My first introduction to the band was with this album. The first 3-4 listens to I thought was all right, then I put it back on the shelf thinking "I'm going to let this one sit for a while." Well, after about a month of it staying on the shelf not being listened to, I began to grow strikingly into it. I'll tell you why...it's not because it's anything too fancy, though as I grew more into the reasoning why they put words to the music, I was drawn into it wholeheartedly. It's an album and concept that just grew on me. This band has been around for quite a while and just getting into them well I'm in, big time. I don't care what the album is rated by others because I think they did metal justice with this album.

I would say yes alternative metal is correct with a slight groove to it. The fact that they make heavy and thick riffs are great as well as the male/female voices. When I'm not hearing it, I'm hearing it in my head. What they did here was put metal guitar with a good production sound and the vocals (both) seem to tell a story. I myself didn't read the lyrics, but you can understand a lot of them because Cristina sings clean vocals to this heavy music. They take every single word and make it fitting to their music. The music itself sounds groove-laden and totally metal, though there are instances where there's clean guitar. The songs aren't very fast tempo-wise, but they're well thought out.

Upon revisiting their music with this text, they sound like no other really. This Italian made metal band has been given an injustice in the metal community because they put their hearts way into this which is bluntly to the soul of it. There really isn't anything needing change to it I would say everything fits all the little details about the guitars and voices are strictly in unison. This is an album that I never got sick of for a 2014 release. It has all this energy and feel to it that grasps the core of metal to it. They didn't compromise their music just to appease their fans, they really play and sing with heart and that's what's lacking in metal today. I don't think they overused technology in here either. A lot of bands do that.

This album can be found on YouTube, but really give the band some credit and buy the physical copy of it. That is, if you like what you hear on the Internet. All the tracks are my favorite tracks and Cristina's vocals are addictive. She really can hit those high notes and sing like a song-bird for this metal band. The music and production quality are superb. There isn't anything that needs changing with these guys, the songs are all arranged to fit every single note. It's such an awesome release, even if you don't really like the genre, just listen to a tracks. They're not a super-heavy band, but the music is just great and I really liked the vocals both of them. Own it today!
 
Rate: 85%.

Reviewed By Death8699 ([email protected]).

The change is so there, but if you take away expectations to the point to where musical direction is concerned and has been going, then you won't object to viewing this album in a negative connotation or have a false belief.  Sure, it's different, it may not be totally melodic death metal, it does have its melodic death moments, but now it's meshed into 2 genres, maybe more.  The guitars are still heavy, but the music/vocals rear into a different form.  They do use more electronics and clean vocals, some to the extent to think this album is somewhat in the vein of metalcore but it isn't all like that.

What impressed me the most is the music, vocals, production and mixing as well as the lyrics.  I can't see myself writing off this release to just be total crap because I wouldn't be being honest.  If I thought it was just a sell-out album, I would've already stated that, but I'm not.  So keep in tune to what I have to say here.  Yes there is a lot less aggression, there are heavy guitars though they're not playing very fast, there are electronics, their approach is totally different and they basically don't want to keep playing what they've been playing since their founding in 1990.  It's just a change.

Talking more about the music, it seems like their concept was more to the effect that they wanted to mesh 2 genres together, melodic death and groove metal.  They also throw in some thrash sound into it showing their influences genuinely.  This I think is good.  What blew me away is obligatory, but it was the lyrics which made the music so much more desirable.  They're using the words which weren't overly harsh to mesh with the guitars.  The clean vocals are a reflection of just how they are now, more exclusively than past releases for sure.

I like every song on here.  I think the rhythm guitars show their brutality even though they're not playing at fast tempos much.  In Flames was never too big on making music that was overly fast, just melodic.  The riffs here are thick, but they still have that melodic feel to them.  They're expressing more art-work with this one and people kind of knew that the band's evolution was changing into a more laid back vibe to their songwriting than anything else.  I don't think that their effort was just to go commercial with this one, I think it's just experimentation.

Definitely worth checking out on YouTube especially the title-track and "Cloud Connected."  Don't just consider though what I think or others think of the album, consider what you think.  I don't think that I'm totally off on this, I think that this album is a "B" to me.  Maybe it's among some of the highest ratings on the album altogether, but it's just what I think.  Think "melodic/groove/thrash/metalcore" and you'll have all of those styles in here.  I like it more than their new album, but I like most of their releases anyway.  That's not because they're In Flames, it's because they put out quality music.

Rate: 85%.

Reviewed By Death8699 ([email protected]).

I liked this one from the first time I heard it.  I knew that after the release of 'Clayman', In Flames was rearing towards these different styles/genres being that of melodic death/groove metal if you will.  So what's to be expected here is just different, it has it's moments musically, it features heavy songs with screaming, but the style is more laid back, less aggressive than prior releases even though their guitars are still tuned down a lot to I think B or C, guitarists (current) would know what they tune to on here.  It is definitely more aggressive than their latest.

Since the aggression is still somewhat there in the music, I'm not going to knock it down or off because it's not like they've been completely transformed (yet).  The music is not too fast it's more keyed into this sort of concept they're trying to achieve with their nowadays tunes.  But I wholly disagree with critics yet again because I think that the music is what made me like the album because IT IS different yet still heavy just not as intense as their earlier works such as 'The Jester Race', 'Whoracle', 'Colony' and 'Clayman'.  The past is borrowed from and differentiated.

I enjoyed the guest female clean vocals, I think that it was right to do, to show this change as their music just transgresses into a more thick sound with melodic/groove laden styles which fits nicely into their discography, just not as well as I think Jesper would've agreed with.  But he was on the album, so it wasn't like they totally gave up their established genre, they still come forth through to make good compositions and just diversify.  I'm not justifying their wanting to change it up, I'm saying that it's just a sort of transgression to "happier" forms of metal.

This one is one I can listen to repeatedly and not get sick of because of it's unique vibe.  It's less dark as I pointed out, there are more clean vocals, slower musical tempos, not too many guitar solos, just good overall music to me at least.  Other people can bash the album all they want and say they've totally sold out, but I don't think so.  I think that they've just mellowed out and said basically that "we want to change things up as we're an older band and don't want to keep releasing the same stuff over and over".  So yeah, they're into a whole different concept now.

Don't be swayed by naysayers spouting out things like "they're sell-outs", "their music sucks now", etc.  Form your own conclusion because most of what they play on this album is a lot different than what they started with.  A musical transformation.  So they really want to hold this concept and I think play what they want, even though Jesper their founding guitarist is no longer with the band.  Their style yes is different, but the music on here is still good and quality.  I'd think twice about what the common rating is overall and say try it on YouTube and then go with that.  To me, they're still awesome and the music still is too!

Rate: 90%.

Reviewed By Death8699 ([email protected]).

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