In Flames
The end \ The Truth

I think that in a time like ours, we have forgotten the beauty of holding a record in our hands, a physical medium. Music is becoming all volatile, there is no pleasure in touching the case, looking at the cover, and reading the song titles. Something that fascinated me a lot was the idea of collecting CD singles. Maybe because I grew up with the videos on MTV, but having a disc just for the song is something quite ingrained in my mind. After all, music since the advent of commercial genres (40s, 50s, 60s) has been a matter of singles. Ahahah, I know it's not easy to admit; I'd get insults from all the metalheads in the world, but I understand them, being a great metal enthusiast myself, it's hard to face reality. The reality consists in admitting:
1. All music is commercial, whether it's Black Metal or unlistenable Noise/Harsh, it doesn't matter; it's all an evolution of pop and fits into a more or less conscious marketing scheme. Not admitting this is equivalent to being obtuse and parochial, as a good chunk of fanatics are in the end.
2. It has always been a matter of SINGLES. Music, since the 20s and 30s, has always been about promoting through the single piece, from the Mussolini marches played on the radio to boost soldiers' morale, to the pop star of the moment gleefully dancing in an 80s video like Madonna, and finally to the Black Metal enthusiast who bought the entire album and is a proud devotee, but mainly to listen to 3 or 4 songs that are the leading singles or the songs that stand out more for blasphemy and so on, because even crime news helps in advertising music. Example: "Mass suicide among adolescents after listening to Suicide Solution by Ozzy Osbourne"; "Murder of Euronimous from Mayhem and the song Freezing Moon," etc..
Denying this single passage is equivalent to being unaware and infinitely foolish, not to mention ignorant of the reality surrounding us and, unfortunately, of the machine everyone is a part of called society, and each of us represents a piece, willingly or not.
So, it seems rather obsolete to talk about albums in the end; let's talk about singles, of leading songs, radio-friendly or not, of CD singles, 7" 12" vinyls, EPs, Remixes, 45s. You need to know that the modern commercial setup of a good part of today's labels is built on the 70s school of dissemination and sales. Essentially, no matter the genre you listen to, it's all based on the disco music formula through which the product reaches you consumers.
What annoys me a bit is that with the birth and consolidation of the mp3, the physical medium of the CD single has found itself, let's say, almost disappearing, but the right word is 'replaced.'
At the time I'm writing, the few recent 45 RPM singles are as follows:
- The Duke: EP by Lamb of GOD
- Immortalized by Disturbed
- The new single by Anthrax
- The truth/the end by IN FLAMES
- Rock or Bust by ACDC

Well, I must say that I did my best to grab the 45 RPM by IN FLAMES. The one with the two songs from the new album that are probably worth listening to. Yes, because it's practically like that, it always has been.

Now we can reasonably move from the long prologue to the actual review of the record:
45 RPM The truth/the end by IN FLAMES.

I consider Melodic Metalcore, no more, no less as a greater, blatant commercialization, deeply aimed at spending money and captivating the class of consumers born in the 90s, more identifiable with the nickname "Bimbominkia" and the association Cokamedia-McDonald's-DragonBall-Smartphone-tattoos-familytragediesemo-Like rabbits, and with all due respect, it is music based on a mixture of punk hardcore rhythms and single-note 16th guitar riffs, vocals that are now melodic, now growling-screaming, essentially a money-making machine.
However, IN FLAMES have managed to touch my heart with a series of songs where the melody and frantic rhythms have a reason for being. Some tracks are truly credible as representations of youthful tragedy made of family trauma, love gone wrong like murder/suicide, and a screamo voice that seems authentic in narrating the horror that is life in our times.
But there is always the specter of well-being, boredom, the monotony of a comfortable, "arrived" life. Or maybe they simply don't want to bother much, are they pulling our leg? Well
The fact is that it only took listening to the first notes and watching the first seconds of the video clip with them playing video games in space, or similar nonsense to totally ruin them for me. The only reason I bought this single on vinyl is purely and simply for collection; then maybe I'll listen to it calmly and evaluate it better.