Scribed by Sandre the Giant
In Flames are a band that should need no introduction to those of you reading this, and despite the turn of styles that they have demonstrated in recent years, they are one of melodeath’s founding fathers, the originators of the ‘Gothenburg sound’ alongside Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates. Their classic debut ‘Lunar Strain’ celebrates its 30th birthday in 2024, and if you’ve ever wondered who is to blame for every mediocre metalcore/melodeath bands that infested the mid 2000s, here’s one of them. But that is merely a footnote in their legacy, considering the works they’ve left us over the years.
As with 1993’s ‘Skydancer’ and ‘With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness’, we were merely awaiting the final piece of the melodeath invention puzzle, and guitarist Jesper Strömblad had just the answer., He wanted to create a band that mixed the more brutal Swedish sound with the classic melodies of Iron Maiden, which no one was really doing at the time at all. ‘Lunar Strain’ was the answer to that idea, an album loaded with galloping lead guitar melodies yet full of a savage rawness born of that classic Swedish death metal influence. There’s a little chainsaw tone to that guitar on the title track, but it never descends to full on HM2 pedal stuff, focusing instead on capturing the perfect Iron Maiden/death metal collab. There’s a number of nice little acousitc flourishes (see the gloriously beautiful ‘Hårgalåten’, complete with female vocals), generally unheard of in death metal records, and those hooks get right under your skin and won’t leave. Bang your head at ‘Dreamscape’, gallop alongside ‘Upon an Oaken Throne’, feel the birth of melodeath purity on ‘Clad in Shadows’; each track is a new revelation of influence and importance. Playing a starring role up front is Mikael Stanne, most famously of Dark Tranquillity who he would go on to swap with Anders Friden in 1995. I think both bands probably worked out better this way around.
As someone who was never really turned off In Flames by ‘Soundtrack to Your Escape (hell, it was the album that got me INTO In Flames), it took me a little while to really dig into their older stuff but when I did I was hooked. Sure, ‘Lunar Strain’ doesn’t reach the heights of ‘Whoracle’ or ‘Clayman’ but as a formative work by a band whose legacy and influence will long outlive them, it is a wonderful snapshot of a nascent genre springing to life under our very eyes. This would emerge fully formed on their 1995 follow up ‘The Jester Race’, but we’ll get there in a few years!
https://www.facebook.com/inflames
The Killchain 