In Flames

In Flames came out of Gothenburg in 1990 and helped draw the map for what became the Gothenburg metal sound, alongside At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity: death metal's violence fused with twin-guitar melodies you could almost hum. The early years were a revolving door of players and session hands, and it took until Colony in 1999 for a settled lineup to lock in, with Anders Fridén on vocals, Björn Gelotte on lead guitar, Jesper Strömblad on guitar and keyboards, Peter Iwers on bass and Daniel Svensson on drums.

Reroute to Remain, their sixth album, in 2002, is where they swerved. The title track and "Drifter" trade some of the blast and gallop for chugging, alt-metal grooves and choruses Fridén actually sings. Old fans howled betrayal; the band picked up a much bigger audience and sold more records. Soundtrack to Your Escape pushed further in 2004 with "The Quiet Place" and "My Sweet Shadow" and won them a Swedish Grammis for Hard Rock/Metal Album of the Year.

The lineup has kept changing, and when Strömblad left in 2010 no founding member remained; Fridén and Gelotte have been the backbone since 1995. I, the Mask arrived in 2019 with "I Am Above", Foregone followed in 2023 as their fourteenth studio album, and the Grammis tally now stands at seven wins from ten nominations.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.