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IN FLAMES

"Siren Charms"

Review by dalia di giacomo

epic.de

01. In Plain View

02. Everything's Gone

03. Paralyzed

04. Through Oblivion

05. With Eyes Wide Open

06. Siren Charms

07. When the World Explodes" (feat. Emilia Feldt) 

08. Rusted Nail

09. Dead Eyes

10. Monsters In The Ballroom

11. Filtered Truth

Every band has an evolution. 

Many fans are disappointed about this album. I can understand. I'm a bit disappointed too. Anyway positive and solid characteristics can be found. Every band has an evolution and, above all, different inpirations during time. A great band can compose diversified albums still maintaing an unmistakable common denominator. This is the case of In Flames and their eleventh studio album "Siren Charms". Typical In Flames sonorities remain unalduterated as in the opener In Plain View, the guitar riffs ensure a sufficient heaviness yet the album sounds much more melodic. Electronic elements are added to enhance ambientation; "Siren Charms" offer also moments of pure brutality, for example the verse of the track  When The World Explodes, whose refrain, with the insertion of female vocals, changes unfortunately into an excessive cheesy and not spectacular melodic rendez-vous. Nonetheless this track too (maybe the most incriminated by the fans) has its merits. Absolutely better is Everything's Gone, which is raw and Death metal oriented in "back to the roots"- style . Decent electronic elements perfectly intertwine with heaviness in the gorgeous song Paralyzed and in Rusted Nail too, which is quite dissonant with unusual elements yet a moment of force. Through Oblivion is another great song in this album, maybe the best one, because of the mix of haunting guitars with a clear Alternative taste. Dead Eyes  is just a filler.

In my opinion, this album shows two negative aspects also: one  is the poor energy set in the vocals when the singing is in clear , on the contrary, rasping growls are powerful as usual. The other minus point is that many of the most melodic patterns (mainly placed in the choruses or refrains) are nothing special. Examples are With Eyes Wide Open (whose guitars are anyway fantastic), followed by When The World Explodes (as mentioned above) and Monsters In The Ballroom. The expectations created by the verses of these songs get unrealized because refrains are not memorable. 
This problem in the  composition affects even a fourth song: the album closes with Filtered Truth whose meaningless refrain, even if energetically played, unfortunately doesnt give justice to the great sonorities.  In Filtered Truth  a not predictable and breathtaking element is missed, that element which would have crowned all other efforts bestowed  on this track.

Sirens Charm  shows anyway peaks of  beauty too: Everything`s Gone, Paralyzed,  Rusted Nail, Through The Oblivion. We should simply dive into the atmosphere that is created for this new opus. Yes, it could have been heavier, more brutal, more sensational, much more (Death)metal, more everything, but it was not meant to be.  In Flames, without losing their mastership in the instrumentation, has become more sorrowful, at times more decadent, or maybe simply ... "human".

7,8/10

Review by dalia di giacomo

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