Progressive and melodic and death? How is that possible?

Before I talk about In Flames, I want to mention the bands that The Metal Health discussed just so all those amazing bands get mentioned one more time: Evile, Gojira, Hypocrisy, Ghoul, Amon Amarth, Calabrese, Children of Bodom, and Dew-Scented.  I love every one of those bands; please check them out!

Today though I am discussing another Swedish group who helped to define the modern melodic death metal sound....In Flames.  I came to In Flames later in my music career and after hearing them for the first time, I wondered why.  What had prevented me from hearing them and listening as long as I had been listening to Hypocrisy, Dark Tranquillity or At the Gates? Still not sure.

In Flames is the perfect mix of hard rock, death metal, melodic metal, and progressive metal.  I guess you could compare them to the Finnish group Amorphis and how their sound progressed over time, but In Flames has sounded like that for most of their career.  Yes, they started with a heavier sound early in their career as well, but moved toward a progressive sound quicker than Amorphis.

So, if you are interested in quality musicianship, guitar melodies, death growls, clean vocals, and hooks, then In Flames is your band.


Hail and Horns