''Lunar Strain'' is the debut studio album by Swedish melo death 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 in April 1994. The album is known for its " folky elements", with the inclusion of

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

s and acoustic guitars along with influences from

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...

. It is the only In Flames album to not feature

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 ...

as the vocalist and Björn Gelotte as either drummer or lead guitarist. Guitarist Jesper Strömblad plays the drums, while the vocals are sung 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 ...

vocalist

Mikael Stanne Bengt Mikael Stanne (born 20 May 1974) is a Swedish musician, best known as the vocalist, primary lyricist and a former guitarist for the melodic death metal band Dark Tranquillity. Since the departure of original drummer Anders Jivarp in 2021, ...

, a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

for In Flames at the time. Stanne had sung with the band previously on "Demo '93". Coincidentally, Fridén was the original vocalist for Dark Tranquillity and he effectively traded places with Stanne in 1995. As of 2010, no members who played on this album are still with the band. The songs "Behind Space" and "Clad in Shadows" were re-recorded in the album ''Colony'' (1999), featuring In Flames' future lineup; both songs were renamed with the suffix '99 at the end of the title. "Clad in Shadows '99" was also released on the reissue of the album '' Whoracle'' (1997).

Reissues

In 1999, the album was re-released under the title ''Lunar Strain – Subterranean'', including all tracks from the band's future release, '' Subterranean''. On the 2003 ''Regain Records'' re-release, the songs order differs slightly, with "Clad in Shadows" being the second track, shifting the rest down by one. However, the discrepancy is not apparent in the album's track listing. Track 10, on the original release "Clad in Shadows", became Track 2 (this was not shown on the album's track list), and each track after track 2 ended up being credited as the track before (i.e. "Clad in Shadows" is credited as "Lunar Strain", and so on). The album was re-released and remastered with bonus tracks in 2004 via Regain Records and in 2005 via

Candlelight Records Candlelight Records is a British record label based in London, founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bass guitarist Lee Barrett in 1993. The record label originally specialized in black metal, but quickly expanded to various other forms of hea ...

, featuring the same artwork but a more modern logo, as seen on ''

Reroute to Remain ''Reroute to Remain'' (subtitled: ''Fourteen Songs of Conscious Insanity'', and on reissue: ''Fourteen Songs of Conscious Madness'') is the sixth studio album by Swedish heavy metal band In Flames, released in September 2002. The album saw a m ...

'' and '' Come Clarity''. The bonus tracks are actually three songs re-recorded from the band's 1993 demo, which contained "alternative mixed versions of the album recordings."

Track listing

Personnel

In Flames *

– lead vocals * Glenn Ljungström – guitars *Karl "Carl" Näslund – guitars * Johan Larsson – bass * Jesper Strömblad – drums, keyboards, guitars Guest musicians *Ylva Wåhlstedt –

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

*Jennica Johansson – vocal appearance * Oscar Dronjak – vocal appearance * Anders Iwers – guitar (tracks 8–9 and 1993 demo bonus tracks) Technical personnel * Fredrik Nordström, H. Bjurkvist, J. Karlsson –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

*In Flames, Fredrik Nordström – mixing *StageTech – production * Kenneth Johansson – cover art and photos *Henrik Lindahl – additional photos *Local Hero Music – layout

Release history

References

External links

''Lunar Strain'' at Inflames.com
(archived) {{Authority control In Flames albums 1994 debut albums Regain Records albums Candlelight Records albums