In Flames
Soundtrack To Your Escape

THE REVIEW

A pleasant album by In Flames, their penultimate one, gives way to its more illustrious predecessors ("Whoracle" for instance, which I enjoyed a lot), with many and perhaps too many nods to modern metal, especially the winks towards Korn and the metalcore movement of Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, and other companions. However, all in all, it's a nice album that is easy to listen to and on a scale from 1 to 10, it would deserve a 7!

The album kicks off with the furious "F(r)iend", a typical song of the typical In Flames style with a shouted and raspy growl, very precise drumming, and riffs that sometimes veer into melodic and classic heavy (the declared influences from Iron Maiden). It continues with "The Quiet Place" and as the title suggests, it's a more "quiet" song compared to the previous one; the singer tends to imitate Jonathan Davis at some points, with riffs and structure that are almost ridiculous, the worst of the batch. The thrashy-style "Dead Alone" lifts us with a very fast-paced drumming and rhythm mixed with excellent riffs blended into an atmosphere with dark undertones, very exciting. It stays on a decent level with "Touch Of Red", here too there are hints of nu metal in the somewhat "commercial" chorus (excuse the term), but overall a good song. A particularly good riff is in "Like You Better Dead", with a driving pace and engaging chorus. Definitely bad is "My Sweet Shadow", a flat and repetitive song with industrial technological hints and melodic parts terribly sung without a bit of the aggression that In Flames has always accustomed us to, but the chorus slightly elevates the general feel of the song.

The melodic feel of the album is much more successful in the excellent "Evil In A Closet", with calm guitars and "touching" vocals (!!!), an emotional and impactful chorus, framed by technological atmospheres and a splendid solo. It halfway delves into Slayer and metalcore with the charming "In Search For I", where the drummer goes back to pounding fast and the riffs are reminiscent of Maiden, though the solos are quite banal. At this point in the album, "Borders And Shading" becomes predictable, where the singer once again invents a Jonathan Davis in love with Dani Filth, but the riffs are nice and thus it is saved. Another fast-paced drumming for a very dynamic "Superhero Of The Computer Age" in full In Flames style. "Dial 595-Escape" features a good handful of riffs increasingly angrier descendants of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith and a somewhat repetitive general flow, but with a beautiful anthemic chorus. It concludes with "Bottled", quite good for the good chorus and the syncopated rhythm.

In conclusion, it is not a bad album at all, the formula remains the same: raspy growl, melodic death structure, hints of thrash, Maiden riffs and syncopated rhythms taken from Pantera's and Sepultura's groove. It's just that this time they added a few more ingredients (hints of nu metal and metalcore) that have somewhat taken away the flavor from In Flames' recipe.