Sounds Of A Playground Fading (Standard CD)

I hesitate to write this review, because it's hard to give anything less than five stars to what has been one of my absolute favorite bands. The bigger problem is that I almost want to give it a 3/5. This is because after a few full listens I feel this is the most hit or miss album that In Flames has recorded. It's bound to be divisive among metal fans, if only because it has a lot of clean sections (which tend to be anathema for many).

I actually think that most of the clean vocals come across well. Tracks like "Deliver Us," "Where Dead Ships Dwell," and the title track, work quite well, and showcase the kind of clean edge that In flames brings to their work. Even "Liberation" - which might be the most radio-friendly track in the long history of the band - works from a musical angle. And for all the people screaming "sell out" or "this is pop music," no, no it is still not even close (just take a listen to top-40 music, you'll be lucky to find anything classified as rock, much less metal). But it is certainly a newer direction. Just for the act of trying something different, I have to continue to applaud the band, because there tends to be little to no variation in the genre.

But Sounds of a Playground Fading has its fair share of problems. First of all, the vocals on the more thrash-ish tracks (The Puzzle, Enter Tragedy, Darker Times, etc.) just seem off. Anders' voice doesn't match the music, and one has to wonder if the vocals weren't over-produced on several of the cuts (in their studio diaries, Anders stated that they spent much longer refining the vocal tracks than they ever had before). However, the biggest problem with the album, at least in my view, is the overuse of wah pedals on all the guitar solos. Almost every track on the album contains a solo drowned out by wah, which has never been a big part of the In Flames' sound. Frankly, that kind of sound belongs with Metallica or Alter Bridge, not in good metal. It ruins much of the composition. I have to wonder whether Bjorn would have gone that route if Jesper was still in the band, but it's hard to say.

In the end, this will be a divisive album for fans. In some respects, the riffs and melodic hooks remind me of the band before they changed their sound in Reroute to Remain. Listen to the track "Ropes" and it's hard not to think about Clayman or Whoracle, at least on some level. Even so the album and its component sounds are inconsistent from track to track. But despite my criticisms, I'd highly recommend purchasing the album. I tend to hold the band to a higher standard, but they continue to overshadow the majority of their metal contemporaries. The In Flames sound is unmistakable, and so I give "Sounds of a Playground Fading" 4/5

I've been a fan of In Flames since the beginning and count myself as one of those who have enjoyed their evolution as a band. To help you better understand where I'm coming from: The first piece of anything I ever learned on guitar was the intro to Moonshield. My ringtone is the lead from December Flower. My favorite album of IF is Reroute to Remain, followed by Colony. There's not an album from IF I don't like a lot or love (Sense of Purpose is my least favorite up til now, which I think most longtime IF fans would agree with).

But even I have to admit that there have been moments in the recent past of the band that didn't click with me. It took me months to start enjoying A Sense of Purpose, and there's still a lot about that album that bothers me. Add that to the fact that this is the first album without founding member Jesper, and I was extremely nervous. I shouldn't have been.

This album knocked my socks off. There are riffs here that are among the best ever written by the band (namely, Ropes. If you can listen to the beginning of Ropes and not be blown away, you can safely leave this album on the shelf). Fear is the Weakness is one of the more demanding songs drum-wise that they've written in a while as well. For those familiar with the song Nerve from Soilwork, imagine a mixture of that with some Black Ash Inheritance - era riffage.

On a further note, the guitar leads on this album are the best since Colony. I honestly didn't know they still had this in them. They are melodic and memorable -- no "noodling" here.

The songwriting is patient and very mature on this album. The vocals are less "screamy" than most of their earlier work, but never in a 'wussy' way. There is a lot hear that hearkens back to their early days in ways that we haven't heard since Colony. It seems like there was an intent to meld what old IF fans loved with the more mature aspects of their new evolution. Somehow, they pulled it off. This is the best melodic metal album in a few years and has a good shot at making my top 3 IF albums. That's saying a lot, for me. To be entirely honest, though, I would have paid full price for the album if it was only the track "Ropes." God, I love that song.

For potential new listeners, I can't recommend this enough. But don't stop here. In Flames is one of the very few bands with such a large catalog that has never repeated themselves while remaining true to their own sound. Get Colony and Reroute to Remain as soon as you can.

In Flames has become perhaps the most popular band from the melodic metal genre that came out of Sweden. The band is also largely responsible for a lot of the trends found in that genre which so wonderfully blended elements of Death and New Wave of British Heavy Metal styles. The most defining, and often most celebrated, part of In Flames was the twin guitar attack of Jesper Strömblad and Björn Gelotte. Not only was the duo celebrated, but Strömblad was the creative force behind the band's sound. In Flames has gone through many changes over the last 15+ years, but the biggest change for the band was dealing with the departure of Strömblad following 2008's "A Sense of Purpose."

As In Flames has grown in popularity it has found more criticism from metal insiders and the fan base as well. Some of it has been warranted as the last album and "Soundtrack to Your Escape" were low points for the group. There's also been moments of brilliance along the way as well, and 2006's "Come Clarity" was a return to form in some ways, though for a certain sect it was more of the same with little resemblance to an albums past like "The Jester Race."

"Sounds of a Playground Fading" will not bring back the old fans who departed after 1999's "Colony" or its follow-up, "Clayman." It will, however, satisfy those who have stuck with the band and found tracks to enjoy on the more modern records. Vocalist Anders Friden was quoted as saying more attention was paid to the vocals with this release, which makes some sense as one would expect Friden to fill in a majority of the creative void left behind by Strömblad's departure. Friden maintains the same vocal style he's employed since "Come Clarity," which is to say he opts for a high rasp most of the time and likes to layer his vocals on the chorus with both clean and distorted screams. His natural singing voice continues to evolve from a Swedish Jonathan Davis to an almost poor man's Maynard James Keenan with this one. The closing number, "Liberation" is sung almost entirely with Friden's natural voice over a mostly gentle pop rock foundation. It's a polarizing track for sure, and one that works on some levels and not on others.

"Liberation" likely won't be a favorite for many, but "The Puzzle" will which contains a frantic guitar/drums attack and some of the harshest sounding vocals the album possesses. It's a bit of a throwback, though parts of it remind me of "Reroute to Remain." In fact, a lot of this album reminds me of "Reroute" in that it seems the band went back to some of the things it tried with that album, but weren't able to pull off. The production is slick, but not sickeningly so as I felt it was with "Reroute." One of the more experimental tracks that works occurs towards the end, "A New Dawn," which features orchestral strings throughout woven into a tapestry of quick-tempo metal. When this album wants to be fast, it does a mostly good job, where as some of the faster tracks on more recent albums seemed like the ones without much inspiration, as if they only existed because the band felt like it had to include some fast numbers.

There are some low notes though. The album's first single "Deliver Us" is rather pedestrian by the band's standards with a bland verse. "All For Me" is one of the slower tracks that comes across as boring and I find it disjointed. "The Attic" tries something different, I think the band was going for a creepy, slow-brooder but didn't quite capture the imagination needed to pull it off. "The Jester's Door" is just filler.

In the end, if In Flames proved one thing with this release it's that life goes on. The band lost its creative backbone but still managed to put out a quality release. What does impress me is that the band didn't just fall back on what got it here and try to imitate Jesper's style. I'd like to think he's rather impressed with what his old mates have created without him. This album won't win over the fans that have lost interest, but it's also far from the worst thing the band has done and is a nice bounce-back from the blandness that marred "A Sense of Purpose."

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