In Flames - Lunar Strain Review

Metal was dieing in the 1990s. The ever so popular Grunge movement had taken over the mainstream and underground scenes at the time and there were only a few Heavy Metal bands that were acctually making quality music. The old ways of doing "Heavy Metal" had died and Genres like Thrash Metal had morphed into completly diffrent Genres like Death Metal. The stage was set perfectly for a revolution to happen in the Metal world, and happen it did. Bands like Pantera had taken Thrash Metal into the Mainstream creating essentially Groove Metal. Chuck Schuldiner and his band Death had exploded creating the Death Metal and Progressive Death Metal genres and then there was In Flames. They werent hugely popular until later and their influence wasnt felt until later but they spawned one of the biggest most popular movements in Metal ever. They were merging the genres of Death Metal, Black Metal, Progressive Metal, and Power Metal. They created one of the greatest genres of music ever in Melodic Death Metal adn this is the album that put everything in motion. Lunar Strain came out in 1994 right when Heavy Metal needed a shot in the arm. This album is Breathtaking. Its one of the greatest Melodic Death releases ive ever listened too and its only In Flames first album! The riffs are powerfull yet they retain just the perfect sense of melody. The Melody and Harmony guitar lines are brilliant and original (for 1994) and they sweep you right off their feat with the dreamy acoustic sections. The Drums are excellently preformed. The blast beats and double bass are all put in the exact right places and they only compliment the music. And the solos! Oh my god the are the most eargasmic solos ive heard in a long time. The songwriting is very good but its hard to hear the lyrics at times due to the bad production, but overall the songwriting/vocals is very good for the genre. The Production is the only noticible flaw on this record. But seeing as it was this bands first album and it was 1994 the bad production is almost excusable. This record doesnt really have any "standout tracks" because they are all really solid and flow together well. To sum it up, this is a brilliant genre defining album with excellent flow and great musicianship. The bad production brings this down from being a 9/10 but its almost there. Really Solid 8.5/10