These Swedish guys have always been kinda the poster child for that Gothenberg melodic death metal thing, but by 2002 they were already getting a bit restless with their sound. Anders Fridén and the crew basically looked around, saw what was happening with the American alt-metal scene and said “hey, why not give that a shot?” And thus we got Reroute to Remain, which is basically In Flames trying to see how far they could push their sound without completely losing their identity.
The thing about this record is that it’s got this weird split personality going on. You’ve got tracks like “Trigger” that still sound pretty much like the In Flames you remember, with those classic melodic leads and decent aggression. Then you get something like “Cloud Connected” with its prominent synths that some people love and others absolutely can’t stand. But honestly, the real gems here are the ones that kinda flew under the radar, “Free Fall” is probably the best song on the whole damn thing, with this infectious energy that should’ve made it a single. And “Transparent” has this killer bass work that just hits different from the rest of their catalog.
Look, this album pissed off a lot of the old school fans because it wasn’t pure melodic death metal anymore. Anders started using more clean vocals with effects, the guitars got more simplified and chuggier, and there’s definitely more of that mainstream appeal they were chasing. But here’s the thing, if you can get past the initial shock of “this isn’t The Jester Race,” there’s actually some solid songwriting buried in here. The production is a bit murky and yeah, it could’ve used some trimming (14 tracks is kinda pushing it), but when it works, it really works.
You should check this one out because it’s basically a perfect snapshot of a band in transition, trying to figure out what they want to be next. It’s not their best work, but it’s definitely not the disaster some people make it out to be. Plus, if you’re into understanding how melodic death metal evolved in the 2000s, this is pretty much essential listening.