There’s no doubt about the popularity of the Swedish melodic metal band In Flames . Imhotep's Andreas Aubert presents an in-depth conversation (transcribed into words) with the band’s drummer. We’ve seen discussions lately concerning the cover of the new album. Personally I think we should credit the band for doing something out of the ordinary, despite the fact that the cover itself is not worth that much attention. However, covers these days seem to mean less and less, due to the increasing downloading. I mean, if I would download an album I suppose I’d give a shit about the cover illustration… So, even if In Flames doesn’t reinvent metal on their new release, they do take some small chances, like the mentioned cover and also the longest track they’ve done as far as I know. “The Chosen Pessimist” is a 8+ minutes track that doesn’t follow the recipe the Swedes normally writes by. This just develops without obvious refrains, verses, bridge, repetitions… It’ll be exciting to see how the audience will respond to such a different In Flames track.

I guess In Flames will headline a few festivals and probably tour as well. Now, this is a topic that’s interesting. I remember 10-15 years ago. Big bands came to Norway every now and then. Festivals? Hah, didn’t know that word at all… But these days! Oh dear, at times there’s too much. Like in Norway these days, where there’s a new festival every second weekend. And there’re like two-three concerts every week in addition to these big or small festivals. One should be a millionaire to conquer all these events. However, I will cry out loud “cheers” to this. The last few years I have seen and listened to, and also met at times, many super bands and I wouldn’t miss those meetings for the end of the world. The only sad thing is when there are two interesting events the same evening…

Are you content with this development in your country?

The hard thing is of course to support all the bands you actually would like to support, most often due to the private economic situation. The good thing is that one can actually pick between the various alternatives and then support those you think deserve it. So, in the end it’s mostly a win-win situation for us. Some bands will of course loose, but the best aspect is that the bands have to work harder and harder. Take a band like Behemoth. They tour, tour, tour, write a new album and then tour again and again. And I saw them at this year’s Inferno Festival in Oslo, Norway. It’s probably the best concert I’ve seen so far, and I’ve seen plenty… All it takes is extremely hard work.

Viron , the German heavy metal band, has recently released an album that writer Matt Coe simply loves. Read his words on the release “Ferrum Gravis” in April’s album of the month.

Finally, I must add that the test with the Norwegian mirror-site didn’t work out as planned. There is not enough articles to make any impact. Thus, we focus solely on the original site, www.imhotep.no . A little spice for the Scandinavian readers though, with some reviews written in Norwegian every now and then. Besides this, everything will be in Imhotep-ian English!

Composed by Roy Kristensen

Feature of the Month for May – Hanoi Rocks! Be there or be square.