In Flames Style Lesson

Hi GMC!

Welcome to my new lesson covering the style of the Swedish Melodic Death Metal band called In Flames, formed in 1990. The current members are Anders Fridén, Björn Gelotte, Niclas Engelin, Peter Iwers and Daniel Svensson. They have released 11 studio albums and has sold over 2 million records worldwide.

Music Style:
Their style has been changing through the years and evolved incorporating Alternative Metal elements into their classic Melodic Death Metal sound. Their first albums were most based on Death Metal style but with the addition of many melodic guitar arrangements and harmonization that build their sound. It was like mixing Iron Maiden with bands like Carcass or Death. The result was epic as you can hear it in their album Whoracle. In this lesson I recreated that sound and that style of compositions so if you like this song, I recommend you to check their first albums.

Tonality, Chord Progression & Scales:
This tune is in C minor key. Most of their songs are around minor Aeolian and minor Phrygian tonalities to get that dark sound that is very used in aggressive metal music. The progressions are very classic metal style, very inspired by Maiden, Judas Priest and even Metallica. The scales used for the lead guitar melodies are also minor Aeolian and Phrygian.

Techniques:
This is mostly a rhythm metal lesson but there are also some lead guitar melodies that require soloing skills. We will use techniques like only downstrokes, alternate picking, palm muting, legato and vibrato.

Sound:
I used LePou plugins to create the guitar tone. These are free amp emulators that are extremely recommend. The cabinet used for this guitar tone is Poulin LE456. Here you can check the setting that I used:



Click HERE to download the patch used.

Tuning: Drop C

Tempo: 165 BPM

Ok metalheads!! Let’s enjoy the metal sound of Gothenburg!