In Flames

Jesper Strömblad founded the Swedish group alongside another band he was part of. In 1993, Strömblad decided to dedicate all of his time to In Flames. That same year Glenn Ljungström on guitar and Johan Larsson on bass guitar joined for the first In Flames line up.

Their first album was released in 1994 called 'Lunar Strain'. The trio had to use different singers to help out, as they didn't have a lead vocalist. But in 1995 they got Björn Gelotte to join the band as a drummer, and Anders Fridén as their full time vocalist. The official one-piece metal band was born.

Their music uses harmonized lead guitar melodies and screamed/ growled vocals. On Soundtrack to Your Escape, the band used less guitar melodies so they were able to incorporate more synths, but this seemed to be only a short phase in their music. In Flames' lyrics have varied over the years as well. In some of their releases like 'The Jester Race', they seemed to talk about astrology and mankind. But in later albums such as 'Come Clarity' the band specifically sang about their personal issues and life problems.

In Flames were big influences to many metal bands. Darkest Hour, Slowlife and Trivium are amongst the few that name In Flames as a huge influence on their melodic death metal style.