In flames

Thrasher Magazine, Feb, 2003 by Stacy Buchanan

IN FLAMES, a true staple in Swedish metal. Hell, they helped establish a major part of Sweden's metal history with their knack for inventive and aggressive music while brandishing proudly a banner of melody. With much work ahead for the band in support of the new record, Reroute to Remain, I managed to grab 20-minutes of vocalist Anders' time before they were off again to tour seemingly without end...

Between Clayman and Reroute to Remain, what were examples that influenced the new album?

Basically touring. Touring, touring, touring our asses off. Everything influences us in a certain way, even if you don't want it to or really want it to. Basically playing, getting out there and trying out some things in a live environment; seeing what works and what doesn't. We had that in mind when we recorded Clayman, but definitely on this new one because every song we made on the new album we thought, "Every song should more or less be able to play live and it should work and be heavy and have dynamics," which is very important for the live show.

With each album, your hold and impact on the US market grows. Do you, as the band, sense this? Is this one of your goals?

Of course. It's a big market and a new market to us. It's kind of exotic for us here. Not that I don't want things to happen to us in Europe, but we have come much further in Europe. I mean, it's so far away from home and this is where everything happens. We feel that whatever tour we land over here helps, it's a little bit more exposure every time. This Slayer-thing is huge.

Yeah it is. The US fan base grows with each album and tour. I can imagine this is one of your objectives, to keep pounding the US?

For sure. I mean this is the first tour for the new album, and I think we'll do two or three more tours here in the US on this album.

There seems to be so much promise too, with Meshuggah being the highest opening sales for Nuclear Blast, now they're on Ozzfest. It seems to keep growing that way, do you feel the same way?

It's a Swedish assault on the American public.

Hey! That's what I was going to call this article.

You have The Hives doing good too...

...And it seems like this is the album that people will be able to sink their teeth into easier as well.

Yeah, I guess. It's a bit more mainstream, but still it keeps everything that we've had in the past--the melody and the aggression. So I don't think that we've lost anything, we've just added some things.

The sound has been streamlined and more concise.

And we're all suckers for pop, so why not throw it into the mix?

It seems like some of the lyrics have a less dark and overbearing feel and are more optimistic and positive, I guess you could say.

Yeah, I'd say you're pretty right. I came from a self-destructive relationship, and I worked through that in Clayman and now with this one. It's a bit lighter and I'm on top of the mountain, and now it's time to go and enjoy myself. It might be a really happy album next time.

Would you say then, that there is a thread of similarity that links the 14 songs together? A binding concept?

Some of them are more for me, for personal demons that I have. Others are more like us, the whole human race, should be more together than the typical bullshit that we do, and speak of the whole human society. So it's two different concepts, but I mean it's still my view and my perspective of things. It's also written in such a way that anyone can go in there and it can mean something to them personally. That's how I always write my lyrics.

Your vocals have progressed and there are different styles and overdubs. How did it come about?

I was experimenting a little bit. We had pre-production, I tried my ideas and I showed them to the other guys and they said, "Okay, go ahead. Do your thing." Then I go to the studio and for the first time I had time to really experiment in the studio and work with the vocals, Usually on the former albums, they'd be, "Okay, here you go, three days, go in there and do your vocals." Now I had a week to do it, so there was time to practice and experiment and the producer was interested in what I had to say and interested in my vocals in general, so that helped me a lot.

The choruses that you've created on this album are ridiculously catchy. Has there been any direct inspiration to this department?

No, this just came naturally. Like I was saying before, I like catchy things like that. I like the mix that we have between--well, usually it's like this: when I scream a lot, like on albums before, then we have to have guitar melodies underneath to make it more melodic. And now we have to take away some of the guitar lines just because my vocals were that catchy or melodic. So, it just changed--it just went from guitars to vocals.