Artist: In Flames
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date: 9/3/02
Average Rating: 3.13
Go to Judgment Committee Reviews of this Album
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Title: Reroute to Remain Artist: In Flames Label: Nuclear Blast Records Release Date: 9/3/02 |
There are currently 8 Reader Reviews of this album.
Average Rating: 3.13 Go to Judgment Committee Reviews of this Album |
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Submitted by Andres (4/21/03):
It's an album you have to listen a lot of times in order to get its sound. It's not bad, it's not great; it's simply different. Sure, it's obvious they tried to do something different, but it is okay with me. I like almost everything they have done, and those who criticize this album like if it was the worst ever, are wrong. It's just like a, "fuck off, we-do-what-we-want" album. All bands have the right to experiment with their sound the way they want, and no shithead fan has the right to say what is right or what is wrong for a band, any band. Enjoy the music and listen carefully to it.
Submitted by Dub (11/24/02):
This album is a masterpiece!! Yeah, it's not Jester or Whoracle, but c'mon, it's their new album. By definition, it should be music we've never heard. And that's exactly what it is... new, refreshing, heavy, catchy, creative, memorable and oh yeah... heavy. I'm a fan of many musical styles (Johnny Cash to Bloodbath) and I think this is revolutionary. I can't think of any band that has been in this territory before. I don't think any other band could pull this off either. Anyway, I fuckin' love this shit. I can't wait to see/hear:
1. In Flames Live... set list of new and old will blend perfectly.
2. What they come up with next.
Submitted by big bob (11/13/02):
This was my second encounter with In Flames. After buying Clayman earlier in the year and only being moderately impressed with it I was skeptical in buying Reroute to Remain. Clayman to me seemed like it wasn't sure if it wanted to be a melodic death metal or a melodic hard rock record, both of which I don't mind, but the album itself seemed incoherent to me. Reroute to Remain has futher pushed both boundaries of the abovementioned genres. It is heavier and more death metal in place than Clayman but also more melodic and poppy at times, especially songs like "Cloud Connected" and "Dawn of a New Day". The music on the most part is heavier and faster but with an emphasis on sweeter and more melodic chord progressions as well as the inclusions of 'must have' twin guitar melodies melting my earlobes on every track. The songs are heavier and also more accessible which will impress a whole new generation of fans but also alienate the older fans of their pure death metal roots. In short, an excellent album, totaly coherent, totally melodic, totally In Flames and totally METAL!
Submitted by Locrian (10/10/02):
I love this band. I love this record. No, it is not "Clayman II", which is what all the controversy about "selling out" has been about. Just like there can never be a "Reign in Blood II" or a "Heartwork II". So... will everyone please let it go already, and enjoy this for what it is!The guitars on here sound reeaallly cool - when Stromblad & co. hit an open-E palm muted power chord it goes WUUMPHHH the way good metal should. The drums... you can get drunk on this sound, I can almost see the drum kit shaking under this fierce pounding attack. The production is smooth and clean - so clean that you can hear the "click" of the guitar pick hitting the strings (just before another glorious WUMPH!) or the sound of a drum stick making its first tender contact with the skin. The songs are heavy - some of them are heavier than anything on Clayman, for instance the opening riff of song #2 (System) or the fierce, thrashy pounding of #8 (Egonomic). Instances like these remind me strongly of the recent Dimension Zero release - it is that aggressive. There's a lot of fast double-picking in the riffing, especially of the triplet "galloping horse" variety, which with this guitar sound gives you three, yes THREE, VERY fast WUMMPHs in a row. YEAH!!
The songwriting is not as creative as Clayman, and there are a lot less dynamics - no acoustic guitar pieces, for instance. The songs basically start, thrash around for 3 minutes and end.
The main struggling point here for many headbangers will be the syrupy-sweet choruses - it seems like they appear out of nowhere, it goes "thrashy riff, thrashy riff, pound the drumkit like hell - syrupy chorus." Many of the choruses are not even that melodic, they're just long drawn out single note affairs sung in harmonised, processed vocals (cellphone vocals!). Like on Dismiss the Cynics - "The mys-te-ry of t-i-i-i-i-i-m-e", all on one note. (If I have the lyrics wrong, forgive me, but you get the idea.)
Oh and yes, there is a ballad, complete with fiddle. If you don't like it (and who does), hit skip. That leaves 13 songs that shouldn't make anyone feel short-changed.
All in all, this is In Flames' weakest release, for sure. So compared to their other work it doesn't deserve a high rating. But that's not what reviews are for - reviews are there because you, the buyer, want to make an economic decision (whether to buy or copy this album ha ha). On that basis I STILL want to give it 5 skulls because it is MUCH more enjoyable than any other release this year (including the new Dark Tranquillity) and if you dig In Flames this is a priority purchase. BUT the poppy choruses may present an unacceptable irritation to some, so I'll give it a 4.
Submitted by Deacon Frost (9/5/02):
When I got this record, I already envisioned some of the tracks in my head. Some of them will contain an Iron Maiden riff that sounds a lot like Jotun while Anders is still trying to sound like Dave Gowan when he sings clean. Boy was I wrong.The boys really had me in a loop out here... They managed to make Clayman sound like The Jester race'. I admit though that the choruses are damn catchy that it will make me sing along with it and ''Trigger'' is as good as it gets with an In Flames song. The problem mainly with this album is that it has too much layering in it and like soul food that the bruthers eat... it will leave you sickened and bloated. The arrangements are a lot like Soilwork's Natural Born Chaos and both of them truly made me feel apathetic that I wasted my bandwidth downloading them. I will give credit though where credit is due, the drumming has improved considerably that it was interesting for a while trying to just listen to the drum tracks to every song to see the huge improvement. They added classic rock elements by sounding like Jefferson Airplane with ''Dawn of a new day'' which can't be taken as either good or bad in my point of view since I haven't listened that much to JA but I just want to prove that I listen to 60's rock bands to prove I'm down with the classicist.
I can't say anything anymore that hasn't been said about this album. Their fans are already furious as hell that they will whine like Bud Selig bitch about his Brewers not affording players that will make them competitive. It's left to be said that chances are (I'll spot $5) that they are going back ''to their roots'' if this album flops. I also would spot another $2 if Anders go Fred Durst on us next album and be so damn angry that we idiots mock his voice.
Submitted by Devastated (9/4/02):
Being an avid fan of In Flames, I have been awaiting the release of Reroute to Remain ever since I saw a posting about a new record on their website. I was hoping that In Flames would make another Jester Race. However, when I discovered the picture of them wearing all white in the band photo for the album, I got worried. Then, my worst nightmare came true: In Flames has officialy forgotten its old, hardcore following. Yet, as this goes through my mind, I still try and convince myself this could be another landmark album. Sadly, I was mistaken.I went out to the local record store to buy this CD the day it came out. I had already heard a couple of songs off the CD and they had started to grow on me. I had heard the title track, "Trigger," "Cloud Connected," and "System." So, when I popped in the CD, I noticed a couple of familiar songs to start off with and I was really starting to enjoy it when I heard the worst In Flames song ever: "Metaphor." The thing that went through my mind at first was, "Wow, this can't be In Flames." Sadly enough, to my dismay, Reroute to Remain was still playing and God wasn't trying to play a dirty, dirty trick on me. WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING WHEN THEY WROTE THIS PIECE OF ABSOLUTE GARBAGE? Sweet jesus they must be trying hard to go Radio Rock on us. The rest of the songs were merely mediocre and the only other one worth mentioning is "Egonomic," which is another decent track.
However, all in all, this album seems very uninspired. I don't know how the boys in In Flames could possibly convince themselves this is their best release to date. Musically, it is is sub par, vocally, it is sub par, and thusly, as a whole it is sub par. I sill feel let down everytime I listen to some of the songs. Sad, sad, sad...
Submitted by Lucky (9/4/02):
Well In Flames' new album, what can I say, I was one of the many who highly anticipated this new album. Let me start by saying I'm not sure why they thank Slipknot of all people in their booklet, Slipknot should be thanking them for letting them rip 'em off! And by ripping off in Slipknot terms I mean trying to play some guitar stuff In Flames came up with. I have been a Slipknot hater basically since before they became a band so I thought I would put that out there, heh. The album has its ups and its downs, but it's still by far better then a lot of bands' recent attempts at "metal". It sure still beats the hell out of these nu metal bastards and bands that play watered down classic "metal". I don't think this album has such a mainstream sound as some say it does. It still is very much In Flames and I do not think this will be any permanent direction for the band. "Cloud Connecter" has some good riffage, and the lyrics are not too shabby on many of the tracks. The solos are a bit watered down for my taste, but they still have some depth not shown by many bands who copied the In Flames sound. I will say however there is prolly some band out there right now that sounds a lot more like classic In Flames then In Flames, heh, but I'm sure their live playing will still carry the old sound on.
Submitted by Evil Barns (9/1/02):
This is quite possibly the worst album I have had the misfortune to hear this year. Once a great band, In Flames have been on the decline of late, and I wasn't expecting much from their new one, but it has surpassed my expectations.The first song I heard from this was the absolutely nauseating "Cloud Connected." Everything about this wretched song stinks, from the pathetic, whimpering 'talky' vocals of the verses to the sheer linkin park chorus.
It is the vocals which are probably the worst aspect of this album; Anders' attempts at clean singing are utterly cringeworthy (he's even worse than Soilwork's vocalist), and his scream has regressed to a nu-metal sounding whine. Musically, it is also a huge disappointment, with half-baked riffs, much fewer solos, and far too much keyboard and electronics. At their best, songs on this album just sound like generic and watered down versions of earlier material. It's also annoyingly overproduced, giving it a sterile and boring quality.
I am all for bands experimenting and progressing with their sound. But softening, simplifying, and commercialising is not progression. I'm usually hesitant to throw around the term 'sellout', but here you really have to wonder. To me, it seems pretty obvious that they've dumbed down and americanised their sound to appeal to the masses of trend loving nu-metallers. That may sound like a tired and cliched analysis, but who cares - it's true.
I'd love to see this piece of garbage fail miserably, but it does not seem probable. What will more likely happen is that N*Flames will find themselves in a niche among all the other favourites of 15 year old 'heavy music' fans, along with the likes of disturbed, soulfly, and slipknot.
I rate this a gaping anus zero.
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