rio wrote:
But it seems to me that your defence of Metallica and In Flames is misguided. Metallica DID change their style in order to attract a wider audience with the Black Album. Surely there can't be any doubt about that? Right from the start the band had said they'd wanted to be one of the biggest in the world, and this was just another big step towards that goal. They hired Bob Rock because they wanted him to show them how to become more accessible.
But what did they do, really? Did they really change their style? I don't think they did at all; they just wrote within the confines of a standard song structure, whereas on past albums there was no strict structure, they could have a 2 minute solo after the first first!
I think Bob Rock and the record label had more to do with the change than the guys in Metallica. ...And Justice For All sold millions of albums, as did Master Of Puppets. It's clear the band would have still done well, but I think some people smelled the money and Metallica were sucked in ignorantly. I don't think there was any clear attempt at selling out from the band, I think they just did what most bands do and listened to the producer. The producer is their to guide, and when a band relinquishes that ego and follows the producer's lead it can be a great thing, or a very bad thing. In the case of the black album I think it was a great thing. Sure, it was different in the sense that the songs were more compact, but musically not a whole lot changed, in my opinion.
I think Load and Reload were rebellious albums. I think the band wanted to break away from that mold that Rock had put them in.
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As for In Flames, I never gave a shit about their stuff, old or new. But once again there can be no denying that their later albums moved their sound towards the mainstream. It's ridiculous to say it happened the other way round. Whether this was a business decision, or an artistic one that just happened to take them in a more commercial direction is hard to say, but the former seems slightly more likely.
EVERYTHING COUNTSGive it a listen (EDIT: Sorry, there are jitter errors). That's from Whoracle. Tell me that's not like the newest shit! There are plenty more songs, or moments within songs, that, in my eyes, proves that In Flames did not sell out, but simply evolved over time. Their albums steadily changed, there is no defined gap in style. It's a progressive, steady shift in style, which is a very normal thing as band members grow older. When you're 30 years old, just take a look at the music you listen to compared to when you were 20. Then you'll know why bands evolve and change their sound in time.
Forgot this discussion...
Anyway, seems to me that there are plenty of differences between AJFA and TBA, not just in terms of song length. The riffs on the latter are so, so much more simplistic and head banging, compared to AJFA where they are frequently pretty hard to pin down and snake around like nobody's business.
