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The band was formed in 1990 by drummer and guitarist Jesper Strömblad from the band Ceremonial Oath. He was joined by guitarist Glenn Ljungström and bassist Johan Larsson. In Flames signed a contract with Wrong Again Records and released their debut album, Lunar Strain, on this label in 1994. Vocal parts were recorded by Mikael Stanne from Dark Tranquillity, but for live performances, the band invited Anders Friden. In the new lineup, In Flames recorded their second album, The Jester Race, in the fall of 1995, which was released in the summer of the following year, with the cover art created by Andreas Marshall. From this album onwards, Fredrik Nordström became the band's producer. To support the album, the band toured with Dimmu Borgir, Samael, and Kreator.
With this album, they attracted attention in both Europe and Japan, securing a contract with the Japanese label Toys Factory. The rapidly growing popularity of In Flames and numerous tours allowed the band to sign a new contract with the major German metal label Nuclear Blast. Then, in February 1997, the mini-CD "Black-Ash Inheritance" was released, preceding the release of a full-length album. Thus, in 1997, In Flames released the mini-album "Black-Ash Inheritance" and the full album Whoracle in succession, which is in the style of "The Jester Race."
At the same time, Jesper, together with Oscar Dronjak, created the power metal band HammerFall, where he played drums. Glenn Ljungström and Johan Larsson also joined, and Stanne was the vocalist for a while. From 1993 to 1997, the lineups of HammerFall and In Flames were almost identical. However, after recording the debut album, Jesper left HammerFall and focused on working in In Flames, where he now played only as a guitarist, having found a permanent drummer.
From 1997, the lineup changed significantly. Daniel Svensson became the drummer, and Peter Iwers became the new bassist. In this lineup, the albums Whoracle, Colony, and subsequent albums were recorded – the lineup has not changed since 1998. The band gained popularity among fans of heavy music and had a successful tour in the USA and Japan. August 6, 2001, is considered the release date of the band's first live album, "Live in Japan." The live album "The Tokyo Showdown" was recorded during a tour in Japan in 2000, which supported the album "Clayman." In 2000 alone, In Flames played over 150 shows before starting to write songs for this very album the following year. The Japanese magazine "Burrn! Magazine" named Jesper the best composer of the year.
In the spring of 2002, they were already in the studio recording their next album, "Reroute to Remain." This took place at Dug-Out Studio in Uppsala, Sweden, with producer Daniel Bergstrand. The album was released in September – on the 2nd in Europe and the 3rd in the USA. In July 2002, a video was also filmed for the song "Cloud Connected."
In 2004, In Flames won the P3 Guld Award Show in Sweden in the "Best Album of 2004" category.
Perhaps one of my (now) favorite bands.
I started listening to them... three days ago :D But I really like them.
I was looking for a band in the Melodic Death Metal genre (as they say, "and I didn't even notice the elephant" aka In Flames are the progenitors of Melodic Death Metal :)), after which a very "wise" (:D) user advised me to listen to them, and I thank him for that.
