IN FLAMES Frontman: New Album Is 'Just Another Step Towards Perfection'

Norway's Metal Express Radio recently conducted an interview with IN FLAMES frontman Anders Fridén. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Metal Express Radio: I thought that your previous album was your most experimental one. How do you see that?

Anders: "I don't know. (Laughs) I don't think so. It was just another IN FLAMES album in the line of a couple of others. We're just trying to write better and better songs every time without losing the identity of IN FLAMES. I only read a few reviews of 'Soundtrack' and those very pretty good actually."

Metal Express Radio: And what was the fans' reaction?

Anders: "Different. Like always when we release a new album. We're a band that a lot of people know of and obviously you cannot satisfy everyone. Some get disappointed and some love it. That's the way it is, that's how I am as a music listener myself. If I listen to an album of my favourite band and they might disappoint me sometimes and they might do the great great album that I love. It's wonderful about music that we all have different opinions."

Metal Express Radio: Do you take these opinions in any way into consideration when you sit down and start writing a new album?

Anders: "No, not at all. It doesn't matter in the end. If people like it that's great, if they don't there's tons of bands that they can listen to instead. We are writing for ourselves to begin with and if people like our music I couldn't be a happier person, but we don't write for a certain group of people. We write for everybody."

Metal Express Radio: The new album seems to have a more straightforward and aggressive feel to it. Would you agree?

Anders: "Yes, I feel this album is a bit more aggressive and more uptempo, but it has everything that the previous albums had, like great choruses and stuff like that. It's a little bit more guitar oriented. The guitars are more in front and the electronics are a little bit more in the back. It's just another step towards perfection or whatever you like to call it."

Metal Express Radio: Do you decide on the musical direction of a new album before the writing process?

Anders: "We know IN FLAMES. We know how IN FLAMES songs should be written and done. We just try to reinvent ourselves without losing the identity and the identity is the perfect balance between aggression and melody. The only thing we said about this album is that we wanted more uptempo song with more aggression. I think it's important that people if they listen to radio or a friend play them an album, that they immediately hear that it's IN FLAMES. We don't want to do something that is completely different from what we are known of. Maybe a song here and there, but not an album as a whole."

Metal Express Radio: Do you think playing at Ozzfest helped your sales?

Anders: "I don't know. We haven't done a tour since Ozzfest in America, so I don't know, but of course touring has helped us to get out. When we started there's not many people come to the show. When we first went over we had 2-400 people and now we have 1-3000 people, so obviously all the touring have helped."

Metal Express Radio: How did the whole Ozzfest thing turn out for the band?

Anders: "Ah, it wasn't the greatest experience I had. We had a lot of friends played there, so we had a good time hanging out, but playing for 20 minutes in front of an audience that were sitting down that's not what I really enjoy. But I guess that's a good promotional machine, the whole thing. We'll see next time we go over if it helped us. And I'm glad that they asked us to play."

Read the entire interview at www.metalexpressradio.com.