In Flames is a Swedish heavy metal band from Gothenburg, formed in 1990. Since the band's inception, they have released ten studio albums and one live DVD. In Flames have sold over 2 million albums worldwide to date!!!
Background Info
In Flames, along with Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates, pioneered what is now known as melodic death metal. The founding members of all three bands all lived in Gothenburg, Sweden and they were all friends who shared the same musical interests. Eventually, that group of friends branched off into three bands with the same musical direction, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, and At the Gates.
Jesper Strömblad formed In Flames to write music that combined the melodic guitar style of Iron Maiden with the brutality of death metal, something which Jesper stated he had never heard any band do. In writing songs, Jesper also decided to make use of keyboards, something which was (at the time) uncommon in death metal. Ever since In Flames' debut studio album, Lunar Strain, the band has made use of keyboards.
Timeline
In Flames was founded in the year 1990 by Jesper Strömblad as a side project from his then-current death metal band, Ceremonial Oath. His purpose was to write songs with a more melodic musical direction. In 1993, Strömblad decided to quit Ceremonial Oath due to musical differences and began focusing more on In Flames.That same year, Strömblad recruited Glenn Ljungström on guitar and Johan Larsson on bass guitar to form the first official In Flames line-up.
During 1993, In Flames wrote, recorded, and self-produced their debut studio album, Lunar Strain. Since In Flames did not have a vocalist yet, Strömblad asked Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquillity to provide session vocals. In 1994, Lunar Strain was released. It did not take long before the album was a classic in the fast growing Scandinavian death metal scene.
In 1995, In Flames became tired of using session musicians to record an album or to do live shows, so the trio asked Björn Gelotte to join the band as the full-time drummer, and 6 months later asked Anders Fridén to join the band as the full-time vocalist. With this new line up, In Flames signed a license deal with Nuclear Blast Records and soon started recording their next album, The Jester Race, which quickly became a big hit all across Europe and Japan.
In 1997, In Flames recorded and released their third studio album, Whoracle. Ljungström and Larsson unexpectedly announced that they were leaving In Flames after the album was recorded. Niklas Engelin and Peter Iwers were recruited to fill in the vacant spots on guitar and bass respectively, during a tour with Dimmu Borgir. After a very successful European tour Engelin quit In Flames, so the band decided to switch Gelotte from his position as drummer to guitarist, and they recruited Daniel Svensson to take over as drummer.
In 1999, the new line-up recorded and released the band's fourth studio album, Colony, which took In Flames to a new level and the band sold out venues across Europe, USA and Japan and quickly became one of the biggest and most popular Melodic Death Metal acts around.
In 2000, In Flames recorded and released their fifth studio album, Clayman. A tour with Dream Theater, Slipknot, and Testament followed and in August 2001 In Flames released ‘The Tokyo Showdown’, a live album recorded during the Japanese tour in November 2000.
In 2002, In Flames recorded and released their sixth studio album, Reroute to Remain, which represented a major stylistic shift for In Flames music in the he addition of clean vocals, catchier choruses and no more growls. It was also their first album to have official singles released from it. That year the band toured with Slayer, Soulfly, and Mudvayne.
In 2004, In Flames released their seventh studio album, Soundtrack to Your Escape, which increased the band's popularity considerably, selling 100,000 copies in the United States alone and yielding a #2 single on the Swedish charts with “The Quiet Place”. Four music videos were filmed for the album. The ensuing world tour saw the band make their first trip to Australia, where they played to mostly sold out crowds. Afterward, In Flames toured with Judas Priest, Mötley Crüe, and Motörhead and were also featured on the main stage at Ozzfest 2005. The band documented these live escapades, which resulted in the release of the DVD/CD package “Used And Abused – In Live We Trust” in 2005.
With an incredibly successful world tour behind them, In Flames recorded the masterpiece, Come Clarity, which was released in March 2006 and which today has sold over 400.000 copies worldwide. It became the band's first #1 album on the Swedish charts. The song “Take This Life” is featured on one of the best-selling video games of all time, Guitar Hero III. The same year, In Flames joined The Unholy Alliance Tour, and played on the main stage at Download Festival. In 2007, the band played in Dubai for the annual Dubai Desert Rock Festival.
On April 4, 2008, In Flames released their 9th studio album, A Sense of Purpose, entering charts all over the world incl # 1 in Sweden and the band’s highest ever entry on the American Billboard Top 200 with an amazing #28. In Flames were featured on the Gigantour 3 North American tour with Megadeth, Children of Bodom and many others and also performed at various metal festivals such as Metaltown, Metalcamp, Graspop, Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park, Download Festival and several others.
2009 started off with In Flames performing live at the Swedish Grammi Awards, during which the band won a Grammi for ‘best metal band’. The same year, In Flames also won the P3 Gold award (Swedish National radio) for best Rock/Metal band. 2009 ended with the hugely successful ‘Rockstar Taste Of Chaos Tour’, which the band headlined.
On February 12, 2010, the departure of guitarist and founding member Strömblad was announced. It was later announced that Engelin had re-joined the band to take the vacant spot left by Strömblad's departure. On October 11, 2010, In Flames entered IF Studios in Gothenburg to start recording their new album, Sounds Of A Playground Fading, which would be released in June 2011 on Century Media Records. To support the album In Flames performed at the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth and at Mayhem Festival 2011 alongside Megadeth, Trivium, Machine Head, Godsmack, and Disturbed. They also played at Hellfest Festival 2011, headlining the second main stage.
Musical Style
In Flames' musical style is characterized by the constant use of harmonized lead guitar melodies and screaming-style singing along with death growls. In early albums such as The Jester Race, In Flames would often employ two harmonized lead guitars playing over a rhythm guitar. On the album Soundtrack to Your Escape, the band focused on less guitar melodies, giving place for more synths.
In Flames' vocal style is characterized by the use of growled vocals or screamed vocals complemented at times by clean vocals. In more recent albums such as Come Clarity, the band makes more prominent use of clean vocals, especially during choruses. In early albums, In Flames' lyrics focused on astrology, mankind, and other global themes. In later albums such as Soundtrack To Your Escape and Come Clarity, their lyrics focus more on personal issues, thoughts, and other introspective themes.
In Flames In South Africa
On October 27th, it was announced that In Flames will headline Ramfest Cape Town 2012 on March 11 and Ramfest Johannesburg 2012 on March 10th. Ramfest is one of the biggest annual South African open air festivals. Initially a 3-day camping festival staged in Cape Town only, Ramfest has rapidly expanded during the years since its inception and recently developed into a national touring festival featuring 1-day festivals in 5 South African cities.
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