Interview: In Flames
by Bushman
Name the hugest metal bands in the world, In Flames has played with them. Probably toured with them. They are respected by their peers IMMENSELY. For some unexplained reason, despite album after album of searing melodic European death metal, they’ve never ‘exploded’. Never been the next ‘big thing’. It seems either metal heads are totally into In Flames or missed the boat completely and are totally unaware.
The bands history stretches back to around 1994 and encompasses nine full lengths, an EP and a live album. Of course there are the members that have come and gone, but if one were to look for a turning point, it would be 2000’s “Clayman”. Perhaps it was the world finally getting over the stomach-ache caused by nu-metal, but that album saw a huge rise in sales for the band as well as seeing their name more frequently on the big name metal festivals. The bands melodic Death Metal stylings were becoming synonymous with ‘The Gothenburg Sound’, a critics crutch for describing music from a specific region that had much of the aggressive speed and guttural crunch of death metal, complete with harshed out vocals, but also showcased an excelling command of melody and a fearless use of Maiden-esque guitar solos that brought back the idea of originality in six-string leads. At The Gates, Dark Tranquility and Arch Enemy all see that ‘Gothenburg’ adjective applied to their music as well.
“Come Clarity” is the bands latest release, and first release on Ferret Records. The album shows the band in it’s most mature form to date. Vocalist Anders Friden has honed his death metal snarls into trade-offs with deep, rich melodic vocals, making the music a bit more accessible. The edges are still razor sharp, but the command of melody has risen to superior levels.
As the world wakes up to the beast that is In Flames, singer Anders Friden shares some metal observations.
How do you find out about new music?
Anders Friden: Word of mouth. Magazines. There are sites where you can find new bands. I go by record companies and producers. I get a lot of stuff for free.
What label would prompt you to buy a band without listening to it?
Ipecac is one of the more interesting labels. That’s Mike Patton’s label. All the stuff that he releases I always listen to and can buy knowing I will like it.
Do you think it’s been a gradual rise to success in the US, or was there a point when things started to snap and people ‘got it’?
I don’t think they’ve got it yet. I think it’s harder for European bands to break here than an American band.
The metal fans get it, but the broader audience might not be as much on board.
The metal fans over here are great. We love it here. That’s why we come back again and again. And we’ve been here, six or seven months, three times. It’s continuing work to push it. We haven’t had any radio singles or huge media coverage behind us, even though it’s getting better. Especially with our new deal with Ferret Records. But then we have to be here touring in the face of people all the time.
You guys were touring around the US in the late 90’s when the metal scene here was pretty disappointing. What were your views of the US metal scene during that period?
We were very different from everybody else. We did a tour with Earth Crisis and that was the birth of the melodic hardcore that now is pretty hip. And that was a strange combination at first, since we were told about them and how their fans would be, but we got across really good.
Your second release, ‘Subterreanean’ got you signed to Nuclear Blast. Many albums later, they still handle your European releases. They must treat you right.
We don’t have any complaints. Our work is so dear to us and we need to have full control over what we are doing. We don’t have to send in any demos or anything. We just write an album and give it to them and they release it because they know they are going to get a good product. I don’t know if that would ever happen to us on a major label.
‘Dead End’ (from “Come Clarity”) features the guest vocals of Swedish pop star Lisa Miskovsky. How did that collaboration come about?
We haven’t had a female vocalist in a few years. She’s a singer/songwriter of rock/pop stuff. She’s a very talented girl who has written a lot of good melodies. She’s had a lot of hits in Sweden. She even wrote a song with Backstreet Boys. That’s not why we picked her, I’m just telling a story. But she’s a very talented songwriter and she has a great voice. I came up with the idea that we should have a female voice on this album. So I thought, why not take somebody from a totally different spectrum? We could ask a female vocalist in the genre already, but that would be so obvious. That’s not who we are. So we asked her and hopefully we pissed off some people along the way. So we did a song with a pop singer. I met her at a festival. She was really cool and she even liked In Flames at lot. She grew up in Umea (Sweden), which is the same city that Meshuggah is from. She knows them and went to a lot of their concerts when she was younger.
The Tokyo showdown live album. Why did you choose that show to record live?
First of all, that album sucks. That’s the only thing in our discography that I’m not that proud of.
What don’t you like about it?
It doesn’t sound right. It’s terrible sound. We were a younger act and we had a chance to record a live album in Japan. Our record label told us to do it there. So when we got the tapes sent back to us, it was horrible. It was a struggle to mix the album at all. Some people like it. I don’t.
In Flames is most often labeled ‘Melodic Death Metal’. If anyone puts “Lunar Strain” on, it’s a fitting enough label. But for a long time fan who can measure the distance between that and “Come Clarity”, I think calling you guys ‘Death Metal’ on any level is misleading.
I don’t really care. I don’t think death metal is what we do now. We play an aggressive form of metal. That’s what we do. This labeling of bands is so important to people. I can understand it. If you have to write a review of some band, you have to tell the reader what it might sound like. It’s not that I don’t disagree. We come from a death metal background. That’s what we grew up listening to. That was a big influence in the beginning and we still listen to a lot of the old, brutal death metal bands. But it doesn’t influence the way we write music these days.
Do you feel people pay enough attention to the words?
That’s hard to answer. I like it when people do. To me, they are very important. But it’s not like I walk around going, “please read this.” If someone has an interest, they can read it.
You were on Ozzfest two years back as the first band on the main stage. You guys should have challenged Mudvayne to a fist fight for their slot.
Mudvayne are our friends. I don’t want to fight them. It wasn’t the greatest thing in the world. We reached out to a lot of people I guess. It felt kind of uncomfortable being the opening band. People are sitting down, it’s hot, and we play five songs. It’s very hard to show people who we really are and play something from beginning to end, like a headline show. But these tours are our way to promote ourselves to a lot of people. Obviously, we want to focus on later material. And if you like it, you can move backwards and trace our history.
Is there a Swedish sense of humor?
Yeah. We use a lot of irony. Stuff a lot of people don’t get. There is definitely a special type of humor.
Does that translate well into something like American TV?
No. It doesn’t work anywhere else. Especially in Germany. The word ‘irony’ doesn’t exist in their vocabulary.
What have you learned about the music industry as the success of your band has grown?
To believe in yourself. Don’t take things for granted. Just try to enjoy the moment. It could be over whenever. You never know.
That sounds more like a life-lesson.
I treat this as my life. This is what I do. I’m home three months a year. It is a way of life and I don’t think everybody can do that.
Can you give me some sagely advice for the kids to make their lives better?
Don’t believe in everything that the TV and media tell you. Go out and find out for yourself. Travel the world. Get the picture. I heard this girl the other day, she was saying, “I want to go study in Europe, but I don’t dare to. People in Europe hate Americans.” And I was like, “What? Are you stupid? Where did you hear that?” I guess she checked Fox news or something. You guys over here are so media oriented. You get pumped all these messages from the TV. If you don’t make up your own opinion, you start believing that shit and then you alienate yourself from the rest of the world.
2006 Come Clarity (Ferret)
2004 Soundtrack to Your Escape (Nuclear Blast)
2003 Trigger (Nuclear Blast)
2002 Reroute to Remain (Nuclear Blast)
2001 The Tokyo Showdown Live (Nuclear Blast)
2000 Clayman (Nuclear Blast)
1999 Colony (Nuclear Blast)
1997 Whoracle (Nuclear Blast)
1996 The Jester Race (Nuclear Blast)
1994 Subterranean (Wrong Again)
1994 Lunar Strain (Wrong Again)
