''Whoracle'' is the third studio album by Swedish heavy metal band

In Flames In Flames is a Swedish Heavy metal music, heavy metal band, formed by guitarist Jesper Strömblad in Gothenburg in 1990 out of the Swedish death metal, Swedish death metal scene. Their lineup has changed several times, with vocalist Anders Frid ...

, released on 18 November 1997. The title of the album is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the English words " whore" and "

oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

". Apart from " Everything Counts", which is a cover of a

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the line-up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher (musician), Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists ...

song, all songs were composed and arranged by

. The lyrics were translated by ''

Dark Tranquillity Dark Tranquillity is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Gothenburg. They are considered one of the pioneering acts of the Swedish death metal, Gothenburg metal scene, which also includes bands such as In Flames and At the Gates - regarded a ...

'' guitarist

Niklas Sundin Niklas Sundin (born 13 August 1974) is a Swedish musician, best known as a founding member and former lead guitarist of the melodic death metal band Dark Tranquillity from 1989–2020. In 2019, he founded his own band called Mitochondrial Sun, w ...

, after

Anders Fridén Pär Anders Fridén (born 25 March 1973) is a Swedish vocalist, best known as the lead singer of the melodic death metal band In Flames. He was also the vocalist of Dark Tranquillity and side project Passenger. Career Early career Fridén was ...

had written them in Swedish. ''Whoracle'' is the final In Flames album to feature Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström. It is also the last release with Björn Gelotte playing drums, as he permanently switched to lead guitar in future releases. Fredrik Nordström noted that it was not easy to record at times, since the band members usually preferred drinking beer and playing ''

Tekken 3 is a 1997 fighting game developed and published by Namco. It is the third installment in the ''Tekken'' series and the first game built on the Namco System 12 arcade game, arcade hardware. The game takes place twenty years after ''Tekken 2'' (1 ...

''.''At the Gates – Flames of the End'' DVD Fredrik Nordstörm interview In 2020, it was named one of the 20 best metal albums of 1997 by ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

'' magazine.

Concept

Whoracle is a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

which describes the past, present, and a hypothetical future of the planet Earth. "Jotun" is a foreshadowing of the main concepts where a society is crushed and broken after an apocalyptic event. "Episode 666" seems to be the narration of this apocalyptic event which is, perversely, televised. The songs leading up to this tell a story of the rise and fall of a global society. "The Hive" and "Jester Script Transfigured" describe this technologically advanced society and a utopian world which is demolished by human nature in the next two songs. The inclusion of the

cover, "Everything Counts", is a poignant way to imply that the people who built then destroyed their society realized their folly after it was too late.

Track listing

All lyrics written by

and

Personnel

;In Flames *

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

* Jesper Strömblad – lead and acoustic guitar, keyboards, percussion * Glenn Ljungström – rhythm guitar * Johan Larsson –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

* Björn Gelotte –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, percussion, lead and acoustic guitar ;Other personnel *Ulrika Netterdahl – female vocals on song "Whoracle" *The ''Whoracle'' concept conjured and verbalized by

and Anders Fridén *Lyrics written by Niklas Sundin following original synopsis by Anders Fridén *All music composed and arranged by In Flames except "Everything Counts" by Martin Lee Gore of

*Recorded and produced by Fredrik Nordström with assistance from In Flames *Engineered by Anders Fridén and Fredrik Nordström *Mixed by Fredrik Nordström and Anders Fridén *Mastered by Goran Finnberg and Fredrik Nordstrom at the Mastering Room Gbg *Cover artwork by Andreas Marschall *Photos by Kenneth Johansson *All songs published by Prophecies Publishing Hamburg except "Everything Counts" *"Everything Counts" published by Grabbing Hands Music Ltd, sub-published by EMI Music Germany

References

{{Authority control In Flames albums Nuclear Blast albums 1997 albums Albums recorded at Studio Fredman Albums produced by Fredrik Nordström Science fiction concept albums