Band:	In Flames
Album:	The Jester Race
Style:	Gothenburg metal
Release date:	February 1996

01. Moonshield
02. The Jester's Dance
03. Artifacts Of The Black Rain
04. Graveland
05. Lord Hypnos
06. Dead Eternity
07. The Jester Race
08. December Flower
09. Wayfaerer
10. Dead God In Me
11. Goliaths Disarm Their Davids [2002 re-release bonus]
12. Gyroscope [2002 re-release bonus]
13. Acoustic Medley [2002 re-release bonus]
14. Behind Space [live] [2002 re-release bonus]

The Jester Race is the best album from In Flames era pure Melodic Death Metal, unfortunately for the fans of this precise style, that would also be the last. The Swedish band was still playing a lot of acoustic almost classical music, and was still very close to its alter ego Dark Tranquillity. Honestly I love both "versions" of In Flames music and it's obvious for me that their "pre-Whoracle" work reached its climax with the album The Jester Race.

As a general statement, the entire album is darker than any other In Flames albums and, incredible as it may seem, it's also the most melodic. Just listen to the splendid opener 'Moonshield' or the masterpiece 'The Jester Race' and you'll get it. 'The Jesters Dance' is a great instrumental track [probably the best In Flames instrumental] and also a recurrent melody for the title track. However, one of my favorites is still track 3, 'Artifact Of The Black Rain', a genuine ID of what In Flames was in 1995: innovation, huge melodies, great riffs, all of that was already in that song.

But one of the most surprising songs is 'December Flower', which happens to be a perfect definition for the phrase "melodic death". And, of course, the level of brutality is also very high on songs such as 'Dead God In Me' or 'Dead Eternity'. So what we have here is an excellent album with several influences.

With The Jester Race, In Flames manages to catch listeners and to make them travel through the dark lands of their Melodic Death Metal world. Great compositions such as 'The Jester Race', 'Moonshield', 'Artifacts Of The Black Rain' and 'Lord Hypnos' must appeal to everyone of you one day. So why don't you try today?