoracle | Colony | Clayman | The Tokyo Showdown | Reroute to Remain | Trigger | Soundtrack to Your Escape | | Come Clarity
Singles: Cloud Connected | The Quiet Place
Categories:

 

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