Siren Charms

(These first two paragraphs are part of one huge rant. If you're not interested in that, everything that really matters is below those two.)

I've been meaning to review this album for a *very* long time now. It's undoubtedly in the bottom two when it comes to In Flames albums both objectively and subjectively (Though I think it's growing on me a lot more than A Sense of Purpose is at the moment), and that will hopefully never change. I was originally going to lay into this album without any intention to defend it because I hated it just a little bit less than Battles. Fortunately or unfortunately, that's very much changed, and I think this may be my longest review yet. Finally, after I, the Mask, we've come to see In Flames climbing out of that ditch they dug just a little bit. While so many believe that Sounds of a Playground Fading is the first album of In Flames' dark ages (It really feels like most old IF fans parted ways with them after ASoP), I think that Siren Charms is where those seeds with the songwriting first sprouted. Make no mistake, they were there back in A Sense of Purpose, and even moreso in Sounds of a Playground Fading, but for the most part, I think the change in the songwriting (Particularly in terms of the melodies) actually works there. Here, particularly with the solos... Not so much. I latched on to a couple songs from this album on first listen, but it was easily bottom two even before I both got into melodeath, black metal, Anaal Nathrakh (They just have their own feel), shoegaze, etc. and before I really began to understand what separates good music from bad music. The band recorded Siren Charms in six weeks (I'm not particularly sure how much time they spent writing, but I'm not sure it was that much, as I remember hearing something about it being under a year, though I couldn't find anything to confirm that), and I respect the fuck out of them for that because it shows. Siren Charms tried to do something unique, even with them following up on SoaPF's sound, which I appreciate so much more than Battles' cookie cutter, disingenuous, autotuned to Hell and back, pop metal bullshit. The problem is that Siren Charms is *really* incohesive, the songs vary in quality, the pacing is a mess, many segments with mediocre to poor writing. Pair those issues with Anders' waning vocals that made the autotune on Battles a sadly needed crutch, Anders broke away from more personal lyrics (For the most part) and replaced them with some pretty cringeworthy shit, Bjorn added some really annoying high-pitched solos has laced the modern era's music with (That did work when they appeared on previous albums, for the most part) that are also incohesive with the rest of the music, severe missteps with production/mixing included but not limited to: Compressed drums that lack punch, certain solos being multiple decibels louder than they should be, the bass just not being present all too often (Which tended to not be an issue for In Flames up until Siren Charms, and would unfortunately become a continued issue from here on out), etc. I don't think production and mixing cut into their six week time limit, so it's baffling why it's so goddamn rife with issues. For all I know, there was also time crunch there too, but I haven't found any information regarding that.

Either way, one thing is for sure: Sony Music, their label for *only* Siren Charms, should never have put such a time constraint on them. Such a time constraint should never be placed on a band in general, and I absolutely blame Sony Music the most for the issues here. I'm not only blaming them, as the band should've had some form of quality control, but I completely understood why they didn't, or rather really couldn't. Sure, the writing process wasn't confined to that timeframe, but it was done while touring, so I get why they didn't have the attentiveness for quality control then. That's something that is generally saved for writing while off the road or for when the band is in the studio, which they didn't exactly have. Considering that they were touring as late as August 2013 (Just over a year before the release of Siren Charms), I personally believe that they didn't have suitable time to do that much quality control for the writing. I'd imagine that production and mixing had to have a process that lasted at least two-three months each.

That being said, there are so many more issues than just the songwriting, even if it's the biggest issue. Anders' vocals are at their lowest point here, and the production and mixing is at their lowest point until Howard Benson eviscerated whatever little could be salvaged from Battles. The lyrics are, for the most part, really bad, and a massive step down from Sounds of a Playground Fading, which was one of the band's best outings lyrically.

Alright, now that I've both tore the album apart and defended it maybe a little too much, let's get into each individual piece.

The guitars here aren't too bad, actually. They come out really clear, with production not butchering them nor mixing pushing them too far back. Clean guitars are gain some prevalence on Siren Charms ("With Eyes Wide Open", "Siren Charms"), and they sound really nice here. As much as I would've liked "Paralyzed" or "Through Oblivion" to gain such treatment as well, I get why they didn't and think they're fine without it. Leads are mostly good, though some songs like "Dead Eyes" and "Filtered Truth" are dead on arrival. The rhythm section's actually pretty good (Then again, I grew up on nu metal, so I might just have shit taste), and I think that's due to Engelin's contributions, which tend to go without much fanfare. I think that'll change with The Halo Effect, but maybe people'll stay too caught up with Jesper (Which, in fairness, it's fucking Jesper, he's incredible). I hear Engelin's sound quite a bit on "Everything's Gone", which I liked well enough on first listen, but it's especially grown on me recently. The solos, however... Most of them are really high pitched and annoying as fuck, and while they're *objectively* fine... I think most of us really don't like Bjorn's style there. Considering that solos tend to be a high point for In Flames, it's really sad to see. I'll counter the argument of: "Well, what about December Flower's solo? It's also high pitched!" Yes, but it is in a way that sounds good, and the leads complement it perfectly. Siren Charms really doesn't have either luxury, as I think I'd rather hear a violin being played incorrectly while it's being sawed in half vertically. All exaggeration aside, if Disarmonia Mundi does it right and you do it wrong, you have a serious issue.

I pretty much said all I needed to about the drums. Compressed and lacking in punch. "Everything's Gone" is an exception, weirdly enough, and it works for ballads and lighter songs like "Paralyzed", "Through Oblivion", and "With Eyes Wide Open". Otherwise, save for the bonus tracks (Which are both phenomenal in every aspect), they're the weakest they've ever been for In Flames, and it's a really sad sendoff for Svensson.

Again, the bass is a bit lost in the mix. Fuck. Keyboards are fine, nothing too much to say there.

Vocals... See, they work for a couple songs like the stretch of songs from "Everything's Gone" through the title track, but there are many times where he sounds like he's straining, or like his vocals are damaged/worn down. This is something that would get better with time, and Anders actually sounds so much better in live performances for some of these songs years down the line. His screams and growls in particularly have suffered severely, to the point where even I, someone who quite likes and pretty much always defends Anders' vocals, can't say that they're good. He sounds faint and frail with them, and can rarely sustain a scream or growl. As for his clean vocals, they're quite nice in certain songs. In others, you have pretty much spoken word with him attempting to have the cadence of his clean singing, and it doesn't quite work.

It's unfortunate because this album's finally grown on me, for some reason. I know it's not good, and it's not exactly a guilty pleasure like Battles simply because the melodies are catchy. I think that there's genuinely good musicianship buried somewhere here, but with each and every issue, it's like another layer of sediment on top of a chest of gold. The hard rock/heavier alt metal style genuinely works for the band like with Sounds of a Playground Fading, though not quite as well here due to songwriting issues and what feels sounds decades of age since the prior release. "Everything's Gone" is an awesome song, and even though the studio version doesn't quite have the power that it has the potential to carry, live performances absolutely do, though anything not on the base album doesn't affect my rating or review. "Paralyzed" and "Through Oblivion" work as genuinely good lighter, catchy hard rock songs in a vain that ballads like "The Chosen Pessimist", "Here Until Forever", "Evil in a Closet", etc. from the other albums don't quite reach. "With Eyes Wide Open" and "Siren Charms" are phenomenal ballads instrumentally, even if the lyrics kill whatever goodwill the songs could have. "Rusted Nail" has a lot of variety with its delivery, particularly vocally, with each verse, chorus, and section feeling distinct because of little touches that actually show how much care should've and would've gone into the album if it had the proper time to do so. The band clearly knew that this would be the lead single, so they put that much care into it. "When the World Explodes" works because of Emilia Feldt, though she's probably my least favorite female vocalist they've had feature. By now, I might very well be right on the cusp of the threshold for a "track by track" review, and that's because there's a lot to talk about with each song... And yet they're all so forgettable. I don't listen to "With Eyes Wide Open" ever. I only listen to the instrumental version of the title track. "When the World Explodes", as the resident heavy song, just isn't heavy enough for me anymore, and just how thin it is became evident. The opener is pretty formulaic and mediocre, save for the electronic intro. Not to mention, the band fumbles the ball at the last moment with "Dead Eyes" and the closer. They're easily "Bottled" levels of filler, and that's fucking aggravating to me, especially since the bonus tracks can easily stand up with the best of In Flames' catalogue. The bonus tracks are actually a bit experimental in structure and approach, they sound phenomenal in every way, and they could so easily replace these two dead-tier tracks to make the album be remembered well by ending off on a good note. Even then, I completely understand why the four lighter songs/ballads would turn people away. Even though they're written well and don't have those annoying fucking solos, they're so far removed from why people love in Flames. The former two take a middle ground that are just alienating enough, and the latter two have such poor lyrics that they actively kill the songs.

I think there's genuinely something to love here, but every fucking issue all stack up to make a really poor album. When you dig beneath the surface and try to dissect the album, there's a ton of variety, *some* good musicianship, clear passion, and some good ideas. In fact, if you were to take the best of the best from this album and its bonus tracks, do some damage control, and turn them into an EP, you would probably have one of In Flames' best releases. Maybe it's just because the album's grown on me as time's gone on, maybe it's because I'm mellowing out as I'm getting a bit older (Not to say that I'm old yet), or maybe it's because I've been learning so much more about music, writing music, reading tabs, and music theory. I don't really know. All I know is that if given the proper time- And "Rusted Nail" proves this for me- In Flames could've made a really solid follow-up to Sounds of a Playground Fading, which is still my second-favorite album from the band.

This is where I'd love to end the review on a positive note. Unfortunately, the band put out an F tier album after this. Battles is just horrendous, and anything positive I said about this album just doesn't apply there. It's easily the simplest, poppiest, most disingenuous, and outright bad In Flames album to date. Down, Wicked, and No Good did what Battles attempted to far better than it when it comes to the synth pop side, and I, the Mask did what Battles attempted to do far better than it on the metal side. And even with all the shit I have talked and will continue to talk about Battles, I genuinely think that In Flames and Benson *could've* done the style well for that album. I think Fandigo by Callejon (A band who I otherwise don't particularly care for) is a fantastic album in the same style as Battles. It goes for synth rock in a much better way, has some metalcore moments in some songs, tackles song structure differently, is much more genuine with its introspection, and is just better music than Battles overall. If you're a newer In Flames fans who hated Battles like myself, do give Fandigo a try. If you don't like it, that's perfectly understandable, especially since it isn't In Flames. But then again, neither is Battles. Nothing about Battles screams In Flames. As someone whose favorite band is In Flames, I can't even say that about Siren Charms.

Here's probably the trickiest section of all. See, I don't really know what to recommend on either side here. So with everything I know about both older and newer In Flames fans, this is all I feel confident enough to put.

Tracks to Recommend: "Everything's Gone", "The Chase", "Become the Sky"
Tracks to Avoid: "With Eyes Wide Open", "Dead Eyes", "Filtered Truth"

I’m going to be honest, the first time I heard In Flames’ 2014 album, Siren Charms, I thought it sucked hard. So hard, in fact, that I never wanted to listen to it again. Siren Charms marks yet another turning point in In Flames’ lengthy career in that it is the first album in the band’s entire discography that was nearly universally panned by fans of both their old and new style. Depending on what music website you are using, Siren Charms typically holds the lowest or second lowest average out of all the band’s full-length albums. Since I am reviewing the band’s entire discography it was inevitable that I would have to relisten at some point to get my thoughts on the album together and I can’t say I was looking forward to it. With that being said, upon revisiting the album, Siren Charms wasn’t quite as bad as I remembered.

The music on Siren Charms is what I would consider a clear cut example of alternative metal. There is a large amount of rock influence on the album and there is also a lot of emphasis on radio friendly choruses and clean singing. Due to this, Siren Charms is probably the least metallic album that the band has ever made. There are some melodic metal riffs and guitar leads present that hint at the band’s glory days, but they are only utilized occasionally and, when they are, they are extremely watered down in order to keep with the radio friendly style of the album.

As bad as this may sound, I personally think that it sort of works at points. The opening track, “In Plain View”, for example, has some catchy riffs and the melodic guitar lead in the chorus was one of the only things that stood out to me the first time I listened to the album years ago. Another track that is pretty decent is “Through Oblivion” which has some catchy keyboard parts and singing that I found to be enjoyable even though it’s not really metal. Aside from these two songs the only other noteworthy tracks on the album are “When the World Explodes”, which contains some pretty sounding female singing and finally the track “Everything’s Gone” which is the only heavy track on the entire album. I don’t think the track is particularly good, but it's out of place intensity sticks out on an otherwise slow and radio friendly album. The track contains some heavy and groovy riffs along with one that sounds sort of hardcore inspired, but it really isn’t anything other than passible. The rest of the music on the album just sort of goes in through one ear and out the other. Some of the choruses land and are somewhat enjoyable, but a lot of them, especially in the latter half of the album, don’t. Most of the album is just bland without being offensive enough to cause irritation. While listening to this in preparation for this review, I kept being reminded of mid to late era Disturbed (a band that I used to listen to a lot when I was in my early teen years) due to how simplistic metal riffs occasionally come in and out of the music while the focus is mainly placed on rock choruses.

As for the performances themselves, the album is generally well played in spite of it’s blandness. Anders Friden obviously handles the vocal work on Siren Charms and he has basically abandoned harsh vocals all together here, instead opting to force the listener to endure his mediocre cleans for most of the albums runtime. His vocals aren’t outright awful, but I sure as hell don’t want to listen to a 45 minute long record of them. The only exception to this is on the aforementioned song “Everything’s Gone” where his vocals are harsh at a few points. Unlike the previous record, the band decided to hire an additional guitarist to replace Jesper Stromblad and they decided to go with Niclas Engelin, who is mostly known for his work in the alternative metal band Engel and the melodic death metal band Gardenian. I am not very familiar with either of these bands, but on Siren Charms this guy, along with Bjorn Gelotte, bring forth quite possibly the weakest guitar performances in the entire In Flames catalog. There are almost no guitar leads to speak of and the riffs are only occasionally good. I honestly don’t think there is a single solo on the album either. Their playing isn’t bad from a technical perspective, but the songwriting is extremely watered down. As for the other instruments, Peter Iwers, who plays bass, and Daniel Svensson, the drummer, go almost completely unutilized. The former doesn’t ever play anything noticeable and the latter just plays simplistic drum beats for most of the album. Once again, this is more the fault of the writing than the musicians.

To sum up, this album has issues that mostly stem from it’s watered down approach to writing songs. A lot of people proclaim this to be the worst In Flames album and I personally do not blame them for doing so. While not unlistenable, this is not the kind of music that I (or anyone else really) want this band to be playing and, as a result, it is not surprising that this album was panned. With that being said, if you are a hardcore fan of this band I would still suggest you give the album a listen on the off chance that you might find redeeming value. For everyone else, I would steer clear.

Maybe I'm going soft, but I actually kinda like Siren Charms. It isn't the most polished album and it certainly isn't one of the greatest albums of all time, but there's a charming quality about it that I can't help but appreciate. Melodeath it is not, and equally the intensity is pretty low. If that's what you're here for, obviously you're going to go away disappointed. However, I find quite a lot of this to be not only decent, but actually rather good.

Anders gets a lot of flack for his vocals, and honestly I see where that comes from. His screams get worse with every new album and at best they can be described as an earsore. On a positive note though his cleans are not quite as bad, and even if they only raise the bar to 'meh' they do comprise at least half of the vocals on Siren Charms. That being said, he does have a few highlights, namely his duet with Emilia Feldt on 'When the World Explodes' and chorus of 'Rusted Nail'. The latter is a good example of the middle-ground between harsh and cleans that Anders occasionally puts to good use, but it's frustrating that ninety-nine per cent of the time he opts to go for either one extreme or the other rather than hitting that sweet spot that's actually enjoyable.

Speaking of Emilia Feldt, she's a great addition to In Flames in the same manner that Lisa Miskovsky was on the track 'Dead End' from Come Clarity. I don't know what it is about In Flames, but their music seems perfectly oriented to incorporate female vocalists. Emilia showcases so much talent on 'When the World Explodes' despite singing for less than half of the track's run-time, and again I have to ask why they made this a one-off. She's got an enormous range to her voice and a beautiful delicate tone to go with that, and actually Anders seems to play off of her quite well. Siren Charms could have been a very interesting album had Emilia featured on further tracks, but alas that's not the case.

As you might have come to expect from In Flames the riffs are largely bland and generic chugging. It's not particularly bad per se, just a little uninteresting. The leads show more enthusiasm, playing some reasonably technical sections and often injecting the energy into the music that seems to be missing from time to time. The melodic lines are more fragile than they used to be, but they're the one tangible sense of what In Flames used to be. The one track where they really seem to go all out is the previously mentioned 'Rusted Nail', which proves to be a highlight. The more alternative style of tracks like 'Dead Eyes' seems to be something that In Flames can pull off reasonably well however, and I'm not particularly gutted that they tend more towards that than the pseudo-melodeath offered on releases like Come Clarity. And at least the chug-laden sections tend to have a nice groove to them for the most part.

All in all I would say that this album isn't as bad as it's made it to be. It's far from fantastic, but 'When the World Explodes', 'Rusted Nail' and 'Dead Eyes' are all fairly strong tracks in their own right and the rest of Siren Charms, while never quite at the same standard, is overall a solid listen. I don't know that I'd recommend it past the three tracks I singled out, but it certainly isn't half as bad as the flack it receives would imply.

Since 2002, In Flames have been pursuing what another reviewer referred to as "emo-electronicore" with only partial, and intermittent, success, with lots of duds littering their discography. Siren Charms represents a sort of "softening up" of the relatively poppy formula on Sounds of a Playground Fading, which itself only met intermittent success.

I can appreciate the sound the band is emulating here, roughly an amalgamation of every late 90's, early 00's cliché on the map, to be sure, but at least they're trying... I think? There is such an underwhelming diversity of content here, with what feels like only enough riffs for 3 or 4 songs, hence the title of the review. Too many chorii sound exactly the same, too much Anders warbling over identical verses results in the songs blending together and passing from memory. For instance, the aforementioned Dead Eyes could have been melded with With Eyes Wide Open, and the result would have been stronger material with less compromises.

It's like each song has one or two good things about it, and the rest is forgettable. At this point, the band is relatively tight and doing what they do, but it all feels underwhelming. Björn's solos and riffs are relatively forgettable, the bass is buried and follows the guitars anyway, and the drums are kinda just there, Ringoing it up like crazy.

A Sense of Purpose was actually somewhat decent, and it had everything this doesn't: riffs, solos, and more original ideas. The chorus of Rusted Nail illustrates this perfectly. Stock as fuck even for 1999, and this was made in 2014. The rest of the album doesn't fare much better. It's conceivable that this could be enjoyed as a throwback, "gimmick"-type albums if you dig JNCO jeans, spiked/bleached hair, and super angsty lyrics, but even then it has little shelf life.

There are stronger songs on here, but nothing approaches what would be considered "good". When the World Explodes is a good enough song compared to the rest with a rather atmospheric ending, and Everything's Gone is ok if for no other reason it's faster and more aggressive than the rest, even that's not saying much. In the case of Everything's Gone we also contend with extremely angsty lyrics as well as Through Oblivion, and on that song Anders Friden has never sounded so drugged out and lethargic.

Special circles of hell, however, are reserved for Paralyzed, which is a mildly catchy but very stock chorus in search of a song. Literally everything about the song is annoying and trying too hard to Mtv. The title track, Siren Charms, is equally damnable for taking a similar riff as the sorry excuse for a main riff from Paralyzed, and made an entire song out of it, with that riff being damn near the only riff. Like holy shit this album is devoid of ideas.

In Flames have at best been an above average if not mediocre band to me, but this is terrible. There are so many recycled ideas and lazy execution. Perhaps the band is just done, creatively, at this point. Who knows? They surprised me with A Sense of Purpose. No reason to believe they won't again.

This album is seriously awful. If In Flames had stuck to the dismal alt-rock crapola of A Sense of Purpose, I wouldn't have a reason to review this one, but no – they've found completely new, original ways to suck the cock of random trends and not do any of them remotely well.

Have you heard Depeche Mode? How about Muse? If you answered yes to either of those things, you don't need to hear this. In Flames have saddled this album with vocal theatrics like old Muse and keyboardy, poppy songwriting like Depeche Mode, only wrapped up in a tight, suffocating cocoon of bad groove-metal riffs and mixing up the vocals with horrific imitations of what Phil Anselmo might sound like if he were reverted to his teenage years by an evil wizard. The cleaner vocals are all warbly, floaty lines that, as mentioned, sound like the band heard Absolution a couple of times but forgot what was actually good about it, and the harsh vocals are like a roach infestation, as prevalent and unpleasant as they are. When they harmonize the clean and harsh styles for almost every song's pandering choruses, it's worse than anything I could possibly describe.

The songwriting is utterly banal and disposable, with short and unremarkable lengths and no stand out hooks or clever parts. They are all built around awful radio-friendly choruses harmonized over themselves to cloistering levels to mask the fact that there are no good vocal lines. The riffs are in the background and none of them are good even for this style of muted, chunking rhythmic playing. You get a few scant clean interludes with bloopy synth sounds, which aren't offensive, but they also are so small a part of the album that you forget about them almost instantly. The band never does anything interesting with them.

I can't even decide what's worse – the 90s-style wasteland of the tepid industrial fuzz-covered distortion opening up “In Plain View,” or the agonizing yowling chorus of “Everything's Gone.” Maybe the laughable attempt at the “insightful” clean-sung ode on “Through Oblivion,” which is without even a scant trace of feeling – except for me wanting to reach for the puke bag. “When the World Explodes” is an unlistenable song at first, with croaking, ear-assaulting squawks from Anders and more stomping, turgid rhythms straight from the garbage can used jointly by Soulfly or Machine Head, but then it becomes something completely incomprehensible when we go into the female-sung clean atmospheric section with the floaty synths as the riffs drop out. It is jaw-droppingly random, and I challenge you to make any sense out of this. The rest of the songs are all alike – more droll, fuzzy distorted riffs, more awful harmonized choruses, and it all blends into a formless mass of annoyance.

The prevailing mood is joyless and frustrated – rather than sounding inconsolably angry or particularly sorrowful, it's more like the band is just angsty and annoyed. You never get the kind of emotional catharsis I think the band wanted you to, and the constant irritation from every sonic element of this album is excruciating to listen to.

I really can't see any reason to listen to this garbage. There isn't even one redeeming factor. Siren Charms is a total failure.

While its great sales upon being first released, the critics mostly give it a big thumbs down. That may be because these guys changed or have changed their style of music since their beginning. It is no surprise Jesper left the band probably because of that reason, they wanted to diversify and he wanted them to be what they started as which is melodic death metal. So be it as it is, this one by far no matter what critics say is a waste of a purchase. Don't buy it they say or use such things such as words like "it makes a good coaster for a cup."

Musically, what this has to offer is melodic metal, some groove sounding twist to it, mild tempos, all reflecting the guitars at least. I'll throw in the fact that some songs are played with clean tone, but not all or nearly all the songs are like that. They still have the thickness and good production quality, though the intensity has come way far down from what I left off with them which was 'Clayman' and out of curiosity I stumbled upon this one. I didn't think right away that this was wholly bad per se, I just though that they've just taken a huge turn.

Anders sings with a few different styles which well accompany the music such as screaming, a lot of clean voice (which kind of makes them sound like metalcore) and moderate throat. All of these different types I feel work well with the music. I saw a somewhat recent interview with him featured and he's kind of trying to dissuade listeners from discounting the musical direction they've taken post-Jesper. I like how they sound still, but a simple "like" from me doesn't justify their abduction from melodic death to more of a melodic/groove/alternative gig.

Song by song I think the sound of the music and the feel/vibe from their songwriting style now is still good and I really enjoyed the album. It's not because I myself as a human being is getting older, it's because I still think that what they have to offer musically the guitars are still heavy, all of the songs are lacking acute intensity though. They were never really huge on intensity, just melodic guitars and endless screaming. Their adjunct to the musical community is not near retrograde, it's experimenting with their sound plus the leads are still quality.

In Flames fans of the old may as they show on the reviews come up with negativity, but I come up with positivity. They still have it musically though Jesper left the band years ago, I feel that the sound is still high quality, just mild. I'm not going easy on them, I'm just saying that I don't agree with other critics. I think In Flames will go on strong for a while. I'm still to remain a fan of theirs despite their change in musical styles. They'll always to me remain a good band, I think listeners have to give this one a chance it's not garbage!

As a huge In Flames fan, I have never been so disappointed by an album so goddamn much since Metallica's Lulu. Siren Charms is In Flames' latest installment, an opportunity that was completely wasted! Let's be real here, In Flames over the past few years hasn't had a very impressive track record. Come Clarity was probably the most decent album they've released in the past decade and everything from there onwards blew up in their faces. Siren Charms was an opportunity for the band to redeem themselves to their fans but instead they focused too much on experimentation rather than actually making their album sound good. Experimentation isn't a bad thing, it's part of progression, but In Flames have done this so many times before now. Honestly, this sounds nothing different from their previous release. Except maybe the fact that this one sucks even more because it's basically rehash of "Sounds of a Playground Fading."

Let's start off with the basics. Anders Friden's vocals have to be the most annoying thing on the entire album. His growls and screams are barely there, popping up occasionally, and are replaced by his actual singing voice, which are so out of key it's killing me. We're talking about Anders fucking Friden here! What happened to the harsh vocals we heard on albums like "Colony," "Clayman" or even something more recent like "Come Clarity?" Instead we get some half-assed clean vocals that make the band sound like some pop group. Even more so due to the synth you hear in the background, which I swear you could hear something similar on a fucking One Direction release. Both of these elements fused together has to be the album's biggest downfall and benefactor as to why this release sucks. Everything else, be it the guitars and drums, are all soft as hell. Rarely do you even get a heavy bridge or fast riff. It's practically non-existent. If you came here expecting something truly heavy and powerful, it's not on here because at least 90% of this album is soft! It seems almost unfair to call these guys a melodic death metal band. They're melodic, they're a band but there's literally no metal to be found whatsoever on this release. Friden's whiny bitch vocals mixed with a weak band supporting them makes this nothing more than a pop release. There's distortion but it doesn't do the music justice.

I will admit that there are some riffs and parts in certain songs that sound okay. I'm still a huge fan of Björn Gelotte's guitar style despite his work on here. There are some solos of his that I actually could enjoy but that, of course, was short-lived because of everything else drowning it out. I have to say that "When the World Explodes" has to be the only impressive track on this piece, it's not stellar but I at least have to point out something good on this album. It's not all bad, it just went against everyone's expectations. When I heard of this piece, I was actually pretty stoked on the fact In Flames could make something really good here and redeem themselves, to show the fans they're still capable on making something powerful. Instead they relied on like one or two tracks and said: "hey guys, we're still heavy but we're going to stick with sounding like a pop rock band now because that's what you guys want, right?" Wrong! So fucking wrong! In the end, this album is way below average. It's boring, soft, gets stale really fast and not worth any of your money. Whatever In Flames releases next, I'm not excited for it. At this point, we've been fucked over so many times by these guys that we're having a hard time believing that their next release will be worthwhile. It's kind of hard to say "In Flames We Trust" without feeling like I'm kidding myself. To me, they're not melodic death metal until they release something that can actually start a mosh pit.

There was much apprehension when Jesper Strömblad left In Flames. A Sense of Purpose was a solid album but it wouldn't win over folks that only like the old In Flames. The band was at risk of putting out an album that made even Soundtrack To Your Escape sound good in comparison. Sounds Of A Playground Fading would not be that album, despite the silly name. It was a bit of a departure, but not quite a radical shift in sound. It was mostly A Sense of Purpose II but minus any of Jesper's riffs. Björn Gelotte did his damn best to make it sound like In Flames, and also included many catchy and lengthy solos. But he fails miserably this time, and Soundtrack To Your Escape is no longer In Flames' worst album.

Siren Charms has some of the elements that made Sounds Of A Playground Fading a decent album (although not one well liked by those who are fans of old In Flames). However, there were parts of Sounds that were awful and unusual - The Attic was an odd break with weird Anders vocals, The Jester's Door was a definite nod to Jesper's departure but not a very well executed one and Liberation was for the most part a song that was better suited to the soundtrack of an Adam Sandler movie.

For some reason, In Flames decided to build on Liberation instead of A New Dawn. We get a bunch of songs that are best suited for shitty romantic comedies and teen dramas instead of a heavy metal concert. There are no songs that effectively throwback to the old days like A New Dawn did. There are some riffs that are decent and Björn does a decent job with the solos, which is the best part of the album - when Anders shuts up and lets Björn play. However, nothing is consistent - even the best songs on this album have their cringe moments.

Incidentally, they took two of the best songs from this album cycle and relegated them to "exclusive" bonus tracks (like that is a thing these days). The Chase is a lot like the songs on A Sense of Purpose and Become The Sky is tolerable aside from Anders being Anders. Within the album proper, the first three are also tolerable - In Plain View and Paralyzed has Anders experimenting with "soaring" clean vocals, which aren't that terribly bad. Everything's Gone has a bit of a cringeworthy start and it's a bad attempt at remaking Take This Life but I'm not particularly averse to it even with the odd deep vocals mixed with the pseudo-death metal.

Through Oblivion is a passable alternative rock song but nothing much more. There could be some comparisons to Katatonia and maybe mid-period Anathema. With Eyes Wide Open goes for the nosedive, this would be best suited to the end credits of some hogwash teen movie with 16 year old high school students out on a date that their parents drove them to despite it being a midnight showing and taking selfies in the theater with glitter covered iPhones. It doesn't get much better - except for When The World Explodes, which has a really cool part with a female guest vocalist doing Nightwish like vocals which actually works except for the silly part where Anders tries to mimic Peter Steele at the end. Oh and, the verse vocals are about as tolerable as hearing a pterodactyl being raped. Rusted Nail takes the breakdown from Superhero of a Computer Rage and smacks it in between the loud alternative rock chorus with Anders singing and the damn noodling main "riff". It's the song that best represents the entirety of the album - it starts off promising, like In Plain View, then recycles material from their new albums (sort of like Everything's Gone but much more blatant), goes into experimental alternative rock territory, has Björn trying to make the song better with a guitar solo, then from there does fuck all.

Filtered Truth has a pretty cool riff in it but the rest is crap. I don't know what else to say about this album. Peter Iwers is in this album somewhere. I really only hear him at the beginning of the title track but his part is Pro-Tools to death. I have been an In Flames fan for the better part of nine years now and I started with Reroute to Remain and Soundtrack To Your Escape. It was later that I got into their older albums. This is the first they disappointed me, now I know how people felt when Reroute To Remain came out just two years after Clayman. The only silver lining to this is there is a chance, albeit slim, that In Flames will finally listen to their fanbase and stop flirting with shitty alternative rock... but now that I've openly said that their next album is probably Lulu meets Nikki Minaj.

This is a pretty decent alternative rock album.

The above sentence was the first thing that popped in my head after my third listening session of In Flames’ 2014 album, “Siren Charms”. If this wasn’t a serious website that encourages serious writing, I would’ve left it at that, called it a day and sent the review to queue.

Fans of old school In Flames are indeed a curious bunch. You know the drill: we hear whispers of a new release and are met with a feeling of absolute apathy as we bloody reckon it is going to be yet another hour long sonic mass of nothing, save for a couple of seconds (or minutes, if luck wills it) of inspired musicianship; maybe a lead line that winks at the glories of old, or perhaps a riff that surpasses the oppressive clutches of modern groove metal, or maybe even a real rage-filled growl, but then there’s only an endless void the band seems content to fill with simplistic chord progressions, underwhelming drumming, solos that feel like a rushed afterthought and a grown man sobbing about vaguely romantic issues in way that wouldn’t be out of place if revealed to have been written by any wordsmith of blasé adolescent poetry such as Gerard Way. “That’s how it goes, so suck it up and give this one a chance”, I keep telling myself as I soldier on and hit “play”.

However, there’s a twist this time. In here, there’s a pervasive feeling of freedom, like they finally gave up putting the “We’re a metal band” mask on and were reborn as what they’ve always strived to be since STYE: an alt rock band with downtuned, pummelling mosh riffs. No more faux growls (keep them to a bare minimum), no more trying to emulate melodies of yore, no more treading lightly, just limp-wristed riffing and gratuitously catchy hooks all the way, baby. Can’t say I blame them, though. None of those guys are kids anymore, and their sellout gimmicks have already raised them a sturdy new fanbase which could not give less of a shit about musical integrity as long as the new songs RAWWWK, so we’re done. The message is clear: In Flames have paid their dues, and now they’re gonna play whatever the flying fuck they want to, so you might as well treat this as a Michael Bay film by turning off your brain in order to enjoy the spectacle, since there’s hardly any true depth to be found. So yes, this is In Flames’.... Ehm, “coming out” album.

Gelotte, Iwers and Engelin play with such shallowness that I cannot bring myself to say anything relevant about them. It’s all... harmless, stock-standard. No riffs, solos or bass lines have caught my attention whatsoever, serving merely as placeholders because this is supposed to be a rock band. I enjoy the leads beneath the choruses of “In Plain View”, “Paralyzed” and “Dead Eyes” even though they’re simpler than a cheese sandwich. Svensson once again takes up the heroic task of bringing interesting drum fills and tasteful variations to a slew of rudimentary rock n’roll beats and does a fine job, like the double bass that accelerates and slows down at constant intervals during the verse of “Everything’s Gone”. And that’s all, folks. Sorry.

Now it’s prime time, my friends. Oh believe me, for what’s coming up next could be considered a miracle of biblical proportions. I really don’t believe I’m actually typing this, but ladies and gentleman, “Siren Charms” marks the first time Anders Friden actually tried and succeeded in projecting tolerable clean vocals. Brother, you are not dreaming. Sister, allow me to collect that jaw you just dropped on the ground. Clearly, Frid must’ve taken a hint (from someone who should be canonized) and sought out vocal lessons, because his technique here shows noticeable improvement over... well, anything he’s ever done in the past. Of course, it’s not perfect and sometimes THAT dreadful whine comes back, but it is becoming less and less frequent as the veteran singer shows greater comfort in exploring his range and applying better diaphragm control to avoid sliding off tune. Even those little Michael Jackson yelps that have been plaguing his voice for years are slowly being phased out.

“Paralyzed”, for an example, is the sound of a man who has been listening to his singing coach. Vocals crawl at a languid pace in the verses only to finally grow into a non-complicated, catchy melodic line held together by the very first time I hear this guy utilize a proper breathing technique to reach a higher register, with his trademark whining nasal tone being thankfully left only to the first chorus’ last phrase. My ears perk up. Since IF’s songwriting has been unapologetically formulaic for the past decade, I know the refrain is coming back for a least a couple more times. Of course it does, and Friden has the good idea of changing a couple things here and there, holding a grand finale for last, in which he explodes in carefully drawn out notes, followed by a truly ferocious scream that morphs into a strangled, emotionally tuneful C# thus ending the song in an unexpectedly epic note. Remarkable! Now, imagine if he sung like that in older albums and marvel at the possibilities. Credit must be given where it’s due, though.

Other interesting parts can be heard in “Through Oblivion”, a vocal-centric number in which Anders makes the welcome decision of inverting the predictability of the song’s emotional peaks, leaving the last part relatively unchanged whilst choosing to soar in the second chorus and following middle section with delicate melodies. Also, ”When the World Explodes” features the album’s second most attention grabbing hook with Anders sharing vocal duties with a female singer, and as she hovers angelically in the middle-high register, Friden projects a surprisingly rich baritone underneath, laying a perfect bed. I’d up his volume a little bit if I was the sound engineer for this. Yes, it is that good.

Musicianship-wise, “Siren Charms” is the exact inversion of “The Jester Race”. As that classic album had amazing guitars and dull vocals, this one has In Flames’ most forgettable riffs and melodies ever and is saved by Anders Friden’s maturity as a singer, almost two decades later. Better late than never, I suppose.

As a heavy metal album, “Siren Charms” fails miserably by presenting us unmemorable guitars, predictable song structures and In Flames once again wasting a very good drummer and, now, a singer’s newfound ability to do his thing. Skip it if you’re looking for honest, well thought-out metal, but if you’re into alt rock with an edge, then this is your stuff and you’ll enjoy it to no end. Had this been the "Alternative Rock Archives", I'd give it a 70%.

"When you had enough, break out!"

It's never easy when listening to an aberration like Siren Charms to admit to oneself: 'This band meant something to me once'. But I'd be lying to say they didn't, because for at least the first half of their career they were churning out a very strong case for the melodic death metal archetype as a whole, and in particular The Jester Race remains for me an obvious go-to album whenever I'm craving some guitar-driven, melodic, inspirational bliss. And, to some degree, they have morphed into one of those bands I have so much history with that I probably will never 'ignore' one of their new records outright, clinging to the faint hope that they might one day rekindle the strength and momentum of the songwriting that used to define them. Once in awhile, they will still surprise me, as they did on A Sense of Purpose in 2008, the one album they've released past the turn of the century which I have actually enjoyed. Modern and 'emo', with a little groove, sure...but packed with great In Flames riffs and a few tunes (like "Alias") that I daresay were unique enough that you're likely never going to hear them anywhere else.

But since that point...six years of steady declination, first with Sounds of a Playground Fading, a watered down and 'safer' alternative to A Sense of Purpose (which was already plenty accessible and kid friendly with the Korn-like artwork), and now with Siren Charms, as structured a squamous midlife crisis turd as they've ever escorted out the studio doors, and I'd be hard pressed to think of a past album I enjoyed less...maybe Soundtrack to Your Escape, or Come Clarity, but I'd have to go back and re-listen to them, and after forcing myself through THIS a requisite third time (with alcohol stirred into my coffee), the mood does not strike me to do so. Siren Charms is a record that not only gives credibility to the voices that have been shouting down this band for whatever reason (changes in sound, general visibility and appeal), but compounds their complaints by channeling some of the most shallow, redundant grooves and banal plastic pop-rock oriented songwriting you've ever heard outside fucking Abba (who are exponentially better than this on a bad day). Disclaimer: I have no problem with a band evolving or devolving its sound in whatever direction. If In Flames put out a record that sounded like Seven and the Ragged Tiger, or Thriller, and it was GOOD, then I would be the first on board and let the naysayers choke on my exhaust.

This is not good.

UN-good. You keep waiting for the money shot and it stays softcore, with your eyes affixed on its shaved bottom as it thrusts halfheartedly for the camera crew. Let me slightly abridge that...there are two, possibly three minor 'positives' to the experience. The electronics used throughout the disc, like in the intro to opener "In Plain View", gave me the false impression that the album might explore the sort of retro future synth stuff that I've been heavily into lately, which I admit might be a pretty cool blend with some solid melodeath riffing (bands have done synth stuff in this niche before, but not quite in the way I'm picturing). Where these lines appear, they're sort of cool, but there just aren't enough of them to feel like it's a fully realized idea, they are simply intros or distractions. Secondly, as much as I'm not interested in hearing Anders' whining, cleaner vocals, he has actually succeeded here in smoothing over his pitch and delivery so they don't feel quite so ragged and screamy as they have since Reroute to Remain where he started leaning in this direction. I'm just saying, if N'Flames was truly to become N'Sync, now he just needs the dance moves, because he could get by on his voice with the support of another four boys. Finally, there are a handful (less than a handful) of riff passages on the disc that don't deserve my complete loathing, because they approach A Sense of Purpose levels of memorability at the very least, with that same style of processed nu-thrash.

Otherwise, the album is one for the dogs. The band spends so much time trying to build a strong chorus that they can barely stick one...even on a tune like "Through Oblivion" where it does carry some emotional poignancy but it always feels half-formed, like they were going to induce another melody or twist in there and it just doesn't happen. There is far, far too much fucking restraint on this album, to the extent that I almost found myself pleading for Anders to RETURN to that dirty and whiny voice, only because it felt more passionate. This just feels heavily overdubbed, punched in laconically in-studio and generally scrapped together, whether it's the vocal placement or the riffs, a few of which have nice, gently layered harmonies in a cubicle, corporate pop metal sens. There are some tracks like "With Eyes Wide Open" which are downright embarrassing, like they were trying to write material for a long lost Boston album for the ladies and the lighters. And without exception the groove/nu metal riffing substrate is lamentably bad, without even an inkling of a stylish idea or a pattern of chords that at least makes you want to genuinely shake your ass.

Some will take exception as always to the tidy, mechanized production values, but that is the least of the issues with this disc. The cover artwork: bland. The female guest vocals on "When the World Explodes": ridiculous, making it sound like a throwaway Epica/Nightwish/Within Temptation crossover. Who-cares bass-lines and paint-by-numbers metalcore chug-downs. The lyrics are generally very ambiguous accessible emotional crap like 'In the darkest of nights/you are my endless fire inside' or 'Where I have nothing/there's no hate/room to breathe/no envy and nothing to lose'...a bunch of nonsense that the guy will claim is very 'personal' and 'self-affirmation' oriented but was probably written lazily on a napkin at some restaurant on tour. Song titles are almost unanimously cliches that have been done so many times before (with the exception of "Siren Charms" itself), and at its very best, they've only got tunes on this that are 1/4th of what a good modern In Flames track should incorporate. Even if we ignore the band they used to be, when they were constantly on the upswing career-wise, and pretend they formed up in 2001, there are infinitely better songs on Reroute to Remain or A Sense of Purpose. Even the last full-length was an order of magnitude superior and I struggled to remember many of the specifics 15 minutes of hearing them...

I understand Fridén is probably venting his anger that he's not in Killswitch Engage or Ariana Grande's dance partner or something, but I just can't understand how members like Gelotte and Iwers let themselves be continuously booked a berth on this sinking ship. Are the paychecks really all that fat? Perhaps at the next 'minutes in the meeting of the hiveminds of In Flames' the two of you can just get up and each kick Anders in one of his balls, though I have my doubts they are still in place, and put out a proper fucking metal album again with blazing, inspirational harmonies, savage words and riffs that get the heads banging. This album has no heads banging, in any sense of the phrase... impotent, joyless major label tripe that deserves all the excrement foisted upon it. Despite what I said in the opening paragraph, I'm going to have a hard time justifying any curiosity for what comes next.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

In Flames has come a long way from their days as Gothenburg-pioneers. Their sound has changed on every album, to lighter direction during recent years. On Siren Charms their musical journey continues and reaches the point where around half of the people think that they have gone too far. Is it too far or is Siren Charms just a bad album as far as it represents alternative metal genre?

My first reaction to "Rusted Nail", the number one single, was "what the hell happened to this band? This song is totally empty and hollow. How I'm supposed to like this?" Because of that disappointment I was really scared to listen the second pre-album song, "Through Oblivion". Somehow it hit me much better and this pop kind of song with phlegmatic atmosphere was actually really good but it wasn't In Flames-like song. That moment I realized that I shouldn't compare this album to any other of their albums, it just wouldn't work and I wouldn't like the whole damn record. As the album release was near, I gave "Rusted Nail" a new chance and boom! I was hooked. The rhythm world and the guitar fills just opened to me and soon I was singing the whole song along Anders. I would totally buy the album.

I said that this album shouldn't be compared to other IF albums too much but one thing I have noticed there. First time in this band's career, the techno stuff brings something good to the song and raises the song's value and the synth is used in good taste. Synth sounds make songs like "Paralyzed", "In Plain View" and "Filtered Truth" shine the way they wouldn't do without 'em.

Though Siren Charms is still mainly metal(ish), the songs have much pop influence. With less distortion I could almost imagine "With Eyes Wide Open", "Through Oblivion" and "Siren Charms" coming from the radio. I mean, non-rock radio. Anyway, it doesn't matter if the music doesn't make you bang your head with extreme velocity. Of course this is just my opinion but I think that this album is a very interesting collection of rock, metal, pop and techno elements. This record isn't about heaviness, melodies, feeling or experimenting. It's all of them and also none of them, it's a different case do you find those things you like there.

I don't get bored while listening to the album because it's very variable. Different feelings in different songs. The music communicates through the feelings and the strength of the album isn't really musicians' virtuosity but sharing the right feelings.

All of the songs on the album have something good about them, some more than the others. Generally, I find "Paralyzed", "With Eyes Wide Open" and "Filtered Truth" maybe the three best tracks. "Siren Charms" is also really great but it really disturbs me that the song is too short and the good idea there could have been developed further. I wouldn't like to diss any particular songs but "Dead Eyes" and "Monsters in the Ballroom" seem to get nowhere in some points, though "Dead Eyes" has pretty liberating chorus.

I haven't listened to a lot of alternative metal and won't compare IF to any other band there, not sure if that's possible anyway. In Flames is flying in their own spheres and giving zero f**ks to everybody trying to criticize their doings. It's really weird that people are complaining about band's musical progression and changing style while some bands are being criticized from doing the same album over and over again. No matter what you do, you can't make everybody happy even if you wanted. In Flames has internalized this and they are going the way they want. If you didn't like Siren Charms, maybe the next album then. We don't know. I keep my mind open and I'm pretty sure that I'll dig IF's next record no matter where their music goes. In Flames we trust!

As far as In Flames albums go, this is possible one of the weakest and diverse albums to date, which is possibly why I found myself enjoying it after a while. Initially, this review was going to be a scathing attack about what went into this album, but having given it time, and a dozen or more listens, I think I actually ENJOYED it...I'm just not sure.

On the surface, you've got an album which to all intents and purposes (next album's title?) is following the route which In Flames seems to be making for themselves in recent years from Sounds of a Playground Fading and A Sense of Purpose pathing the way to this.

In Flames picked up a second full time guitarist In Niclas Engelen, singer and guitarist for Engel, and his appearance isn't ultimately noticeable as he filled in for the missing Jesper Stromblad, whether or not Jesper would've put anything extra into this release is questionable, but both Niclas and Bjorn seem to have taken a bit of a backseat with regards to input into this album beyond simply writing a few basis riffs into it, where previous albums before A Sense of Purpose would've been noted for complexity of guitar work and commended Jesper and Bjorn for it, this simply can't be the case for this album.

The album itself seems to be a Greatest Hits style affair, to me at least, with different sounds sampled from albums post-2000; Rusted Nail and In Plain View hitting Soundtrack to your Escape and Reroute to Remain square on the head, Monsters in the Ballroom seemingly hitting A Sense of Purpose, whilst Through Oblivion and Everything's Gone seem to take the same sort of approach to intros as Come Clarity, but with a bit more.

As far as reviewing this album goes, it'll be (it's) hard not to do this on a track by track basis as the album simply doesn't stick to a single theme, style or manner in which it's approached - Everything's Gone present a bizarre mixture of old In Flames and a sort of Marilyn Manson hybrid during the choruses to create what sounds like a mess, but actually works out for the band as Anders' vocals provide a coarse, almost appealing, growl which makes the song work.

Paralyzed has a style which listeners might associate with A Sense of Purpose-era, with the main style of the song performed in a manner which sounds very similar to that of March to the Shore, The Mirror's Truth or possibly even Delivery Us (from Sounds of a Playground), it does this so convincingly, that it sounds like it could've even been recorded during the period between releases, almost as a stop gap.

Leading onto Through Oblivion, this was the second of two songs released as singles to support this album - and wasn't ultimately that bad...Unless considered as an In Flames song...Which it needs to be, in which case it seems to take the theatrical approach to song writing that In Flames simply aren't renown for, with the choruses of this song seemingly a bit run of the mill to the extent that Anders inflects the end of it to actually make it sound like a pop song. The other single used to support this album was Rusted Nail, which could've set a benchmark for this album on the whole, as it was a typical Clayman to Reroute to Remain era, with less meaning and heart put into the writing of it.

Seeing as the rules explicitly state we can't do track by track analysis, I can only recommend giving this album a listen and making a judgement call there, go into this open minded towards how Anders portrays himself, and his differing vocal styles and you MIGHT enjoy it, but if you're dead set on hating it, you'll find something to dislike about it.
Notable tracks are Rusted Nail, Paralyzed and Monsters in the Ballroom.

My expectations weren’t very good when I heard that In Flames was releasing a new album called Siren Charms this year, but I had them anyway. They even seemed to grow further when they unveiled the album cover, a simplistic drawing that reminded me of the cover of their 2005 album Come Clarity. And you know a band is really fucked up in their sound when the best you can hope their album to sound like is Come fucking Clarity.

In Flames is a particular band. Their fame among the metal world is based on the legendary albums they did since Lunar Strain (Or even earlier) to Clayman, albums that became a blueprint in the melodic death metal sound and helped to build the Gothenburg metal scene of the 90s. Their fame also comes from the drastic change in music and sound they did after those albums in their 2002 effort Reroute to Remain, a more mainstream metal and metalcore-oriented approach that made them infamous among a lot of their former fans, and thus giving birth to the “New Sound” of In Flames we’ve been listening to in the past years. It’s surprising to realize, however, that we’ve been hearing the “New” In Flames since 2002, 12 years ago, and Lunar Strain was 8 years old when Reroute to Remain was released. That’s right folks, we’ve been listening to the “new” In Flames for more years than the “old” one now, and their “new sound” isn’t new at all. It’d be unfair to compare this album to, say, Whoracle, or let alone the Jester Race, when everyone and their mother knows that’s not what In Flames is striving to do these days; so the first thing I reminded myself to do before listening to Siren Charms was not to compare the sound to anything they did before 2002, and instead compare it to the best tracks they’ve done after that year, and judge the album as an album alone.

It still sucked.

I don’t even know where to begin with this album. The guitars might be the first thing to tackle. Since the departure of Jesper Strömblad in 2008, Björn Gelotte has been in charge of the riff writing of the band. In Flames’ previous album, Sounds of a Playground Fading, did show the giant hole that Strömblad had left in the guitar sound, but it also showed some decent riffs here and there that made me think that maybe Gelotte wasn’t that bad at the job as I thought he would be. How wrong I was. The riffs, which once were one of the main attractions of In Flames even on their most recent albums, are now a mess of down-tuned, slow, uncreative, improvised, wannabe heavy “chugga-chugga” riffs that drag down the songs, don’t seem go anywhere and don’t add anything interesting to them, taking the awful “Everything’s Gone” as an example. Songs like “Paralyzed” shows that the drums don’t seem to help either. The drum patterns sound like the band was doing some guitar/drum doodle while waiting for their order of pizza to arrive to the studio, decided to record it, add some forgettable lyrics to them and call it a day. I could at least hear some kind of effort in the songwriting of A Sense of Purpose… And that’s when I realized I was three tracks in and this album was already making me long for an album like A Sense of Purpose. I’m in for one hell of a ride. The keyboards seem to be in the album to stick the other instruments together and make some kind of coherence and melody out of them, like some kind of hearable duct tape that sometimes works and other times makes the whole thing even worse.

Last, and definitely worst, there’s the vocals. As If the instruments hadn’t made the songs bad already, the vocals kill whatever hope there is for them to be interesting; but I think we are to blame for the cringe-inducing vocals found in this album. Maybe we should have told Anders Fridén that “Satellites and Astronauts” on Clayman was such a great song not because of the vocals but because of the music around it. Maybe we should have told him that “My Sweet Shadow” was a good song but it just worked one time and it shouldn’t be used as a mold for all the songs they would do for the next ten fucking years. Maybe we should have told him to stop, for the love of God stop, when he released “Come Clarity” as a single and started to think he could actually sing. Fridén sings through all 11 tracks as if he was dying and/or had been anesthetized with thousands of narcotics, always keeping that “Oh look at me I’m so deep and artsy” kind of vibe he has had since he started singing off-key years ago, with no kind of technique or sense of musicality whatsoever. He does try to growl in songs like “When the World Explodes” and “Monsters in the Ballroom”; two pathetic attempts from the band to to be heavy like the old days, but implementing the awful drumming and riffs I've mentioned earlier. It all ends up sounding like a group of 80-year old men in their underwears trying to ride a skateboard so they can say to their embarrassed teenage neighbors “Hey kid, look, we’re still metal! We still got it!”.

There are some sparks of decency present throughout the album. The guitar solo of “Filtered Truth” is quite acceptable, as is the female-sung part of “When the World Explodes” (A part that made me wonder if the album could have been better if the vocals were sung by someone who could actually sing). The Choruses of some songs like “Through Oblivion”, “Dead Eyes”, “Monsters in the Ballroom” “Rusted Nail” and “With Eyes Wide Open” are pretty good as well. But catchy choruses won’t make a song, and the songs as a whole sound like they were written overnight by band members who just have met. These songs are uninspired, completely monotonous, and overall boring. Soundtrack to Your Escape might have been a bad album, but I listened to it from beginning to end without wanting to shut down the computer, break the CD in half, take a flight to Sweden, hunt Anders Fridén down and give in to the incontrollable desire to punch him in the face as hard as I humanly can.

I don’t even know who are they trying to please with this album. They certainly will only get laughs from their former melodeath fans, and they won’t please the metalcore part of their fanbase either; and if they’re trying to get into some alternative rock scene with these kind of vocals I can only see failure in their future. This is the sound of a band that sounds bad even by the standards of their (until now) weakest albums, and the sound of some guys who are clearly not even trying to play good music anymore. The catchy riffs, the melodies, the powerful drumming and the at least fitting vocals are all gone. I wish I could say nothing can get worse than Siren Charms, but sadly this band has just proven me that it can, and probably will, try to disappoint even more.

When one approaches an In Flames album, one's expectations should be firmly fixed on hearing something other than a metal album, lest that person has not hear the previous 5 studio LP releases that culminate in this band's post-millennial sound. Contrary to what one might assume, a metal band releasing a non-metal album (or even 6 of them), is not necessarily a precursor to the end of the world, but it's also not immune from being condemned if it's a boring pile of drivel. That is the indictment that the present era of this former pioneering member of the Gothenburg scene has brought itself under, a band that has been put together contrived groove/industrial tinged semi-metal with a strong dose of Emo cliches for the past twelve years and has now firmly planted their flag on it.

If there is one singular predecessor that Siren Charms can be likened to, it would definitely be that of Soundtrack To Your Escape, which the author of this review considers the worst of this band's post-Clayman duds. The songs heard on here are utterly interchangeable with the same mid-tempo, repetitive, recycled melodic half-ideas that dominated this band's much derided 2004 offering, only here the presentation is just a bit more processed and banal. Anders' whiny clean vocals are at their most annoying, the guitars cycle through a series of heavily predictable riffs that wouldn't make the cut of a Trivium album, and the whole thing just coasts along with very little sense of intrigue. There is plenty of melodrama, but it's presented in a way that makes it comical yet not really very funny.

As state before, this band's current stock and trade is writing a form of semi-metal, or pseudo-metal if one doesn't want to consider the metallic elements of this sufficient to warrant a partial metal status. The guitar tone definitely hints at where this band was during the lead up to Reroute To Remain, displaying a sort of late 90s crunch, albeit buried under a lot of clean, effects steeped guitar tracks, keyboard additives, and overly present vocals. The intro to "Everything's Gone" could possibly pass for a metalcore take on melodeath, particularly the gutted, groovy take that would adorn an All That Remains album. Similarly, there are a few isolated moments on "Dead Eyes" where it sound like these guys want to go back to their Colony days, but it's so heavily diluted by meandering alternative rock ballad sections that it ultimately comes to nothing.

Truth be told, this album is actually somewhat better off when it sticks to a purely alternative metal sound, at least from a musical standpoint. There is something bizarrely appealing about what's going on in the extremely straight-forward, structurally pop-oriented song "Through Oblivion", which sounds all but like a perfect Breaking Benjamin affair but with keyboards. Of course, what little charm it has is gobbled up by Anders' crappy clean vocals, but there's definitely something here that's a bit more honest than the hack attempts at merging thrash half-thrash riffs with comical metalcore songwriting as heard on "Monsters In The Ballroom" and "When The World Explodes". That's the other area where this album utterly fails, when it's not being so predictable that it becomes sleep inducing, it's too disjointed and thus becomes equally as unmemorable.

As much as the detractors will detract and the defenders will defend, the ultimate consequence of this album is a cold indifference. There is no point in offering prospective seekers of an album like this an impassioned warning label to avoid this thing, because the lines are pretty much set regarding who will like this and who will despise it, but suffice to say, anyone who didn't stick with this band after 2001 shouldn't expect anything resembling a change in direction. That's the one thing that is a bit annoying about a lot of the Johnny-Come-Lately types that are just now noticing that this band has gone downhill, this isn't a sudden departure the way Reroute To Remain was, but simply another in an ongoing series of the same sonic slop, served up just a tad bit more rotten this time around. Bon appetit.

In Flames is a band that always seems to bring out controversial albums since the early 2000’s and the release of "Reroute to Remain". In Flames’ message was already clear with the name of this album. They were changing their sound to remain. This was the first step in a direction that probably no one would have been able to think of. Many years later, the band continues a route they have slowly but surely braved.

“Siren Charms” continues where the last effort was hinting at. On "Sounds of a Playground Fading", the band had only started to play a more alternative sound with some electronic samples and some slow songs that have more similarities to the pop or rock genres than to any metal style. In Flames is now about 30% metal music only. Anybody that wants metal and only metal should look elsewhere, this album is miles away from the metal universe. For anybody that likes heavily emotional songs, you will be happy to hear that In Flames is aiming at you. Not to mention that these siren chants have way more variety than many of their other works.

The album starts with a post-apocalyptic atmosphere in the vein of the last album for easing the transfer between "Sounds of a Playground Fading" and "Siren Charms". Something already worth noting is the heavily present keyboard as well as the electronic samples that recall "Soundtrack to your Escape" and the psychedelic sounds going back to "Reroute to Remain" in the first few songs.

The third song starts to show really what this album is all about. "Paralyzed" is a build-up song that has one hell of a paroxysm. It has a very groovy sound with many electronic melodies playing while Anders is singing. These kinds of verses are followed by a chorus that will end this piece on a very epic note. Anders was probably moved a lot by this song and he is coming all out of himself in a desperate cry that is moving me like no other. This song is yet only half heavy because of the build-up itself.

The album starts an emotional wave where the first three songs are much darker than the rest. The middle section includes much calmer and more uplifting songs like "With Wide Eyes Open" and "Dead Eyes". About half of these songs have a melancholic tone while the other half transmits a rather uplifting feeling. These two styles complement each other very well and create an album filled with emotional diversity if we take the darker opening tracks into account.

To conclude, this album can be described with the image of two waves in an grippingly emotional and distorted ocean. It starts with a heavy and mad tone to become sad, calm and beautiful and it finally ends on a heavier but also more positive note. Like I said, this album is more about emotions than a precise style and not a real metal record in the end.

It’s a tricky business, writing an album with a lot of variation between songs. Variation is to be expected to some extent by a certain point in an artist’s career; it’s a fairly short list of bands that have developed a signature sound and stuck 100% to it over a 20-year-career, and In Flames is no exception to the rule. From the melodic dual guitar approach of their first four albums, to the slower, nu-metal laden post-Colony albums, and even the dabbling in electronica that’s sporadically come and gone since Clayman - In Flames has, by anyone’s measure (and for better or worse), covered a lot of ground since 1993. And in theory it’s not an impossible task, to bring a range of elements together in one album; some artists manage to pull it off fairly well: Tomi Joutsen-era Amorphis has so far managed to sit on a mix of everything from Tales from the Thousand Lakes thru Far from the Sun that fairly successfully not only kept their current fans happy, but also brought many older fans back. Type O Negative’s Dead Again managed to mix “standards” with tracks that could have been on their first album, ending the band on a rather accidental, poignant high note. Hell, even Metallica have managed it somewhat, baffling as that may be. But has In Flames?

The simplest, most straightforward answer is “nope, they fucked it up and it sounds awful”. That’s the flipside to writing an album where you try and cover so many styles – you may end up with a musical CV to be proud of and win acclaim left, right and centre… but it’s much more likely that you’ll end up with an album that reeks of inconsistency, a complete lack of cohesion between songs, and ultimately, in the attempt to be everything at once, end up being almost nothing. And sadly for In Flames, that’s what they’ve done here.

This album cannot decide whether it wants to be nu-metal, metalcore, alt-rock a la Tool, or Manson-esque shock rock. None of those are particularly desirable at the best of times, so it’s really not off to a good start. But Korn comparisons have been dogging In Flames for years; they're nothing new and it’s no surprise to hear that they’re here again this time around. There are muted E-chug verses with Friden “whimpering” over the top throughout (as expected), but it’s all the extra elements that really ruin it: not just from song to song, but within individual songs. Take “Everything’s Gone”, for example: it opens with something fast and “loosely thrashy”, like you’d find on a latter-day Slipknot or Soulfly album… which lasts for approximately 8 seconds or so before heading into what can only be described as the verse to “Where the Slime Live” at half speed with Marilyn Manson on vocals. The chorus is pure screamo, and then a short guitar solo appears out of nowhere before heading back to anti-guitar nu-metal chug. Most other tracks follow similar patterns, although a solid chunk of the album is softer; songs like “Through Oblivion” or “With Eyes Wide Open” are ballads in a sense – the distortion on everything from guitars to vocals to overall production distracts, but underneath it all there’s a lot of balladry going on. The end result is a complete mess. The whole is much, much less than the sum of its parts. And there’s the added clincher: its parts are all bad enough on their own. In Flames scratches the surface of every hated nu-metal trope, every open-E metalcore off-beat riff with melodic “tail”, every soft chorus, and so on. It’s a strangely disgusting thing to see: when a band that almost single-handedly pioneered an entire subgenre of music badly imitates bands that took their cues from their own classic material, and shits on it even further to boot. It’s come horribly, terribly full circle.

But one positive thing to note about the album is the vocals. Friden has never been a singer; his attempts at clean singing in the new millenium have always been the low point of 00s-onwards In Flames (talking of “low points” is fairly redundant when one discusses In Flames), but it seems he’s actually learnt to sing for this album. His cleans are in tune, he has a decent range, and his mimicry is fairly competent – objectively speaking, Siren Charms will treat you to the sounds of Jonathon Davis, Maynard James Keenan, Marilyn Manson, and the guy from Killswitch Engage, among others. Friden was never anything more than a middle-of-the-road screamer until this point. And to boot: the highest high point of this album is in the song “Filtered Truth”, where he briefly talks underneath the electronicacore like he did in “Jotun” or "Jester Script Transfigured".

It’s hard to say why anyone would realistically want to listen to this album. If you like In Flames, even their questionable 00s material, you’d do better to listen to Reroute to Remain than this. Or better yet, indulge yourself! get yourself a sixpack, put Whoracle on, then just sit back and enjoy the melodies.

For the last fourteen years it has been a popular trend in the metal scene to bash any new In Flames release because many closed-minded old-school metal heads are still living in the past millennium, unable to turn the page and accept that In Flames is willing to experiment and play a more alternative metal orientated style with a certain mainstream touch. Instead of giving up on the band, these self-declared true elitists still expect the band to return to a genre it has pioneered and importantly improved during the first ten years of its career. I’m completely on In Flames’ side because it’s useless to keep on reproducing music the band has already played in a nearly perfect manner on its great debut record “Lunar Strain”. Instead of becoming an irrelevant copy of its former years, the band has experimented for the majority of its career over the past fourteen years. In Flames continues to do so and the new album is another big slap in the face of those grown old nostalgics. And that’s the way it has to be.

Enter Siren Charms. This record is as experimental as “A Sense Of Purpose…” but less accessible than this release and continues the style of the previous effort “Sounds Of A Playground Fading” with a few electronic and modern alternative rock influences influenced by “Soundtrack To Your Escape”. The great thing is that the progressively fusions and continues its very own sound without copying any particular record to extent.

This record still includes quite a few surprises. The dirty, fast and misanthropic “Everything’s Gone” could come straight from a Marilyn Manson record and is definitely one of the best songs on here.

The slow and plodding “Through Oblivion” has a modern gothic rock style I would expect from a band like HIM. Once again, if you like this kind of music as much as I do, you are going to worship this song as well.

The melancholic and floating “With Eyes Wide Open” with its crystal clear fragile vocals and its catchy chorus reminds me of Thirty Seconds To Mars. “Dead Eyes” hits a very similar way and comes around with so beautiful guitar and keyboard melodies that this track should definitely be the second single. In this song, In Flames sing: “This is my world now.” And they sing with as much conviction as Metallica did on the song “My World” on the album “St. Anger”. Many people call Siren Charms In Flames’ personal “St. Anger”. Even though these two records are miles away from each other stylistically, this comparison is not completely wrong. Both bands do what they want to do with passionate authenticity and unbowed power and don’t care about being popular. That’s why I like both records quite a lot. Some people will call the two aforementioned tracks emo rock but it is performed with this certain conviction and passion and that’s why these songs have really grown on me.

“When The World Explodes” starts like a mixture of a metalcore and a melodic death metal song that could have appeased the old fan base. But In Flames wouldn’t be themselves if they didn’t include a couple of controversial elements in this song and just thinking of the stupid faces of the extreme metal elitists makes me enjoy this track. Its second part features soft and enchanting female vocals and highly atmospheric and floating electronic elements. In Flames shows one of its most creative song writing capacities in this track.

The first single “Rusted Nail” includes it all. Longing guitar solos, melancholic and fragile clean vocals that sound better on each album, depressive lyrics and an extremely liberating, majestic and melodic chorus you won’t get out of your mind. This is the kind of song that continues the style of the previous record. Imagine a mixture of “Sounds Of A Playground Fading” and “Liberation”. This is where In Flames shows its consistency and how their albums logically build up on each other.

Album closer “Filtered Truth” comes around with mechanical vocal effects and opening guitar riffs that make me think of Billy Talent. I mean how cool is that? The short passionate chorus simply blows me away once again. The consistent song without one unnecessary second is crowned by a melodic but twisted instrumental bridge. This track ends a very good album on a high note. Hello, third single!

In the beginning, I thought a couple of songs on this album were a little bit hard to digest or unspectacular at certain moments such as the short title song “Siren Charms” and the “Monsters In The Ballroom” that recalls several modern melodic death metal songs from the past three In Flames releases. Even these average tracks have grown on me after three spins. It’s hard to tell if I like this record as much as “Sounds Of A Playground Fading” in hindsight but my first impressions are pretty much as positive as they were three years earlier. So please don’t give a damn about rude comments on social media or average scores on the Metal Archives that may drop below forty percent this time. If you liked In Flames’ previous records and don’t mind the experiments described above, you have to purchase this record. By the way, the two bonus tracks “The Chase” and “Become The Sky” are excellent modern melodic death metal as well that should even please to a couple of fans that liked “A Sense Of Purpose” but none of the other recent releases, so be sure to look out for them. There is no doubt that this release will easily make it on my list of the twenty best records of the year 2014. Right now, this album is even in my top five. Be courageous and check this out. In Flames we trust.