Francais | English | Espanõl

In Flames

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: #f9f9f9;">
250px

</td></tr><tr><th>Origin</th><td>Gothenburg, SwedenImage:Flag of Sweden.svg</td></tr><tr><th>Years active</th><td>1990 – present</td></tr><tr><th>Genres</th><td>Melodic death metal
Alternative metal</td></tr><tr><th>Labels</th><td>Regain Records
Nuclear Blast
Candlelight Records
Ferret Records</td></tr><tr><th>Members</th><td>

Anders Fridén
Björn Gelotte
Jesper Strömblad
Peter Iwers
Daniel Svensson</td></tr>

In Flames

In Flames are a Swedish melodic death metal band from the city of Gothenburg. During the years changed and evolved their style through many influences, especially in the last years. Like At the Gates, their heavy influence on the genre is not disputed.

In Flames' line-up underwent constant changes throughout their early career. Their first stable line-up was composed by the founding members Jesper Strömblad, Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström, with Mikael Stanne guest-singing for vocals. It is with this line-up that they recorded their first album Lunar Strain. Stanne then departed and was replaced by Henke Forss for the album Subterranean, which also included new drummer Daniel Erlandsson. Henke subsequently left the band as well, opening the door for Anders Fridén (who was ironically the vocalist for Dark Tranquillity at the time) for the vocal duties and Bjorn Gelotte on the drums. It was under this new line-up that they signed with Nuclear Blast Records and recorded The Jester Race. This album garnered the band world-wide recognition, especially in Europe and Japan.

The band is perhaps best known to metal fans for their albums The Jester Race, Whoracle, Colony and Clayman. However, the group came to mainstream attention with Reroute to Remain, Soundtrack To Your Escape and their most recent studio album Come Clarity (which has sold over 110,000 copies in the United States).

Contents

[edit] History

In Flames began when three members of Ceremonial Oath — Jesper Strömblad, Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström — quit the band in order to start a musical project of their own. (Interestingly they both recorded covers of Metallica songs for the Metal Militia tribute compilation) They recorded a short demo which was sent to a few recording labels. The owner of Wrong Again Records thought the band had promise, and soon closed a recording deal with them. From this deal surfaced In Flames' first album - entitled Lunar Strain, which relied on aggressive instrumental work, at times combined with acoustic sections. Session vocals for the album were recorded by Mikael Stanne, though soon after he would leave to sing for Dark Tranquillity (having already played guitar for them), with then Dark Tranquillity vocalist Anders Fridén replacing him. The album obtained success on the Swedish underground scene and received positive critics from the specialized press. However, In Flames soon became known to most of Europe with the release of the EP from 1995 Subterranean (vocals on this release were recorded by Henke Forss, soon to be replaced by Fridén). The EP attracted the attention of the Nuclear Blast label, which offered them a contract for a European release the same year. A short tour with Kreator followed.

Due to the band's increasing success, Johan Larsson and guitarist Glenn Ljungström — who were already part of other established bands — decided to quit In Flames due to the difficulties of sharing time between different projects. Their last contribution to the band was the album Whoracle, from 1997. Peter Iwers(on the bass) and Niklas Engelin(on the guitar) were then invited to accompany In Flames in the joint tour with Dimmu Borgir that followed Whoracle's release. This line-up worked rather well, and by the end of the tour the musicians became permanent members of In Flames. Together they travelled Europe and made the band's first concert outside of Europe, in Japan. However, by the end of that tour, Niklas Engelin quit the band due to musical differences. Drummer Björn Gelotte assumed the guitars and Sacrilige's Daniel Svensson assumed the drums. This line-up recorded Colony, and a partial world tour followed.

2000 saw the release of Clayman. By this time, the band had already become widely known, and played with bands of major recognition such as Dream Theater, Slipknot and Testament. Chris Amott (who was in Arch Enemy at the time) made a guest appearance on the track "Suburban Me" on this album. Peter Iwers' first daughter was born, and he temporarily left the band. He was replaced by Dick Löwgren for a year. When he came back to the band, the live album The Tokyo Showdown was recorded. In 2002, Reroute to Remain was the first release of In Flames not produced in the Studio Fredman. This album introduced the use of clean vocals instead of only death growls, American alternative metal influences and some more keyboards and electronics than previous albums. This led to mixed reviews, gaining new fans and causing older fans to state that In Flames had "sold out." Their seventh album, Soundtrack to Your Escape, in 2004, took another step into this direction.

A DVD box set was released in September 2005 entitled Used and Abused: In Live We Trust. The band toured on the 2005 Ozzfest on the main stages and supported Motörhead on its 30th anniversary tour in Autumn 2005. The band sold over 1 million records all over the world before the release of Come Clarity. This album, released in early 2006 but recorded in March 2005, is the band's most successful album to date. Come Clarity has been widely acclaimed by fans and critics alike, particularly many of those that felt the previous two albums to be a major departure. It was on the top of the charts in Sweden and in Finland in its first week of sales. In addition, the band figured in position #58 in the US Billboard chart, with 24,000 albums solds, in the first week of the sale.

After the release of Come Clarity, the band took part in the 2006 The Unholy Alliance tour in Europe with Slayer, Children of Bodom, Lamb of God and Thine Eyes Bleed. Founding member Jesper Strömblad did not play in some of the European shows of the tour, notably the London show at the Carling Brixton Academy. This is apparently due to personal problems. The remaining members insist he will return to the band soon. Niklas Engelin has been filling in the guitar duties following his departure.

[edit] Influence

Along with Dark Tranquillity, Soilwork, At the Gates and Sentenced, In Flames is widely thought of as one of the first practitioners, if not inventor of the melodic death metal genre. Although it is true that Carcass's Heartwork, which precedes In Flames' noteworthy album The Jester Race, features some excellent examples of the subgenre as well. Other pioneers could be Ceremonial Oath and Septic Broiler (Now Dark Tranquillity). Advocates of this theory claim that melodic death metal in its best form are songs such as "Episode 666" and "Jotun". In any case, bands such as Arch Enemy name In Flames as a vital influence.

[edit] Awards

In Flames were honored with the "Swedish Music Export" prize at Sweden's "Grammis" awards, which were held Tuesday night, February 7 2006 at Cirkus in Stockholm. In Flames were the first metal band ever to win this award. "Thanks to In Flames, Sweden now has a metal band in the absolute world elite," the Swedish economy minister Thomas Östros said of the award.

[edit] Line-up

[edit] Former members

[edit] Vocals

[edit] Guitars

[edit] Bass

[edit] Drums

[edit] Session Members

[edit] Guest Artists

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Album Cover Date of Release Title Label US Billboard Peak US sales
August, 1994 Lunar Strain Wrong Again Records - -
Image:202 202.jpg
June 15, 1995 Subterranean (EP) Wrong Again Records - -
February 20, 1996 The Jester Race Nuclear Blast - -
Image:Blackashinheritance.jpg
October 28, 1997 Black-Ash Inheritance (MCD) Nuclear Blast - -
November 18, 1997 Whoracle Nuclear Blast - -
June 14, 1999 Colony Nuclear Blast - -
July 25, 2000 Clayman Nuclear Blast - -
Image:Tokyo showdown.jpg
September 4, 2001 The Tokyo Showdown (Live) Nuclear Blast - -
September 3, 2002 Reroute to Remain Nuclear Blast Heatseekers: #10 -
June 17, 2003 Trigger (EP) Nuclear Blast - -
April 6, 2004 Soundtrack to Your Escape Nuclear Blast Billboard Top 200: #145 100,000
Image:Inflamescomeclarity.jpg
February 7, 2006 Come Clarity Nuclear Blast (EU including UK)

Ferret Records (US)

Billboard Top 200: #58 110,000

[edit] Singles

[edit] DVDs

[edit] Trivia

  • The video for Trigger is a reverse of Soilwork's video for Rejection Role. Both of which are filmed in the same location, and includes the performing band being heckled by the other. The two bands at one point in both videos confront eachother for a fight on a set of steps. While the fight itself is not shown, the winner of the fight is assumed to be the performing band in each video. This is shown by one member of the other band having a black eye afterwards.
  • The video for Cloud Connected contains elements from the TV series and movie Stargate.

[edit] External links

In Flames
Anders Fridén | Jesper Strömblad | Björn Gelotte | Peter Iwers | Daniel Svensson
Mikael Stanne | Henke Forss | Joakim Göthberg | Glenn Ljungström | Niklas Engelin | Anders Iwers | Martin Mathisen | Carl Näslund | Johann Larsson | Anders Jivarp | Daniel Erlandsson
Discography
Albums and EPs: Lunar Strain | Subterranean | The Jester Race | Black-Ash Inheritance | Whoracle | Colony | Clayman | The Tokyo Showdown | Reroute to Remain | Trigger | Soundtrack to Your Escape | Used and Abused: In Live We Trust | Come Clarity
Singles: Cloud Connected | The Quiet Place
Categories: In Flames albums
[[Category:Swedish
Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/In_Flames"
Personal tools