In Flames - Siren Charms (2014) - A slap in the face of those grown old nostalgics - 87% (05/09/14)

For the last fourteen years it has been a popular trend in the metal scene to bash any new In Flames release because many closed-minded old-school metal heads are still living in the past millennium, unable to turn the page and accept that In Flames is willing to experiment and play a more alternative metal orientated style with a certain mainstream touch. Instead of giving up on the band, these self-declared true elitists still expect the band to return to a genre it has pioneered and importantly improved during the first ten years of its career. I’m completely on In Flames’ side because it’s useless to keep on reproducing music the band has already played in a nearly perfect manner on its great debut record “Lunar Strain”. Instead of becoming an irrelevant copy of its former years, the band has experimented for the majority of its career over the past fourteen years. In Flames continues to do so and the new album is another big slap in the face of those grown old nostalgics. And that’s the way it has to be.

Enter Siren Charms. This record is as experimental as “A Sense Of Purpose…” but less accessible than this release and continues the style of the previous effort “Sounds Of A Playground Fading” with a few electronic and modern alternative rock influences influenced by “Soundtrack To Your Escape”. The great thing is that the progressively fusions and continues its very own sound without copying any particular record to extent.

This record still includes quite a few surprises. The dirty, fast and misanthropic “Everything’s Gone” could come straight from a Marilyn Manson record and is definitely one of the best songs on here. 

The slow and plodding “Through Oblivion” has a modern gothic rock style I would expect from a band like HIM. Once again, if you like this kind of music as much as I do, you are going to worship this song as well. 

The melancholic and floating “With Eyes Wide Open” with its crystal clear fragile vocals and its catchy chorus reminds me of Thirty Seconds To Mars. “Dead Eyes” hits a very similar way and comes around with so beautiful guitar and keyboard melodies that this track should definitely be the second single. In this song, In Flames sing: “This is my world now.” And they sing with as much conviction as Metallica did on the song “My World” on the album “St. Anger”. Many people call Siren Charms In Flames’ personal “St. Anger”. Even though these two records are miles away from each other stylistically, this comparison is not completely wrong. Both bands do what they want to do with passionate authenticity and unbowed power and don’t care about being popular. That’s why I like both records quite a lot. Some people will call the two aforementioned tracks emo rock but it is performed with this certain conviction and passion and that’s why these songs have really grown on me. 

“When The World Explodes” starts like a mixture of a metalcore and a melodic death metal song that could have appeased the old fan base. But In Flames wouldn’t be themselves if they didn’t include a couple of controversial elements in this song and just thinking of the stupid faces of the extreme metal elitists makes me enjoy this track. Its second part features soft and enchanting female vocals and highly atmospheric and floating electronic elements. In Flames shows one of its most creative song writing capacities in this track. 

The first single “Rusted Nail” includes it all. Longing guitar solos, melancholic and fragile clean vocals that sound better on each album, depressive lyrics and an extremely liberating, majestic and melodic chorus you won’t get out of your mind. This is the kind of song that continues the style of the previous record. Imagine a mixture of “Sounds Of A Playground Fading” and “Liberation”. This is where In Flames shows its consistency and how their albums logically build up on each other. 

Album closer “Filtered Truth” comes around with mechanical vocal effects and opening guitar riffs that make me think of Billy Talent. I mean how cool is that? The short passionate chorus simply blows me away once again. The consistent song without one unnecessary second is crowned by a melodic but twisted instrumental bridge. This track ends a very good album on a high note. Hello, third single!

In the beginning, I thought a couple of songs on this album were a little bit hard to digest or unspectacular at certain moments such as the short title song “Siren Charms” and the “Monsters In The Ballroom” that recalls several modern melodic death metal songs from the past three In Flames releases. Even these average tracks have grown on me after three spins. It’s hard to tell if I like this record as much as “Sounds Of A Playground Fading” in hindsight but my first impressions are pretty much as positive as they were three years earlier. So please don’t give a damn about rude comments on social media or average scores on the Metal Archives that may drop below forty percent this time. If you liked In Flames’ previous records and don’t mind the experiments described above, you have to purchase this record. By the way, the two bonus tracks “The Chase” and “Become The Sky” are excellent modern melodic death metal as well that should even please to a couple of fans that liked “A Sense Of Purpose” but none of the other recent releases, so be sure to look out for them. There is no doubt that this release will easily make it on my list of the twenty best records of the year 2014. Right now, this album is even in my top five. Be courageous and check this out. In Flames we trust.