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In Flames is a Swedish melodic death metal band from the city of Gothenburg. During the years changed and evolved their style through many influences, especially in the last years. Like At The Gates, their heavy influence on the genre is not disputed. In Flames' line-up underwent constant changes throughout their early career. Their first stable line-up was composed by the founding members Jesper Strömblad, Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström, with Mikael Stanne guest-singing for vocals. With this line-up, they proceeded to record the album Lunar Strain, after leaving was replaced by Henke Forss, and the drummer Daniel Erlandsson, and they made the album Subterranean. But Henke left the band, too, so Anders Fridén (who was ironically the vocalist for Dark Tranquillity at the time) was set on the vocals and Bjorn Gelotte on the drums, and they recorded The Jester Race, which made the band known to the world, especially in Europe and Japan. Inflames is perhaps best known for their albums The Jester Race, Whoracle, Colony and Clayman. However, the group came to mainstream attention with Reroute to Remain, Soundtrack To Your Escape and their most recent studio album Come Clarity (which has sold over 100,000 copies).
History Inflames began when three members of Ceremonial Oath — Jesper Strömblad, Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström — quit the band in order to start a musical project of their own. (Interestingly they both recorded covers of Metallica songs for the Metal Militia tribute compilation) 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 Inflames' first album - entitled ''Lunar Strain'', which relied on aggressive instrumental work, at times combined with acoustic sections. Session vocals for the album were recorded by Mikael Stanne, though soon after he would leave to sing for Dark Tranquillity (having already played guitar for them), with then Dark Tranquillity vocalist Anders Fridén replacing him. 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'' (vocals on this release were recorded by Henke Forss, soon to be replaced by Fridén). The EP attracted the attention of the Nuclear Blast label, which offered them a contract for a European release the same year. 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 Inflames due to the difficulties of sharing time between different projects. Their last contribution to the band was the album ''Whoracle'', from 1997. Peter Iwers(on the bass) and Niklas Engelin(on the guitar) were then invited to accompany In Flames in the joint tour with Dimmu Borgir that followed Whoracles release. This line-up worked rather well, and by the end of the tour the musicians became permanent members of Inflames. 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. Chris Amott (who was in Arch Enemy at the time) made a guest appearance on the track "Suburban Me" on this album. Peter Iwers' first daughter was born, and he temporarily left the band. He was replaced by Dick Löwgren for a year. When he came back to the band, the live album ''The Tokyo Showdown'' was recorded. In 2002, ''Reroute to Remain'' was the first release of Inflames not produced in the Studio Fredman. This album introduced the use of clean vocals instead of only death growls, American alternative metal influences and some more keyboards and electronics than previous albums. This led to mixed reviews, gaining new fans and causing older fans to state that Inflames had "sold out." Their seventh album, ''Soundtrack to Your Escape'', in 2004, took another step into this direction. A DVD box set was released in September 2005 entitled ''Used and Abused: In Live We Trust''. The band toured on the 2005 Ozzfest on the main stages and supported Motörhead on its 30th anniversary tour in Autumn 2005. The band sold over 1 million records all over the world before the release of ''Come Clarity''. This album, released in early 2006 but recorded in March 2005, is the band's most successful album to date. Come Clarity has been widely acclaimed by fans and critics alike, particularly many of those that felt the previous two albums to be a major departure. It was on the top of the charts in Sweden and in Finland in its first week of sales. In addition, the band figured in position After the release of Come Clarity, the band took part in the 2006 The Unholy Alliance tour in Europe with Slayer, Children of Bodom, Lamb of God and Thine Eyes Bleed. Influence Along with Dark Tranquillity, Soilwork, At The Gates and Sentenced, In Flames are widely thought of as some of the first practitioners, if not inventors of the melodic death metal genre, although it is true that Carcass's Heartwork, which precedes Inflames' noteworthy album The Jester Race, features some excellent examples of this subgenre as well. Other pioneers could be Ceremonial Oath and Septic Broiler (Now Dark Tranquillity). Advocates of this theory claim that is notable in its best form on songs such as "Episode 666" and "Jotun". In any case, bands such as Arch Enemy name In Flames as a vital influence. Awards Inflames were honored with the "Swedish Music Export" prize at Sweden's "Grammis" awards, which were held Tuesday night, February 7 2006 at Cirkus in Stockholm. In Flames were the first metal band ever to win this award. "Thanks to Inflames, Sweden now has a metal band in the absolute world elite," the Swedish economy minister Thomas Östros said of the award. Line-up Vocals Guitars Bass Drums Session Members Guest Artists Albums Singles Videos DVDs Trivia | ||||||||
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