(Rated this album with 8 out of 10) Reviewed by
Sergio F. Morales
from Levittown, NY United States
This was the first In flames disc I've purchased and upon first listen I wasn't too impressed. I felt the guitars too "noisy" and vocals too unoriginal. Anders Friden's screeching melodic yells and scratchy vocals to me sounded like a million other wannabe metal bands out there (not that In flames are wannabe's.) After a couple more listens I discovered what was beneath all that; great talent, great metal. People label In Flames as melodic death metal. I wouldn't really call it death metal, more like just metal, the melody doesnt really come from the vocals though but more from the brilliant genious guitar work. In Flames can seriously create some of the greatest guitar harmonics found in music today, and this album is full of them. A friend of mine once said In Flames should just be an instrumental band. I have to agree, but on the other hand, Friden's voice does match the music well after you've adjusted to it's sound and I don't think it would be the same without him. Ive spun this cd a lot of times by now and though I didn't like all the tracks, the ones that I do like, I love. There are 10 full length songs on this record (track 11 is a short guitar chord progression instrumental that isn't that good and too short to be considered a real song) each running about 3-5 minutes in length, nothing progressive or epic, although hearing them do that I'm sure would be amazing. I would say out of this 10, 6 or 7 at most are worth hearing (track 6 is worth the purchase alone as it is one of the best metal songs I've ever heard). Usually I would take off a star for only about half the record being good but of those songs I like, they're enough to be put aside on a separate record that would be an easy 5 stars. I've since purchased Colony and am looking towards getting The Jester Race which recieved amazing reviews. If you want to get into In Flames, this is a good disc to start out with, though I don't know if it's the best seeing as how I don't have them all, but it got me into them. If at first you don't like what you hear, give it another shot.
