ANDERS FRIDÉN: Why It's Important For IN FLAMES To Continue Releasing Full-Length Albums

In a new interview with DJ Force X of TotalRock, IN FLAMES frontman Anders Fridén spoke about why it's important for him and his bandmates to still release full-length albums instead of focusing on singles. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "That's how I grew up. That's how I listen to music. I understand, you have to adapt to the situation we're in, and I understand a lot of people listen to [music on the streaming services]. You listen to 15 seconds of a song and say, 'That's not for me,' and you move on. But you can't judge an artist in 15 seconds; you've gotta give 'em time.

"Who knows what's gonna happen in the future, but for me, the album is extremely important," he reiterated. "That's how I want to present this band, at least. And what others do, that's fine.

"In a way, we work as hard on one song as the next song as the 13th song, whatever. And you will work on an album, and maybe the 13th song doesn't get as much exposure as you would like, because it's last. But whatever — for me, the album is important.

"I get why some people just wanna release singles. That's not for us, at least," Anders added.

Fridén's latest comments echo those of his bandmate, IN FLAMES guitarist Björn Gelotte, who told Guitar Interactive in a 2019 interview: "We're old enough to come from the vinyl era. For us, when we write music, we write an album. We don't write singles. We might do an EP, but that would still be this old format, like, you have an A and a B side. And you're supposed to listen to the album from the first song to the last song. That's how we write it. And then how people wanna listen to it, as long as they listen, I don't give a shit. As long as they listen, at least [they will] have the experience. Then they can decide if it's good or bad — to their liking or not. But this is how we write. So this is how we listen to bands as well. So it's hard to really get into bands if they only release one single or they write one song at a time. Then you listen to the record, and it sounds nothing like it. So that could be hard.

"The world is moving on, and we have to adapt, all of us," he continued. "And we do. I think. We have people that we work with — our record label, our management and everything; they get to choose whatever they wanna present first [as a single]. Because, for us, the record is done; you should listen to it from there to there. And that's how we write too. Really early on in the process, it's, like, as soon as we have a bunch of songs, we're, like, 'Okay, let's put them together in the right order and see what we're missing.' So you get this blueprint, in a way, and you see the holes where you need to fill. And then you write those songs. And it's a nice journey throughout the whole record. That's how we work."

IN FLAMES' fourteenth studio album, "Foregone", will arrive on February 10, 2023 via Nuclear Blast.