In flames Mindview Dec 1997

More and more bands let their creativity run free. Mostly the result is a unique style what other bands only can dream about. Swedish In Flames is a nice example of such a thing. With these boys Death and traditional metal go hand in hand. October last year their newest and third full CD has been released. With their previous one, 'The Jester Race' from 1996, they already made quite an impression on their fans. With their brandnew disc the future looks even more brigther. Mindview called with vocalist Andres Fridén and first we looked back on their appearance on the 'With A Dragon's Blaze Festival' a few weeks ago...

'We really had lots of fun there. It was the frist time that we performed with our new guitarist and it was really fantastic. It all worked out very good. The audiance was very excited and we all like that ofcourse. It was also the first time we had a gig in Belgium and we surely had no reasons to complain. Everybody had a great time and the atmosphere on that festival was really unique.'

Apart from the older material, your set also existed out of a few new songs. How were the reactions on them?

That's hard to tell. The public isn't too familiar with these new songs yet and that's why the reactions were a bit divided in general. And I can understand that. I'm also like that. I first have to like a record before I go to a gig. The new songs are pure In Flames and we succeeded to transmit that feeling to the audience. Belgium is a great country and as soon as we start touring again, we won't miss it ofcourse.

How long did it took to construct this new record?

Between this one and our former CD 'The Jester Race', there's quite a long period, but we used that time very intense. Apart from doing a few gigs and festivals here and there we worked for about three months on the new songs. And it all worked out very good. The recordings went very smooth and what I especially noticed is that this time there was hardly any stress, everything went very relaxed.

So, that's the reason why 'Whoracle' sounds so relaxed...

That's right. You can find that relaxed atmosphere on the record. There a few very spontanious and nice melodies and solo's on this one, and that gives you a nice idea how we feel right now.

When I listen to your record I also hear a lot of typical metalriffs. I suppose that was ment to be?

Yeah, we've always been very influenced by heavy metal. Maybe today even stronger than ever. 'Whoracle' is way harder than 'The Jester Race', and that was supposed to be. We improvised a lot in the studio and that worked out very good. I also know now that everybody in the band is 200% satisfied with the result. Musically we have changed quite a lot over the years, but still you hear that typical sound when you put on one of our records. Maybe that' the power of our band? Also the way we handle our songs nowadays has been changed. Now every songs has to be perfect in every detail, otherwise it won't appear on the record. Every album was a bit different. On our new CD we proved again that In Flames is capable of doing nice things. We are a band that keeps on evoluating time after time and that makes playing in a band so great and interesting.

I believe that 'Whoracle' is your last CD for the German label Nuclear Blast, so your contract tells. Where do you go from there?

We have been given a new contract. So we don't really have to worry over that in the first next years. Nuclear Blast supports us really well, and they do their job more than excellent which can't be said of every recordcompany.

With three longplayers on your record, you guys are already quite a while on the Swedish metalscene. How does that scene look like nowadays and to which bands do you still listen?

Here in Gothenburg there are a lot of good bands, but there is absolutely not one club or pub where such bands can perform. Ofcourse that's really pitty. Sweden is a very trendy country when it comes to music. A lot of kids listen to pop because they simple don't know that there are other and harder bands around. Sometimes that's frustrating, but I can understand that. About five years ago there was this really huge death metal invasion. Every band played death metal. Now there is only few interst and the only band today who still scores is Entombed. But in my opinion, they don't play death metal anymore...