In Flames is a Swedish melodic death metal band from the city of Gothenburg which is considered by many one of the referentials from the genre.
Biography
In Flames began when three members of Ceremonial Oath — Jesper Strömblad, Anders Fridén and Anders Iwers — quit the band in order to start a musical project of their own. Together with bassist Johan Larsson and guitarist Glenn Ljungström, they recorded a short demo which was sent to a few recording labels. The owner of Wrong Again Records thought the band had promise, and soon closed a recording deal with them. From this deal surfaced In Flames' first album - entitled Lunar Strain - which relied on death grunts for vocals and aggressive instrumental work, at times combined with acoustic sections. The album obtained success on the Swedish underground scene and received positive critics from the specialized press. However, In Flames soon became known to most of Europe with the release of the EP from 1995 Subterranean. The EP attracted the attention of the Nuclear Blast label, which offered them a contract for an European release on the same year.In Flames' line-up underwent constant changes throughout their early career. Their first stable line-up was composed by the founding members, Anders Fridén and Björn Gelotte. With this line-up, they proceeded to record the album The Jester Race, which made the band known to the world, especially in Europe and Japan. A short tour with Kreator followed.
Due to the band's increasing success, Johan Larsson and guitarist Glenn Ljungström — who were already part of other established bands — decided to quit In Flames due to the difficulties of sharing time between different projects. Their last contribution to the band was the album Whoracle, from 1997. Peter Iwers and Niklas Engelin were then invited to accompany In Flames in the joint tour with Dimmu Borgir that followed Whoracle's release. This line-up worked rather well, and by the end of the tour the musicians became permanent members of In Flames. Together they travelled Europe and made the band's first concert outside of Europe, in Japan.
However, by the end of that tour, Niklas Engelin quit the band due to musical differences. Drummer Björn Gelotte assumed the guitars and Sacrilige's Daniel Svensson assumed the drums. This line-up recorded Colony, and a partial world tour followed.
2000 saw the release of Clayman. By this time, the band had already become widely known, and played with bands of major recognition such as Dream Theater, Slipknot and Testament. Peter Iwers' first daughter was born, and he temporarily left the band, being substitude by Dick Löwgren for a year. When he came back to the band, the live album The Tokyo Showdown was recorded.
After their rise to fame, however, In Flames began to lose some of the style that initially characterized the band. The specific reason for that is unknown, but most relate it to the changes happening in the European musical scenario at the time, and to Anders Fridén. However, it is noteworthy that the musical change happened directly after a long tour with Slipknot, who play a very different genre of metal. In Flames proceeded to release two more albums - Reroute to Remain and Soundtrack to Your Escape. In Flames plan to release a new album, Come Clarity, and a DVD Box set, In Live We Trust, in Summer 2005 and will play in the 2005 Ozzfest.
In Flames' Contribution to Melodic death metal
Along with Dark Tranquillity, In Flames are widely thought of as some of the first practitioners, if not inventors of the melodic death metal genre. It is true that Carcass's Heartwork featured some excellent examples of this music and was released before In Flames had put out their first album, but In Flames really made it happen. This is first visible in its most evolved form on tracks such as "Episode 666" and "Gyroscope".Whether or not they can be credited with the invention of this genre, it cannot be argued that they produced some very important albums that solidified the form of Melodic Death Metal. Whoracle was the earliest, and along with The Jester Race, is considered one of the most significant archetypes; however, Colony, closely followed by Clayman, were the two best examples (see Embody the Invisible, Zombie Inc., Strong and Smart, Suburban me, and Man Made God).
Bands such as Arch Enemy, now highly respected Melodic Metallers, name In Flames as a vital influence.