Eleven Seven

             During a band’s lifetime, they go through creative spikes that at the current time, may not be perceived as effective work, or too pretentious. Trust me, being pretentious can be a climb to get through, just look at my intros to each story. This is a testament to In Flames, and their 2016 album, Battles. This album is considered a less-than-effective work, a melancholic improvement to their 2014 outing, Siren Charms. But is it that bad? This is the basis of the review and analysis. I want to go over each song on the record and come to a solution for this somewhat forgotten album. For this rating, I will be ranking them via skulls, with one being the worst and five being the best.

Drained: five skulls

           This track is a monumental start to this album, with the guitars going between mournful chugs and uneasy harmonics. This can also be said for the synths that hold the same melodrama in the beginning verses and hold a nice melodic beauty throughout the peaks of the chorus and bridges of this track. I’ve always been a big fan of albums that start with more mellowed-out themes and emotional tracks. 

The End: five skulls

           The groove of this song and the stylization of each verse is so great. One of the coolest things about this album is the choir in the background composed of youthful vocals. This song is also riff-heavy and is built upon the practicality of listening to it deliberately and also via concert. I also really liked the music video which was shot like an FPS video game, or similar to Enter The Void.

Like Sand: 3 skulls

             Like sand is an oddity due to its very mediocre feel and sound. The mixing of the guitars and even the way the choruses and verses are delivered are just very basic versions of post-grunge sounds. I know it sounds bad, but I think it’s very basic, not bad at all, just very basic.

The Truth:4 skulls

              So this is another one of the main singles of this album and this is kind of the linchpin of most people’s criticisms. The way this song is mixed is very similar to The End and adds a ton of the youth chorus’ throughout the bridges of the song. Even though this flies under my radar when approaching this album, I think it pretty well encapsulates the sound of the album and the problems of this album too.

In My Room: 5 skulls

             So funny enough, when I looked at the title of this song, I thought I was going to be listening to a cheesy goth song where Andrs (the lead singer) would talk about it not being a phase, but the themes of this song with isolation and depression in such a simple approach is nice in contrast to the many hours for someone like  Mastodon to get across the point of loss due to cancer (but Emperor of sands is a fantastic album).  One of the standout points of this album is the masterful delivery and mixing of vocals which bring out a more visceral nature of sadness and it fits the kind of death metal style of vocals Andrs approaches with. The tonality of the guitars being crunchy sounding to this nice speaker-feeling ambiance brings out the beauty of In Flame’s writing.

Before I fall: 3 skulls

             This track, I decided to go back and listen to and I totally forgot about a stand-out part of it. This In Flames take on Nu Metal, and to be honest, I think it’s super unique and in a way kind of a deep cut. Even though aside from this element, it’s a very basic radio metal, it’s worth the listen for sure.

Through My Eyes: 2 Skulls

                I’ll be honest, this song is very middle of the road. You see, by the time I was ending this album, I started to look at songs like this one as lazy, almost a copy-and-paste structure of its methodology. To me, it seemed odd since I always respected bands who kind of isolated a structure or tonality of their record into one. But for some reason, my ear kind of made these not-so-great songs blend into one another. I’m not sure if I am ranking this due to that realization occurring during this song or whether I am making a fair place of judgment, luckily, this changed later on.

Battles: 5 skulls

                The title track of this album holds a kind of mysticism that I usually don’t get to indulge in a whole lot. You see, I started a full album run-through at the start of last May, but due to my increasing love for Asura’s Wrath and the dip in quality from the two previous tracks, I stopped. So when I picked this album back up this was the first song I went to and it restimulated the love I had for this album. This song is a testament to the simplicity I have been talking about. With powerful and catchy choruses with experimental guitar work (at least in comparison to Clayman or I, The Mask). Even though I said previously that The Truth encapsulated the sound of this album, I think this track specifically takes the cake on a broader level.

Here Until Forever: 3 Skulls

               When I listened to this song for the first time, I thought it was very basic, however, I loved the whole idea of connecting the guitars throughout the song for a nice and simple melodic chorus. Even though I think it’s one of the more anti-climatic singles, I see why it is one of the more popular songs on the record. 

Underneath My Skin:4 Skulls

                This song in particular is kind of a deep cut since I always see people pass over this song in reviews or rants about how “bad” this album truly is. I think this track is kind of a nice follow-up to the emotional approach of Battles and In My Room. I also loved the use of synths which kind of combined the yawning gap between the methodology at the start and end of this album. I think that this song however seems a bit out of place with the ending song of the record.

Wallflower: 4 Skulls

                Now I know this song does have lyrics, but oh my lord the instrumentation of this song is so unique. It matches the sound of this album while also kind of creating an identity for itself. I also love the tonality of both guitars which are kind of a blend of a classic rock sound with your obvious faster chugging. Very few albums hit a false symphonic sound (a song that you think will be more mellowed out and slow but turn into a regular-sounding track) and they do it so well here.

Save Me: 3 Skulls

                  Save Me is the kind of song that I was fairly surprised to see that it wasn’t a single, and it wasn’t even played on the radio. This song had the inner workings of a radio rock or kind of a beginner’s guidebook to Metalcore. Its simplicity swings from a post-grunge type of style to the kind of chugs and breakdown-esque choruses of 2010 metalcore.

Greatest Greed: 3 Skulls

                I think that this song is so well made and kind of a nice encapsulation of what the perfect 00s song would be. A big highlight for me is the synths going into the verse of the song, and the sonic approach to super simplistic riffs. I also was fairly surprised when I connected with the verses other than the choruses. For some reason, the youth chants just don’t hit as well, in comparison to The Truth or The End. Even the flow of the song kind of gets monotonous towards the end.

Us Against The World: 4 Skulls

To bring this album to a finality, Us Against The World is a dang-near-perfect song just with bad placement. You see, most albums lead off with an outro that is kinda used in a fantastical context. The problem is this song deserves to be in the place of Wallflower and that song to be in the latter’s. Obviously, this is just a nit pic, since this track is filled with kind of the perfect parts of this album into this song. But in a way, they also presented this style of Japanese Butt-Rock that made me think it was supposed to be in a Sonic or Hack-and-Slash game. 

So overall I think this album has its flaws and I get where the public was coming from when this was released. I think though if it was any other band (that wasn’t Death Metal or Progressive Metal) it would have been a chart-topper. If you or a family member weren’t a big fan of this album, you are qualified for a consultation and could be compensated with pure dopamine in your ear holes. So take a listen or I will find you.