In Flames - Reroute to Remain

Here it is. Probably the most controversial In Flames album in their discography. When released it divided fans, caused many arguments, and aleinated some hardcore fans. We'll here we go with the review of 2002s Reroute to Remain. With Clayman In Flames had tried to modernize their sound without aleinating hardcore fans and as my reveiw of that says they did a pretty good job. Clayman retained the hardcore elements of their sound while modernizing it alot. That said you obviously cant please everyone because the album never really got to the metal mainstream. Therefore with Reroute to Remain In Flames made a huge switch in sound, songwriting, and vocal style all with and attempt to reach metal mainstream and heck from the sound of this album they wanted to reach the music mainstream in general. In Flames' sound on this record is very "Nu-Metal". They add poppy synthesizers, Ander's screaming is less deep and growly and more raspy, and they even added clean vocals in the choruses. Yes thats right hardcore fans clean vocals. Almost an unspeakable word amongst people like you. I have to say though I dont mind clean vocals or the clean vocals on this album. What I do mind is how bad this album is. The songwriting like I said before sounds very Nu-Metal especially in the choruses. There are some good tracks on this album but the use of uneeded synthesizers really brings them down. The lyrics are a huge step down from earlier releases. The album is lyrically sound but you wont hear brillian lyrics like the ones in Jotun on this album. Rythym section of bass and drums is as strong as ever (except for the style change). The guitars (sigh) are not good at all on this album. The creative riffs of Whoracle and Colony are long gone. The sweeping solo's of The Jester Race are gone as well. Worst of all, the melodies are gone! Sure the odd one is thrown in here and there but they are nowhere near the excellence of earlier albums. The production on this record is also very average. Remember this is one of my favourite times for music production and I thought the produciton on this record was just so loud it muddled everything up. Dont get me wrong I like loud music. But I HATE muddled music. The guitars sound especially crappy. They are just not as clear as they used to be on earlier albums. Average. Thats pretty much how I describe this album. Its like any other Nu-Metal or Metalcore release being released at the time and the Melodic Death Metal element is gone. That said there are some good tracks so a 7/10 nis in order.