''Sounds of a Playground Fading'' is the tenth studio album by Swedish heavy metal band

In Flames In Flames is a Swedish heavy metal band, formed by guitarist Jesper Strömblad in Gothenburg in 1990. Alongside At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity, In Flames pioneered the genres known as Swedish death metal and melodic death metal. Durin ...

, released on 15 June 2011. It is the first album recorded by In Flames without founding guitarist

Jesper Strömblad Clas Håkan Jesper Strömblad (born 28 November 1972) is a Swedish musician who is the guitarist of the bands The Halo Effect, Dimension Zero and Cyhra, and formerly of In Flames and The Resistance. He is best known as the founder and former ...

, who left the band in February 2010, making it also the only In Flames release not to have two guitarists. The album was reissued in 2014, featuring five additional tracks.

Background

According to Anders, this album features increasingly wide vocal registers and reduced growls. In addition, some of the album's songs "pretty much go ''against'' the

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest h ...

formula." The entire album was written by Björn Gelotte. The guitar solos, unlike most other albums, were able to be pre-planned out and worked much better according to the in-studio report.

Release and promotion

The band revealed the cover art, track listing and first single, "Deliver Us", on their official

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page in April and May 2011. Then on 3 June 2011, '' aol.com'' streamed the entire album on their music network. In Flames performed the album on their European tour with support from Noctiferia, as part of the "Defenders of the Faith III" tour, with bands

Trivium The trivium is the lower division of the seven liberal arts and comprises grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The trivium is implicit in ''De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii'' ("On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury") by Martianus Capella, but ...

Rise to Remain Rise to Remain was an English, London-based heavy metal band formed in 2006 and disbanded in 2015. The band made appearances at Download Festival, Sonisphere Festival and extensively toured the UK and Europe. The band released three EPs, the m ...

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to r ...

and Insense, and with Trivium in their North American Tour. The track "Deliver Us" was featured in the soundtrack to the 2013 video game ''

Saints Row IV ''Saints Row IV'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Volition and published by Deep Silver. It is the sequel to 2011's '' Saints Row: The Third'', the fourth installment of the ''Saints Row'' series, and the final main installment in ...

''.

Reception

''Sounds of a Playground Fading'' received generally positive reviews. Review aggregate

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gave the album a 68 out of 100 based on 6 professional critics.

Commercial performance

It debuted at number 27 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 album chart; number 2 on the ''Top Hard Rock'' chart, number 7 on the '' Top Rock'' chart and number 5 on the '' Top Independent'' chart. It also debuted at Number 1 of the ''

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German Albums'' chart, and at Number 12 of the ''Billboard Canadian Albums'' chart.

Track listing

All music written by Björn Gelotte and all lyrics by Anders Fridén. All songs arranged by In Flames.

Personnel

;In Flames * Anders Fridén – vocals * Björn Gelotte – guitars *

Peter Iwers Peter Iwers (born on 15 May 1975) is a Swedish musician and the current bass player of The Halo Effect. He was a member of Swedish heavy metal band In Flames from their 1999 album ''Colony'', up until their 2016 album '' Battles'', originally ...

– bass *

Daniel Svensson Daniel Svensson (born 20 November 1977) is a Swedish drummer. He is currently a member of the Swedish supergroup The Halo Effect (2021–) and formerly a drummer of the metal bands In Flames, Sacrilege GBG (also the vocalist) and Diabolique. ...

– drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

;Production *

Anders Björler Anders Björler (born 26 February 1973) is a Swedish musician, composer and film director. He is best known as the guitar player in the metal bands The Haunted and At the Gates, alongside his bass-playing twin brother Jonas Björler. Björler ...

– filming, editing and directing ("In the Studio"/studio report) * Johannes Bergion –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, ...

(on "A New Dawn") *Roberto Laghi – producer *Örjan Örnkloo – keyboards and samples *Dave Correia – album cover art

Charts

Release Dates

References

{{Authority control 2011 albums Century Media Records albums In Flames albums