### In Flames, 2007-03-26

#### 21/04/07 || Global Domination

My watch stopped.

No really. Whether it was because In Flames was so good time stood still or because it was so boring that clocks stopped, well, I’m still undecided on that one…

This was the first time in a long time that I’ve been sober at a concert, I’m sure that’s influenced my impressions (again, still not sure if it’s for the better or the worse). Anyways, the evening started with me meeting up forumer Efil and his crew for some Chinese food, served by a waitress that was like a mix of the soup nazi (“Food good?! Good!!”) and a parody of a linguistically challenged Asian. I give her a 9 on the nutter-scale ( 1= Trey Azagthoth, 10= Mel Gibson. Oh wait, they’re both nuts!) and the food a 7 on the tasty-scale ( 1= Brusselsprouts, 10=T rey Azagthoth). Since none of us gave a fuck about the opening band Avatar we arrived just in time for a beer before In Flames took the stage. Come to think of it, I seriously don’t know if anyone gave a flying fuck about Avatar, when they had a signing after the gig the line was shorter then Paris Hilton’s year of celibacy.

But back to In Flames. They gave us a stripped down show, not in the “Jesper flaunts his ho-hah”-kinda way, but there were no pyros, no tv-screens, not even a backdrop! That last one struck me as kinda odd actually. Maybe they shrunk it in the dryer… Nevermind, the crowd of 1500 metalheads were into it from song one and that’s what’s important. Well, not quite. The performance are what’s important and it was… well, like an interracial gay orgy. Mixed nuts. The musical output was top notch and very tight, most obvious in “Behind space” (that song is a clusterfuck if not played 100% tight), so no complaints there. You could tell the band has toured a lot and played together for a long time. The problem was at the lead singer front. Either Anders had the worst soundguy ever, was going sick or maybe he just can’t growl anymore. Something was clearly wrong at least, in the end it was just embarrassing to listen to. The growls were weak, went up and down in volume and sometimes just disappeared altogether (that might actually be the soundguy’s fault). The clean vocals sounded a lot better (and this is when we know something is FUBAR…) so I don’t think Mr. Mixertable was entirely to blame tonight, which leaves only one other person…

During the course of the concert it became quite obvious just how many hits In Flames have gathered during their 13 year career. The majority of songs played were from “Clayman” and onwards, and while the crowd went apeshit to songs like “System”, “Pinball map”, “Touch of red” etc., I found myself become increasingly bored. Which brings me to my other main gripe about the gig:

While I dig the newer In Flames-material, my heart definitely lies with stuff like “Jotun”, “Behind space”, “Moonshield” and “Dead god in me” (how twisted are those lyrics?!). Since the singing sucked so bad I concentrated on the instruments and it soon became painfully obvious just how much better and more interesting the old songs are. Of course they only played a segment of 3-4 pre-“Colony” tunes, the remaining 1:15 hrs were new stuff. sigh

Overall this was a disappointment. The choice of songs (they fucking omitted “Jotun” and “Artifacts of the black rain”!) and the vocals were huge minuses in my book. This could’ve been so much better. Next time I think they should rehire Mikael Stanne, that guy can still growl with conviction and do clean vocals. Or maybe move Daniel Svensson from the drumthrone (where he’s sorely underused, the guy can do so much more then just play 4/4 rock beats) up to the mic. God knows he can growl like a motherfucker (just listen to his old band Sacrilege). And definitely fire the soundguy.

Musical chops: 8. Vocal chops: I wish. Björn Gelotte in his new haircut, looking like the dude from Mastodon: 9. Had it really been the dude from Mastodon: 10. Overall score: I wish I was drunk.

PS. My watch started working again when I got home, guess it was just in some kind of shock. And another note: All the photos in here are taken from In Flames’ official site. Copyright belongs to some mutherfucker.

- Information
- Show date: March 26th, 2007.
- Place: Folkets Hus, Umeå. Sweden.

- Band
- Anders Fridén: vocals
- Jesper Strömblad: guitar
- Björn Gelotte: guitar
- Peter Iwers: bass
- Daniel Svensson: drums