IN FLAMES Bassist Responds To Former Guitarist's 'Sinking Ship' Comment: 'He Doesn't Really Mean It'

IN FLAMES bassist Peter Iwers says that he has "a good relationship" with the band's ex-guitarist Jesper Strömblad despite the fact that Jesper recently referred to his former group as a "sinking ship."

Strömblad, who quit IN FLAMES in February 2010 in order to continue receiving treatment for his alcohol addiction, made his comments last month via his Facebook page. He wrote about his former band: "[IN FLAMES frontman Anders Fridén] [has] never been a songwriter. Trying to 'sing' with a vocal producer doing his best to polish the turd. And most importantly, I had no impact on the songwriting whatsoever *crying*... Sorry guys, I just could be quiet for once. Just happy I left the sinking ship."

In a brand new interview with Australia's Sticks For Stones, Peter responded to Jesper's remarks, saying (hear audio below): "Well, we actually play music in another band — Jesper and I — that we're gonna go public with in the next week or so, so we have a good relationship; we're good friends."

He continued: "When he does things like this… The problem, I think, is that fifteen years ago, you wouldn't have all the social media, so you just said something out when you were feeling frustrated or angry, but these days you write on social media and somebody picks it up really fast and it becomes way bigger than what it is. He is a constant supporter of IN FLAMES. Sometimes he says bad stuff online, but he doesn't really mean it. It's just exactly like I said — you get angry for five minutes and then you wish you wouldn't have said it, but then the whole world has read it. It's been picked up by Blabbermouth or something like that. But he's a big IN FLAMES supporter. He likes what we do, and, obviously, he has his issues with whatever he writes online, but at the same time we are good friends and there's no hard feelings whatsoever."

After leaving IN FLAMES, Strömblad formed THE RESISTANCE with Marco Aro (vocals, THE HAUNTED) and Glenn Ljungström (guitar, ex-IN FLAMES). Strömblad announced his departure from that group in March of this year, with the band's bassist, Rob Hakemo, saying in an interview that Jesper "saved" THE RESISTANCE by quitting and explaining that the guitarist is "an alcoholic" and "drug addict" who "doesn't want to [get] sober." Rob added: "[Jesper] thinks that two weeks [sober] is good, and then he can drink some. And then he's gone for a month, and then he's back and he's not drinking [for a short while]. It's a sad thing, and we really tried to help him and wanted the best [for him]. So when he told us that 'I'm leaving the band,' we were relieved. We were really relieved."

"Battles", IN FLAMES' twelfth studio album — and its third since Jesper's departure — will be released on November 11 via Nuclear Blast in all territories excluding North America and Scandinavia and Eleven Seven Music Group in the U.S.