In Flames – Foregone Review

Finally, a new In Flames album that doesn’t suck! Thirteen years and five albums after Jesper Strömblad was fired, this and maybe Sounds of a Playground Fading (2011) are the only listenable albums these guys from Gothenburg have produced. The five (!) singles released are pretty much the best part, being the rest merely acceptable.

In a nutshell, Foregone is a mix of the melodeath that made them big and modern metalcore elements that at times remind a little bit too much to other bands in the genre (well, isn’t this a problem with the genre itself?). To help tackle Anders Fridén’s singing skills there’s some added autotune and different effects. The new axeman Chris Broderick is almost a totally wasted opportunity. There’s some catchy and cool tunes here but we don’t think we’ll be spinning this a lot. Good but not great. At least it feels more original than The Halo Effect‘s debut album.