A Review of "Lunar Strain" the Debut Album by Swedish Melodic Death Metal Band in Flames

1. Behind Space
2. Lunar Strain
3. Starforsaken
4. Dreamscape
5. Everlost (part 1)
6. Everlost (part 2)
7. Hargalaten
8. In Flames
9. Upon an Oaken Throne
10. Clad in Shadows

Released on April 1, 1994.

Album length: just over 36 minutes.

Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames released their debut album called Lunar Strain. At this time, the vocalist was Mikael Stanne. He would join the band Dark Tranquillity after being a session musician for In Flames. Carl Naslund is the second guitar player on the album besides Jesper Stromblad. Stromblad also plays keyboards. Johann Larsson plays the bass guitar.

Lunar Strain is known for having a folk kind of sound, using violins, and using acoustic guitars. This is evident at the end of the song called Behind Space. Behind Space would be released again and recorded on the 1999 album called Colony. But this version of the song is better because of the superb acoustic guitar part at the end. The band would use this kind of sound again on the song called Moonshield in 1996. Behind Space lyrically is talking about a restructuring of sorts as the stars are ready to enter the fourth dimension.

Starforsaken starts with a violin part before shifting into a heavy In Flames style song. It has a part that has a thrash metal influence in it which is very catchy. What follows is the instrumental song called Dreamscape. It is a good one but not as good as Wayfaerer. Lunar Strain would be re-released in 1999 and put into the EP called Subterranean. So then we would have the album’s title be Lunar Strain-Subterranean.

Everlost part 1 sounds like a doom or death metal style slow song. It is something that Norwegian band Theatre of Tragedy would use in their debut album. Everlost part 2 is a ballad style song with female vocals in it. We hear the use of violin again in the instrumental song called Hargalaten. The song Upon an Oaken Throne uses speed to its advantage. In Flames is known more for its melody and use of acoustic guitars more than its speed but they make it work out in the end. Lunar Strain is a good debut by one of the world’s greatest melodic death metal bands. Anders Friden would take over for Mikael Stanne on the vocals and he has been their vocalist ever since. This writer gives Lunar Strain a 90 out of 100 points.

Everlost part 1 sounds like a doom or death metal style slow song. It is something that Norwegian band Theatre of Tragedy would use in their debut album. Everlost part 2 is a ballad style song with female vocals in it. We hear the use of violin again in the instrumental song called Hargalaten. The song Upon an Oaken Throne uses speed to its advantage. In Flames is known more for its melody and use of acoustic guitars more than its speed but they make it work out in the end. Lunar Strain is a good debut by one of the world’s greatest melodic death metal bands. Anders Friden would take over for Mikael Stanne on the vocals and he has been their vocalist ever since. This writer gives Lunar Strain a 90 out of 100 points.

Has the album Lunar Strain stood the test of time? The answer is most definitely yes and one of the reasons for this is that the end of the song Behind Space has an awesome acoustic part in it! The last part of the song has a definite classical feel to and we would not have necessarily expected that from these guys in this early stage of their career.