Five months after In Flames frontman Anders Fridén posted a studio photo dump captioned “it’s done,” fans could be forgiven for assuming album number fifteen was sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting for a release date. Fridén says that is not quite how it works.
Speaking to Paolo Phoenix of “Magenta TV” at Wacken Open Air in Wacken, Germany, the singer was asked point blank whether the record is finished. His answer drew a line between tracking and everything that comes after it.
“Ah, the rumors. The rumors are not true. We’re still building, you know, building the LEGO. It’s going well, though,” Fridén said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
The distinction matters. Back on March 17, Fridén had gone to Instagram with a message reading:“Laughs, frustrations, genius ideas, fabulous decisions, friendships, amazing drums, bass and guitar with a little vocals sprinkled on top… it’s done. In flames 15, here we come…. #inflames”. That post was widely picked up as confirmation of a completed album. What it actually confirmed was completed recording, the raw parts, not the finished object.
Which is what makes his next remark the real headline. Asked what would set the new In Flames LP apart, Fridén described a record he says is already landing hard in its rough state.
“It will sound like In Flames and like no one else. That’s as unique as you can get, I would say. But I think we continue what we’ve been creating and putting everything that In Flames [has] ever been into one big album. And I can’t wait for people to hear it. We are really proud of it. Everybody’s on top of their game. And, yeah, it sounds amazing already, and it’s not even mixed,” he said.
The band returned to Los Angeles for the sessions, working again with Grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson and engineer Mike Plotnikoff. Drum tracking took place at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood.
Benson has now worked on four straight In Flames albums, going back to 2016’s Battles. His wider credits include Motörhead, Body Count and Sepultura.
The album will be the first studio recording by drummer Jon Rice, who has played with the band live since May 2025. Rice came in with a long history in heavy music, having previously worked with Behemoth, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, The Red Chord, Job For A Cowboy and Scorpion Child.
He took over from Tanner Wayne, who split with In Flames in May 2025 after seven years in the band. Wayne was known before that for his time in Underminded, Scary Kids Scaring Kids and Chiodos. He joined in time for the summer 2018 touring run and played his first show with the band on July 4, 2018 in Brno, Czech Republic, stepping in after the departure of Joe Rickard, who drummed on Battles.
Elsewhere in the interview, Fridén was asked whether he and his bandmates realised at the time that they were helping shape melodic death metal when the band came together in Gothenburg more than three and a half decades ago. He said they did not: “No, no, no, no, not at all. We were just fans of music, and we just wanted to create our way of what we thought heavy metal was… We were just having fun creating what we loved and took inspiration from tons of other bands. I’m really honored and humbled to hear those things, but I don’t let it get to my head. It’s not good for you.”
He has heard riffs from newer bands that sound “very similar” to his own group’s work, and said it does not bother him. “But it’s fine. We did it too,” he admitted. “If Iron Maiden is listening right now, then we stole some of your riffs. And that’s just the truth.
“It’s so difficult to be super, super, super original,” Fridén continued. “And then that’s how this music evolves, too. You take bits and pieces, and you throw in some of your own ideas and it just keeps the music moving forward. And I think that’s wonderful. It should not be, ‘This is ours, this is ours, this is ours.’ And, to be fair, when we create an album, and when we’re done, we give it to the fans, and it’s out of our hands. We can’t do anything anymore. It’s just up to everyone else. We can’t control it. It’s yours. And if someone wants to take those ideas and be inspired to create their own band or in an already existing band, feel free.”
The singer also spoke about metal audiences and how loudly they tend to voice their opinions about the bands they follow: “I love that people are passionate. I mean, heavy metal fans, they will judge you left and right, but they’re also super passionate, and that’s what I love about the genre. That’s why I wanna be in it. It took me by surprise that, all of a sudden… ‘Cause I wanted to be part of heavy metal because I thought there were no rules whatsoever. You can do whatever you want, right? Like, scream and play lloud music, and that’s fine. And years later, I found out, ‘Oh, you can’t do this, can’t do that, can’t do that.’ But f**k that. Do whatever you want.”
No title or release date has been announced for the fifteenth album. The band is still touring behind Foregone, which came out in February 2023 on Nuclear Blast.
