In an typically astute review of the new In Flames disc Sounds of a Playground Fading penned for the issue of Decibel hitting stands right about now, Adrien Begrand argues — correctly, in my negligible opinion — that despite the Gothenburg quintet’s obvious (and occasionally egregious) missteps, far too much of the band’s post-Clayman output is unfairly dismissed out of hand by once-admiring critics and fans as commercially pandering/mediocre/un-tru/too-nu. That said, an angsty performance video for a middling (at best) song set on a giant ferris wheel wherein your tweed cap-sporting singer perches in a corner of his passenger capsule (alone, natch, so alone…) and watches fireworks while crooning about “the fortress above the sun” is probably not going to do much to reverse that shift in opinion…
Why not? Well, tearing up an Old MacDonald’s Farm set didn’t do much for the long-term reputation of Korn’s own playground-ode “Shoots and Ladders” and the fireworks in “Cochise” didn’t hold up the inevitable reunions of Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine any.
Then again, what can we expect from this generation’s establishment metal bands when Rob Halford insists it is “a dream come true” for Judas Priest to perform on American Idol with an amorphous musical theater afterbirth? Glenn Tipton, sadly, went even further: “If you look at what James [Durbin] has done for heavy metal, you’ve got to say thank you, you know?”
Christ on a crutch! It’s good to finally know the ultimate goal Priest has been buffing that British Steel in pursuit of all these years! The “dream” made manifest:
Personally, I think the track after the jump would’ve been more appropriate considering the circumstances…
