In Flames - I, the Mask

Since the band’s shift toward a more alternative metal sound that began with Reroute to Remain, In Flames has gradually become the Anders Friden show as its founding members have departed one by one and been replaced with more-or-less session instrumentalists, the most dramatic departure of which probably being that of lead guitarist Jesper Strömblad, who largely developed the melodic style of death metal the band played in previously and taps into occasionally now. Now I have no problem with that on paper; plenty of bands I love either started out as the brainchild of one singular creative mastermind or became that way over time: Death was the genius of Chuck Schuldiner, Marilyn Manson is of course the leader and artistic compass of his eponymous band, while Opeth has become the Mikael Åkerfeldt project, and Behemoth has largely become driven by Nergal’s creative inspirations. And I have stated plenty of times that I quite enjoy plenty of alternative metal, including the most mainstream-accessible stuff, given it hits the right musical G-spots for me. In fact, I got into In Flames after hearing “Deliver Us” from Sounds of a Playground Fading, a song I found to be a fantastic blend of heavy guitar-driven melody and emotive alternative metal that I still hold as one of my favorite moments of the band’s. Other songs from this alternative metal-leaning second half of In Flames’ career like the heart-wrenching blaster “Take This Life”, the beat-driven “The Quiet Place”, the choral “Alias”, and the cathartic anthem “Drained” from their previous album are all great examples of how In Flames indeed has the potential to make inspired music in this style. The problem is that all those highlights are diluted by unimaginative, wash-rinse-repeat filler on the albums they come from. Consequently, the only In Flames albums I have returned to in full recently are the early albums like Colony, The Jester Race, Clayman, even Lunar Strain, and (to a lesser degree) Come Clarity, because In Flames has now become consistent only in providing a few bright moments among the dim alternative haze of their recent albums to keep them passable. With this album, however, what was really a long time coming finally happened, and no, In Flames didn’t go full pop like Bring Me the Horizon or douse the mix in trashy electronic nonsense, which I’m still dreading the likelihood they later do, though I sure am glad they didn’t do it here. This time, In Flames finally put together a consistent snoozer of an album devoid of any major highlights.

Formulaic, neutered, and dull instrumentally, I, the Mask is essentially background fodder for the slightly more nasal clean vocal style Anders Fridén has moved toward. Drumming up the same riffless mid-tempo beats and time-wasting gruff vocal verses for the choruses to fall flat on afterwards, these songs show just how crucial the instrumental insight of the band’s original members was to their transition to this style and far the band has veered off the side path they were doing okay on, and now they are lost.

I really don’t want to get too bogged down in the track-by-track analysis on this album. From front to back it’s a pretty straight shot through a slough of material akin to the lowest of lows of In Flames’ output with this alternative metal style. The only difference is the slight worsening of the tend toward hypercompressed production and the decrease in fervor in exchange for nasal-y whininess with which Anders Fridén performs his vocal parts on this album.

Still though, I will point out a few of the mild highs and some of the dreadful lows on here. The single “I Am Above”, while nothing phenomenal and still a victim of Fridén’s unflattering new vocal direction, ended up being one of the more emotionally invested cuts on the album, albeit only marginally. The song “Deep Inside”, with one of the better guitar motifs, is another one of the album’s more vibrant cuts, though the clean chorus is still nothing but a detraction from the song’s verse’s build. The bonus track, “Not Alone” is a decent alter metal chugged, but even as a heavy coda to the previous tracks it’s not much more invigorating in the long run.

As for the more notorious low points of the album, the flopped soaring vocal melody on the chorus of “Call My Name” sounds like it was ripped from a shitty late 2000’s alt metal song I can’t put my finger on, but it just shows how unoriginal In Flames have become, and the children’s chant at the end of “(This Is Our) House” comes off straight-up corny to a degree which means that you will never catch me listening to that shit in public, it’s that embarrassing. The following track, “We Will Remember” is a pretty exceptionally uninspired alternative pop-punk-flavored cut processed through the same simplistic formula as the rest of the songs on board this album. The repetitive chorus refrain on “Burn” is pretty corny too, and even the down-tuned guitars at the bridge can’t bring the Meshuggah fanboy in me to see that song positively.

This album is just so consistently flat, formulaic and predictable, it’s undoubtedly In Flames’ worst to date (in my eyes). There is so little that is salvageable from the soggy ashes of this once brilliantly blazing beacon of creativity so representative of the glorious melodic death metal movement from Gothenburg, reduced now to a regular schedule of lackluster alternative metal. At this point, this has really gone on long enough; there really anything else to say about this album. It’s an uninspired modern alternative metal album with little of the appeal of the genre or of the In Flames of better days.