Whoracle

In Flames has become one of if not the biggest melodic death metal bands in the world and with good reason. They have mastered the insertion of melodies into what traditionally has little to no melodies. "Whoracle" or what fans call The Green Album marked a transitional album for In Flames for several reasons. Firstly, after the recording of this album, the band lineup changed drastically with Bjorn Gelotte moving from drums to guitar replacing Glenn Ljungstrom, Peter Iwers replacing Johan Larsson on bass and Daniel Svensson taking the role as drummer. Secondly, after this album, many of their fans and people in the scene started turning their backs on In Flames, claiming they were moving in a more mainstream direction. The following albums "Colony" and "Clayman" were met with trepidation by many. Thirdly, and less importantly, In Flames changed their logo from a more traditional death metal style logo to the logo they still use today. "Whoracle" starts out with one of my personal favorite In Flames tracks, "Jotun." This song is a perfect intro song for an album. It has a short interlude at the beginning and gets right down to business. Melodic death metal. There is no mistaking the characteristic guitar work on this track as anything other than In Flames. All the elements come together in such a way as to create a real masterpiece of a track if there ever was one. One element that catches your ear is the whisper like sound effect of someone saying Jotun right before each chorus. It is eerie and somewhat disturbing subconsciously and I love it. This song leads right into "Food for the Gods," another In Flames classic. Aggressive drumming and more traditional death metal style guitar are found here. This song is another example of all the right elements meshing together to form a complex listening experience and the solo on this track is perfectly executed. The third song is "Gyroscope" which in addition to this album was included on In Flames' "Black Ash Inheritance" EP. This is a slower song that features acoustic guitar prominently. The drumming is somewhat tribal during the intro. The complex harmonies are what give this song such power. Anders Friden's vocals are more drawn out in this track and the pain in his voice can really be heard. That brings me to another point; "Whoracle" is not a happy album. With tracks about destruction of cities, the worthlessness of human beings and the "Gyroscope of time/ A collection of failures" line, you can tell that Friden and Niklas Sundin (Dark Tranquility), who helped create the album's concept, were not in the most joyful of mindsets at this point in time. Usually In Flames' lyrics are somewhat obscure, but on this album, it is pretty clear that the message is not intended to be uplifting. The inclusion of a well-calculated cover of Depeche Mode's "Everything Counts" on this album is further proof of this conclusion. The overall theme that you can pickup on (also as evidence in the album cover) is a post-apocalyptic world that humans have created through their failures. "Jester Script Transfigured" like "Gyroscope," is also down tempo and has more trademark melodies. It also has acoustic interludes which are a real pleasure to listen to since the men of In Flames are quite skilled musicians. Following this we are given "Morphing into Primal," a fast, more conventional death metal style track. Again, the anger in Friden's voice can be heard here. The track after this is "Worlds Within the Margin," another favorite of mine. The intro is slow and ominous and is reminiscent of what could be called a death metal version of the intro to Sabbath's "War Pigs" since the guitar sound effects are used almost in the same way Sabbath used the air raid siren sound effect. The voice effects used over the intro sound about walkie-talkie quality and enhance the post-apocalyptic theme. The inclusion of violins during several parts of this song is a really nice touch and helps In Flames build a complex wall of sound. "Episode 666" is the last real song on the album. This track is mid tempo and has some great melodic bits, a nice tapping solo, and a killer chorus that will get stuck in your head. The album ends with the title track; a two minute long interlude of acoustic guitar and tribal drumming. This album made me appreciate In Flames even more than I had before I heard this album. When I first got it, I must have listened to it non-stop for several weeks. It ruled my life. This is one of those albums you listen to intently for a long time, then shelve it, only to pick it up a few years later, pop it in the player and have it sound as good as it did the first time. It takes you on an emotional ride each time you listen to it. I don't think you can call yourself a fan of In Flames if you don't own this album.