What happens to bands? Why must they always become increasingly banal and uninspired with time? OK, so it’s a generalisation, but those words are applicable to so many bands. In Flames are one such band.
Their last two albums (2002’s Reroute to Remain and 2004’s Soundtrack to your Escape) are nothing less than shocking to a fan of the older material. Granted, the more rhythm-based noodlings were becoming apparent on the previous two albums Colony and Clayman; especially the latter which regardless is still great, this just illustrates that a stylistic move does not necessarily have to result in soulless pap, it can be done let it be known.
It makes me weep tears of blood to go back and listen to The Jester Race whilst thinking of the band’s contemporary material. I guess you can look at it two ways: positively, that at least they did release some excellent stuff back in the day, or negatively, focusing on the subsequent switch to mass appeal and rebellious teenagers. I’m not one to chant ‘sell-out’ at bands, because it’s difficult to truly know whether decisions were made to water-down in attempt to sell albums or twas a simple matter of wanting to alter sounds from an artistic point of view. But let’s just say that I don’t care for the newer work of this band.
And that brings us to the focal point of this review, the band’s second album, The Jester Race. It was released in 1996 during a particularly high point in Swedish melodic extreme metal, also unleashed around this time were the transcendent releases of Dark Tranquillity’s The Gallery (1995), Dissection’s Storm of the Light’s Bane (1995), and Eucharist’s Mirrorworlds (1997). It was a fine time indeed.
This album represents the pinnacle of In Flames’ career, and perhaps the entire melodic death metal subgenre in general. The album is a heaving cauldron of harmonious riffage, energetic compositions, and catchy melodies. At this point the band still retained some of the folkish qualities that had proliferated in the first album, probably best showcased in the occasional acoustic moments, such as the one which opens the proceedings in ‘Moonshield’.
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