In Flames - I, The Mask

“For ‘’Battles’’ I wrote a lot of the material at home first but for this one, Anders and I really wanted to just get in a room together and see where it would take us,” Gelotte explains, adding that Benson would frequently drop by and act as a filter for their creativity. “I think this process worked really well because a lot of the lyrics fed off the music or Anders would come up with a really powerful line and it would inspire a riff, so there was a lot of symbiosis between us in the songwriting.” From there the duo fleshed out the arrangements with guitarist Niclas Engelin, bassist Bryce Paul Newman and previous drummer Joe Rickard and then spent two months tracking the songs. (‘’I, The Mask’’ is also the last recording to feature Rickard who was subsequently replaced by Tanner Wayne who played on the track ‘’(This Is Our) House.’’) Finally, the album was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, who has worked with everyone from Cheap Trick to Linkin Park and mastered by Ted Jensen (Pantera, Eagles, Guns N’ Roses).

‘’Voices’’ starts with a tension building guitar intro. I expected the next part to be a little louder, but when the vocals come in that part really came to life. When I listen to In Flames, I only listen to pre-2006 albums, so clean vocals still sound a bit misplaced to me (late to the party, I know). However I can understand that it takes a toll on your voice to growl all the time. Keeping the clean vocals only in the chorus is a good compromise. A side effect of this is that they got the metalcore label quite quickly. Next up is title track ‘’I, The Mask’’. I really love the melodies in this song, and the lyrics hit pretty close to home. The verses have a bit of the ‘’classic’’ In Flames vibe, I like that a lot. ‘’Call My Name’’ sounds rather soft after the two previous tracks. There is an effect laid over the vocals in the verses that do just not hit my ear the right way. It is my least favourite track up till now. Released as the first single, ‘’I Am Above’’ is next on the tracklist. This song has honestly been on repeat a lot since it came out, and I love everything about this track. It is super well balanced. The track made me excited about the whole album, and that is what singles are supposed to do.

‘’Follow Me’’ begins very chill and acoustic, then follows a heavy guitar part, and the semi-acoustic atmosphere carries on in the verses. Not a lot of growls in this one, and the lyrics are rather cheesy. It fits on the album though, but to me a filler track. The same goes for ‘’(This Is Our) House’’. Also released as a single, but definitely not up to the standard that ‘’I Am Above had set. ‘’We Will Remember’’ reminds be a lot of 2015 Bring Me The Horizon. I can’t really lay a finger on it why. It is very inbetween styles, a bit more rock than metal. Not what I am used to hear from In Flames. You’d think that at one point the experimenting with sounds, genres and influences stop, but In Flames debunk that theory. They were never a band to give up quickly and I think that is one of their strengths as well.

I can’t help but to feel that In Flames is slowly trying to convince us that they’ve outgrown death metal for once and for all. Because ‘’In This Life’’ is drifting even further away from it. Can’t help to feel a little disappointed about it. ‘’Burn’’ on the other side is a track that I had to listen to a few times before I could really form an opinion on, and that opinion is still changing every day. Right now I like it. The oriental sounds in ‘’Deep Inside’’ took me a bit by surprise. I don’t know if this was intended, I wouldn’t call Scandinavia exotic, but hey, I applaud to In Flames for not getting stuck in one train of thought. A bit of a filler track again though.

‘’All The Pain’’ is another song that hits me in the feels with its lyrics. It fits great on this album, and I enjoy listening to it. After a few tracks I found okay-ish, this one is definitely better again. Definitely one of the better tracks on this album. We close the album with ‘’Stay With Me’’. It has a great electronic/synth vibe in the beginning, too bad it does not return. It is a pretty slow song but listening to the lyrics that makes sense.