Foregone

Foregone is a fulfilling fourteenth album on which In Flames, powerfully calling back the Gothenburg-derived melodic-death-metal feel, combines modern weight and clear construction. It is highly praised as a long-awaited record returning from the recent, more modern, alternative direction to the early aggression. Cold, beautiful guitar melody, sharp riffs, rough vocals and clean light inserted at needed points give the songs a strong, deep shading. From the development from the opening instrumental to the speeding “State of Slow Decay” and the aggression of “Meet Your Maker” to a cut like “Bleeding Out,” every song is engaging, while the two-part title track “Foregone, Pt. 1” and “Pt. 2” and a cut like “The Beginning of All Things That Will End” convey the work’s fullness. It does not stay a mere reproduction of the past precisely because the hardness of its rhythm and the size of its sound function powerfully as the band of today. A record whose great appeal is a splendid duality — there is a sure melody within the fierceness, and a deep darkness remains in the catchy parts. Content that powerfully reaches both those who deeply know In Flames’s long history and those who seek the current, sure heaviness. An engaging, fulfilling work that showed the height of the creative drive even as veterans — a record showing the band’s maturity and return.