IN FLAMES Shares Music Video For New Single 'Meet Your Maker'

Swedish/American metallers IN FLAMES have released the official music video for "Meet Your Maker". The song is taken from the band's fourteenth studio album, "Foregone", which will arrive on February 10 via Nuclear Blast. Like a raw nerve exposed, the song speaks of the desperation and frustration brought on by the chaotic dystopia of post-pandemic society.

IN FLAMES frontman Anders Fridén states: "When we started to write for 'Foregone', 'Meet Your Maker' became the song that set the tone in terms of what we were aiming for sonically as well as thematically. You'll see it's everything you’ve come to expect from IN FLAMES and some. Enjoy and see you on the road in 2023!"

"Foregone" features artwork designed by Blake Armstrong.

When the LP was first announced last September, Fridén stated: "Going into the 'Foregone' sessions, we wanted to make a record that was heavily guitar-driven, and that had a strong foundation between the bass and drums. We still approached our songwriting the same way, as we always have, as a juxtaposition between melody and aggression. That's the DNA of our music. From the lyrical end of things, there was no shortage of inspiration to draw from, especially the concept of time."

He continued: "Humanity as a whole was forced to slow down and take breather. In that break, many of us spent time evaluating and reprioritizing. Time is a constant, but what do we do with it and how we perceive it varies. Especially now looking at where the world seems to be headed faster than ever before."

Fridén concluded: "It's crazy that after everything we are still here and on our fourteenth album. I feel that we've found a great balance between the past, the present and the future with 'Foregone'. This is a new era of IN FLAMES!"

Earlier last year, Fridén spoke to MoreCore.TV about what IN FLAMES fans can expect from the new LP. He said: "This is the fourteenth album. So if you know IN FLAMES, you know sort of what you're gonna get. But I think this is a good mix of the past, the present and wherever we're going, and [it] has a little thing for everyone; it has the heavy, it has the melodic, it has the uptempo and the slow parts. I think it's amazing, and it really represents who we are at this time."

Asked if the pandemic influenced the songwriting process for the new IN FLAMES effort, Anders said: "Well, in a certain way. Lyrically, for sure. I thought this two-year break would make us see us who we are as people and maybe come out on the other side being a little bit more nice and gentle and with more understanding, but I think it's the opposite. So it definitely inspired the lyrical side.

"Of course, a break like that, it's a pause, so when you get back into it, maybe unintentionally you have more energy across the board, [and] with the music as well," he explained.

In July, Fridén told Chaoszine about the songwriting process for the new IN FLAMES album: "Me and Björn [Gelotte, guitar] we live on different sides of [Sweden] — he lives in Gothenburg; I live in Stockholm — and we only saw each other once or twice during the whole pandemic. But towards the end, when we kind of felt like it's gonna open up for real, we started talking and then we decided to take a trip to the U.S. and just get the machine rolling again — write some stuff; just get things out of our system. So we spent some time — like, three weeks — in L.A. And then we flew home and had Christmas and so on, and then we flew back again and started recording stuff for real. But as soon as we got together, a few weeks in the writing process, it felt like it always has."

Anders went on to say that he and Björn "had to be in the same room" in order to maximize their songwriting efforts. "We feed off each other's energies and ideas and so on, and I don't think we can write apart," he explained. "I mean, we can, but it won't be the same. So we have to get in the same room and be amongst everyone in the band… Me and Björn, we are the ones that are writing everything. The other guys are obviously partaking and bringing in their energy and their skills to the band, but when it comes to the writing, it's not much different."

Speaking in more detail about the contributions of IN FLAMES' three American members — drummer Tanner Wayne, bassist Bryce Paul and guitarist Chris Broderick — Anders said: "They are great individual musicians, so they bring in their skills and their way of playing, and it's very unique from person to person. And that's what they bring. And also the feeling — it's such a good atmosphere within the band; there's no arguments, really, and we're just having a good time being around each other. And that helps the whole creative process. And what they've done… I mean, you will hear it. You can hear it, what they do. They're amazing guys and amazing musicians and really good friends."

Wayne joined IN FLAMES following the departure of Joe Rickard, who played on "I, The Mask" and 2016's "Battles".

Tanner made his live debut with IN FLAMES in July 2018 in Brno, Czech Republic.

Paul has been playing most of the shows with IN FLAMES since longtime bassist Peter Iwers's November 2016 exit.