Deliver Us

© Century Media

So, In Flames released their first single from Sounds Of A Playground Fading.  And guess what guys: it doesn't sound like Jester Race! Shock! Horror!  What it does sound like is a pretty good song.  As you may have gathered, those hoping for something that resembled In Flames's earlier work will be disappointed, as were the droves of viewers on YouTube queuing up to ladle hate upon their latest effort.  What people don't seem to realize is that IF have never made the same album twice.  There was Lunar Strain, which is better off not talked about all that much, The Jester Race, which is frankly just odd, Subterranean which is also odd but in a quite different way, etc etc.  Deliver Us is packed full of the synth stuff from Soundtrack, the great riffing guitar from A Sense of Purpose and the completely nonsensical lyrics that pervade every In Flames album.  If you were open-minded enough to appreciate A Sense Of Purpose for what it was (a great album, with some good songs and some poorer ones, but no worse than Soundtrack To Your Escape), you will like this song.


Some of the people who commented on the song to express their dislike did so constructively, but the majority simply concluded it was shit. To those people, I challenge them to go, write a song, perform it, record it and release it to the world. I feel pretty bad for In Flames, how whatever they release is met with derision by what feels like half the people who hear it.  So it's not another Jester Race. Are you really shocked? Melodic Death Metal =/= In Flames any more. I'm sorry.   I think the reason people get so hung up about In Flames more than any other melodeath band is that they seem to attract, like iron filings to a magnet, the kind of annoying fan boys who demand that they release the same album over and over again, dare I say the same people who would be first to claim the band was going stale if they did so.  


Other bands do exist, dare I say it, other BETTER bands, who are perhaps (dare I commit heresy a second time?) a little more reliable as to the quality of their work. I have posts lined up about some of these bands soon.

No digs to In Flames though, Deliver Us is a good song and I eagerly await the rest of the album.

Peace out. \m/

A Band You Should Be Listening To




© Earache Records

  This evening, I will be writing on the topic of a band you really should be listening to.  Today's candidates are British Technical/Melodic Death Metal band Ignominious Incarceration, now (rather disappointingly) called The Soulless.  II (also referred to as Ignom) was a band that I would not have heard about apart from the fact that one day I was strolling through HMV, past the Metal section.  This area in HMV has always bemused me.  It lacks coverage of the most (relatively) household Metal bands while stocking the entire discographies of artists you've never heard of.  Anyway, I was perusing the shelf when suddenly, an album quite literally jumped out and hit me in the face.

A giant man in a badass metal suit with a badass sword, and toting the most ridiculously named band I had ever heard of in my life.  Ignominious Incarceration are a no-holds-barred, ruthless tech/melodeath band, the music of which somehow lives up to the awesomeness of it's album artwork.  Each track screams after the last with more force, more noise and more rage.  It's a brilliant and highly original creation but it may border on the side of over the top depending on your preference.

Some of my personal favourite tracks are:

Saviour: This track is just brilliant.  Infectious riff, pounding double pedal, lyrics which are actually distinguishable, yet still amazingly and intensely heavy

Dynasty Damnation: This one really drives along, tells a pretty interesting (or highly over the top) story, with a really powerful breakdown, as the vocals roar 'DEATHHH WILL BE THE ONLYYY ENNNNDDDDD'.  Typically fullforce, eartearing material.

Tides of Pestilence: Stop-start lyrical stabs and a chorus amazingly catchy for something this heavy, with a great guitar solo chucked in with yet another great breakdown stuck on the back of it.

It's a great album, by an unfairly unknown band.  Buy it, people.

The Soulless's latest album comes out on the 19th May, and the songs they've shown us so far are indications of a work that somehow manages to top even Of Winter Born.  Their first single, Unaltered, is really a masterwork.  You can see how far they've come, but it's still distinctly II.  Expect a review when I can get my hands on it.

You can check out The Soulless at their site: http://thesoullessband.com/
Also check out the video for Unaltered