In Flames – Reroute to Remain

by Crom

All things known to man have gone through two questions by everyone, What is it? And why should I care? And this album was no different when I was first told of it. I thought “ah yeah, another Soil, another metal head loud mouthed band”. Quick! Diverge from this thought and hearken back to three years passed, a conversation between my brother and I. We’d heard on the radio about a band that just released an album in the states, and they were considered the new Metallica. Ever since the Load album I’d waited, for someone to pick up the Gauntlet, because Metallica had let it go, they had become that which all bands must fear: successful.

Now some people say “but isn’t that the point of …” NO SHUT UP, ITS NOT! Seriously, it can’t be, because once you do, you get ripped apart. You get expectations and previous goals to live up to. How can Metallica ever put out another Master of Puppets? They cannot, and never will they release something with that much power, that much grit. So we found some songs by this “new” god of metal, and they cast a pall over my soul that took a long time to lift, for they were not even a new anything, never mind the sons of the greatest of metal’s triumphs. They were a wash so pathetic as to make me question the phrase “the new metallica” for the rest of my life.

What is it?

The New Metallica. And let me tell you people, that this album is everything undreamt in the hearts of mankind since the dawn of civilization. It is the concrete world that we crave in our hearts as we sit in the shrunken hovel’s we call offices and stare out the window onto the freshly lain snow of the dawn and scream inside our minds “LET ME OUT!!!”, It is the mission. It is the recipe, the antidote. It is the new hope of a broken slave at the sight of a new day dawning FREE!

Why should I care?

Even if you’ve never listened to metal in your entire life, this is the first album you should pick up and listen to, it will grow your hair back, and it will pay your student loans. The new sons have assumed the throne, and they will rule the universe with a hand of might and truth.

The haunting drums, and quiet undertones of classical guitar will shiver your spine and quiet the shakes, until the face ripping back beat and solo burst from the closet and light a fire under the ass of all the world. The indescribable opening of Reroute to Remain will leave you thirsty until the soft childish tones of Free Fall backed with the crisp guitar work slake your parched soul. And when you finally fall onto your bed in blazing ecstasy of the greatest moments in musical history, and listen to mighty rising fate of “Dismiss the Cynics” you will know the answer to these questions in your heart, even if you fail to articulate them in your mind.

  • In Flames – Reroute to Remain
  • by Crom
  • Published on February 1st, 2004
Artist:
In Flames
Album:
Reroute to Remain
Label:
Nuclear Blast America
When:
September 3rd, 2003
Website:
nuclearblastusa.com

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