From the cover art of the album, to the quality of musicianship placed in it, to the production and mix, the Swedish band and one of the fathers of the Gothenburg sound, have created a great album.
There is no doubt that there is melodic death metal inside this record, is clearly not the same sound they began playing, no more folk influences, instead you can hear a couple of synthesizer arrangements helping the general sound of In Flames, it also has a lot of clean vocals something done in previous albums but just recently criticize.
The guitar work done by Jesper Strömblad and Björn Gelotte is one of the trademarks of the band, melodic and well balanced between the two, always with a good understanding of their instrument and very accessible to first time listeners. The drum part is kind of placed on top of everything, showing simplistic but precise work by Daniel Svensson.
This is a new In Flames, a more clear and refined In Flames, even though Anders Fridén’s vocal remain as brutal as they did back in 1996 when he first joined the band, Peter Iwers bass is not remarkable but does the job with out mistakes.
The best thing about this album is that it can appreciated by metal and non metal fans, the album is heavy, at times fast, and always melodic maintaining that death metal smell well conserved in every composition; you can say that in this record is easy to relate every song to daily feelings.
Many critics responded negative to this record, but the criticism was based in the supposed entrance of the band to the mainstream listeners, not for the quality of the material that contains Reroute to Remain; it’s true that this is no Whoracle or Clayman is a different but well done job.
