Live-Metal.Net - Concert Reports - In Flames

I was here to see In Flames. In Flames we trust—make no mistake. But perhaps we’d better start from the beginning.

Upon arriving at Rams Head Live, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was hearing over the PA system outside at Power Plant Live. It took a minute to register, as I was enduring the below-freezing temperature while making my way to Trivium’s tour bus for press coverage. Then I listened closely and heard a dark, serious-sounding acoustic version of “Built to Fall,” the first single from Trivium’s 2011 album, In Waves. As it turns out, the band was performing a three-song acoustic set in an upstairs bar for the Baltimore rock station 98 Rock. I think my head started to spin after this.

Trivium always has been somewhat accessible, but for years now, they’ve been helping lead the underground movement of American heavy metal. Our first interview for Live Metal was with Trivium in 2006, and we have supported them ever since. So to first hear the band playing acoustic and then to hear 98 Rock was sponsoring both this set and the evening’s show was somewhat shocking. The FM station isn’t exactly known for its overwhelming support of heavy metal. Creed, 3 Doors Down, Chevelle and Buckcherry are more of the station’s go-to bands.

Trivium deserves all its success, but often a breakthrough into FM radio can signal the end for an underground band and eventually alienate a fan base. Perhaps my interview (read here) with bassist Paolo Gregoletto before the show will help ease fans' concerns. On the other hand, maybe it will create more anxiety over the band’s new mainstream success.

Largely due to the Trivium-hype, Rams Head Live appeared as if it was close to a sellout, with the line stretching outside of the venue’s hall. And it was easy to spot all the “Johnny-come-latelies,” standing out in a crowd of metalheads wearing T-Shirts with the Trivium logo and In Flames Jesterheads. In fact, although billed as openers, this basically was a co-headline show with In Flames.

The three-piece heavy rock outfit Kyng opened the show, and the crowd was appreciative of its Sabbath-like riffs and a vocalist who sounded a bit like Chris Cornell. Straightforward isn’t really a thing that sells these days, although these dudes were good at what they did. I have a feeling Kyng could end up being one of those bands that receives little fanfare when active, but eventually is talked about in years to come, along the lines of someone like Kyuss.

Veil of Maya initially seems to fall into the category of this hardcore-breakdown stuff bands are doing these days (i.e. Suicide Silence, Miss May I). But after seeing the first few songs of its set, I realized they actually are attempting to experiment and do something different. The guitarist uses a higher-pitched tone, and it’s loud in the mix, making the instrument sound more like a machine, like a DJ playing turntables in a heavy rhythm with the music (if that makes any sense). I would be shocked if the biggest influence here isn't Tom Morello, as the playing even looked similar. Overall, it creates a cool sound, adding new elements to this already stale subgenre. However, the vocalist, who is a spitting image of the Suicide Silence guy, did little to get the crowd amped up, despite his encouragement for circle pits and to get everybody moving throughout their set. Maybe people are just tired of hearing bands say this shit. Anyway, keep an eye on Veil of Maya—they eventually could be on to something here.

With all the crowd’s energy bottled up thus far, when the opening riffs of “In Waves” started, Rams Head Live was about to explode. The now clean-cut Trivium vocalist/guitarist, Matt Heafy, seemed to absorb the intensity of the crowd, leading the band through a predictable, yet strong 10 song set. New songs “Black” (the next single), “Forsake Not the Dream” and “Caustic Are the Ties That Bind” molded perfectly with classics like “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr” and “Like Light to Flies.” But it was the hit “Built to Fall,” “Down from the Sky” and the closer, “Throes of Perdition,” that drew the most crowd response.

I can’t stress enough how psyched the crowd was for Trivium, who, like I said, could have been co-headlining or playing their own headlining tour. I even saw a number of people weeding out of the venue after Trivium—probably all the Johnny-come-latelies. Heafy acknowledged the crowd repeatedly, but stressed “this was In Flames’ show” and they were just the openers. “And without In Flames, (Trivium) would not exist.”

TRIVIUM SET LIST: ("Capsizing the Sea"), “In Waves,” “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr,” “Black,” “Forsake Not the Dream,” “Departure,” “Built to Fall,” “Like Light to the Flies,” “Caustic Are the Ties That Bind,” “Down from the Sky,” “Throes of Perdition”

I have never heard In Flames on FM radio and probably never will. Is this a good thing? Fans probably would say so. Even though the band has evolved over the years and adapted a more accessible sound, this is still the same In Flames (minus founding member and guitarist Jesper Strömblad, who departed in 2010) that made me a born-again metalhead in 2004 when I heard “Cloud Connected.” It may sound silly, but that was one of the more memorable moments of my life, that eventually led to Live Metal and everything that came after it.

I have seen In Flames live multiple times, so I knew what to expect. But with each album release and tour, count me in to hear the new material live, because vocalist Anders Fridén, guitarist Björn Gelotte, guitarist Niclas Engelin, bassist Peter Iwers and drummer Daniel Svensson are a great live band. There is a certain level of professional swagger and maturity to their show that other bands don’t possess and never will. It’s basically an unwritten law of etiquette for an In Flames show: “We’ve been here before, we know we’re good, now it’s your turn—you know what to do.”

I have to say, I miss the crazy, kinked up dreadlocks, but you get the sense that Fridén is behind all of this—he seemed to take In Flames to even higher levels starting with the Reroute to Remain album (2002). He’s a funny dude onstage, too—cocky, arrogant, laid back, yet he steps up to the mic with his trademark scream on cue. He did say he was sick for this night, but “he was trying his best.” (Why are vocalists always sick?) You could hear it in his voice when he addressed the crowd, but not during the songs. He actually seemed to gain momentum further into the set. Apparently beer and glasses of wine are the perfect “medicine” for the common cold.

The band came out and played straight through the three opening songs of 2011’s Sounds of a Playground Fading; the driving anthem “Sounds of a Playground Fading,” the first single “Deliver Us” and “All for Me.” In Flames is like Metallica in a way, because with every new album, there always comes a lot of negativity from critics and posters. But I love the album, and the fans here clearly have embraced it, as well, belting out the lyrics to the new songs like they had been around for years.

“Trigger,” a standout track from Reroute to Remain, followed. At the end of the song, the band broke down into an almost hip-hop-like drum beat for the crowd to sing the last verses of the chorus (“From green to red our days pass").

The band revisited the good old days with a couple of tracks, “Swim” and “The Hive.” Sure, these are great, but “Clayman,” “Only for the Weak” or “Moonshield” would have been a real treat. Perhaps the band felt these selections fit the set better.

It was around this time that I noticed that for some reason the sound wasn’t as strong stage left where I was standing. The vocals and guitar were getting drowned out by the bass, and I wasn’t getting the full experience. So I forcefully made my way through the crowd, managing to get kicked in the head only twice by crowd-surfers, who Anders had urged to surf to the stage for the band’s latest single, “Where the Dead Ships Dwell.” This song is like the “Cloud Connected” of Sounds of a Playground Fading with a heavy repetitive central riff, backed by an electronic pulse and a soaring chorus. This is my new favorite song off the new album after hearing it live.

I was now further back from the stage but in the center of the venue, and the sound was coming directly at me, loud and clear. (I later had to check to see if I had a black eye, however.)

“Fear is the Weakness” is another one of my favorite songs from the album, but not one I expected to hear live for whatever reason. This is another one that sounds like it belongs on Reroute to Remain. The crowd ate it up.

“Ropes” (my pick for the next single) received a huge crowd reaction, as well, and the first major, all-out pit of the night was in full force. “Cloud Connected” followed and it always gets a great reaction—it’s probably In Flames' most well-known song.

Great bands don’t need to urge the crowd to circle pit, or react in any other way. If the music is good and the energy and adrenaline is there, it just happens, like with the last two songs of the night; “The Mirror’s Truth” and “Take This Life.” The circle pit encompassed nearly the entire floor and lasted the duration of the frantically paced songs.

Toward the end of the set, Fridén thanked the crowd, pointing out that in this age of music downloading, it actually takes effort to come out to a show, and he loves the fans for it. After this show, don’t expect anything less.

Thank you, Anders. Now please grow your dreadlocks back.

IN FLAMES SET LIST: “Sounds of a Playground Fading,” “Deliver Us,” “All for Me,” “Trigger,” “Alias,” “Swim,” “The Hive,” “The Quiet Place,” “Where the Dead Ships Dwell,” “Fear Is the Weakness,” “Come Clarity,” “Ropes” “Cloud Connected,” “The Mirror's Truth,” “Take This Life”