The Jester Race by In Flames

A Song by Song Review by Thurston "Ayumu" Glover

Nothing says metal like Comic Sans!

Prologue
So I've been listening to In Flames recently. I was thinking, "Hey... Maybe I should write a review of this album for the school paper", so here we are now. I hope you enjoy this.

Moonshield - 9/10
Moonshield is the first song on this album. This song starts off with a soft acoustic guitar riff that leads into a very catchy acoustic guitar melody. At almost exactly 50 seconds into the song, they come in with distorted electric guitars. The guitars play a melodic riff that just sends shivers down one's spine. After a few repetitions, the vocals come in and they play a variation upon this melodic riff. As the chorus comes in, they play the acoustic guitar melody on electric guitar. As a transition into the next verse, they build upon the original melody which finally leads into the second verse. They play the original verse riff four times until Jesper Stromblad goes into a short and melodic guitar solo. After the guitar solo, there is a short bridge followed by a transition that is reminiscent of the original distorted guitar part. This is followed by another acoustic guitar riff. The bridge part then proceeds to play once again after the acoustic guitar part, and then the original distorted guitar riff is played. This is followed by another chorus. Shortly thereafter, the song ends.

I gave this song a 9/10 for a simple reason. This is my favourite song off of this album and possibly by this band. It is simply breathtaking. This song is the epitome of good melodic death metal. The only reason I did not give this a 10/10 is that the solo was not necessarily impressive. Yes, I like melodic guitar solos, and I am a fan of Jesper Stromblad's guitar playing, but it just was not memorable.

The Jester's Dance - 6/10
This song isn't exactly memorable or amazing. This piece is more of a transitory piece. It starts and ends with an acoustic melody, with the original acoustic melody followed by distorted guitar riffs that aren't memorable.

I gave this song a 6/10 simply because it is not that memorable. There isn't anything amazing. However, this song still gets a slightly higher rating because most metal bands would not come up with something like this.

Artifacts of the Black Rain - 7.5 /10
Artifacts of the Black Rain is your typical old school In Flames song. It starts off with an amazing guitar riff that is repeated throughout the song followed by a melody. There are a couple of verses, and then a transitory section with a harmonized guitar melody in harmonic minor. After this bridge of sorts, there is a repetition of the melody played in the intro.

I gave this some a 7/10 because it is a typical In Flames song from the Jester Race - Clayman era. It is melodic and it has good riffs, but it is slightly generic.

Graveland - 7/10
This song is decent overall. It has nice melodies and it is pretty memorable. This song is nothing special.

I gave this song a 7/10 because, like I said, it is nothing special. It is still a good song, however.

Lord Hypnos - 9/10
Ah, Lord Hypnos. This is simply an amazing song. From the beginning of the opening riff to the repetition of the opening riff at this very end, this is a great song. The melodies are absolutely amazing and the vocals are on point. The lyrics are epic and very enjoyable. Oh! The amount of thought put into the lyrics on old In Flames songs. Alas, they have fallen away. Not to say that new In Flames are bad. I do like them. I digress. Lord Hypnos is an amazing song with great transitions and I personally love this song. It is most likely my second favourite song by them.

I give this song a 9/10 for its amazing melodies and how catchy/memorable it is. That is, if death metal of any type can be catchy.

Dead Eternity - 8/10
This song is great. The main riff is tremolo picked and it just sounds amazing. Tremolo picking is basically picking as fast as you possibly can - in time of course - on a string. As I was listening to this song, I was wishing that it had a guitar solo, but then I remembered that this is In Flames - they don't have guitar solos very often. This song would be even more amazing with a guitar solo.

I gave this song an 8/10 because it is a great song, but it doesn't have a guitar solo. If you haven't learned by now I am a "solophiliac". Guitar solos are literally life, and I wish In Flames had realized that they would have sounded even more amazing with guitar solos. Now, that's really saying something.

The Jester Race - 7/10
This is a good song. It doesn't have anything special, but it is a good song. I would say this song is more filler, rather than killer*.

I gave this song a 7/10 because it's just not memorable. It's a decent song, but it really just isn't memorable. 

December Flower - 9/10
This is a great song. It finally delivered the solo I had been looking for. The solo is just great. I love the tone, note choice, and technicality. The riffs are amazing and mostly tremolo picked. As is the case with most melodic death metal songs, the riffs tend to be pedal tones and/or pedal phrases. If you combined the melodies of Moonshield or Lord Hypnos and had a solo of this type, it would get a 10/10. 

I gave this song a 9/10 because it is one of my favourite songs by In Flames. This song is easily in my top five by this band.

Wayfaerer - 8.5/10
This song is very reminiscent of Rush and Dream Theater, and I love those two bands. The melodies and the keyboards just have them written all over this song. That is really all I have to say about this song.

This song gets an 8.5 because of the melodies.

Dead God in Me - 8/10
This song has good riffs and is a good song overall. The melodies are very good as well. It is more of a filler, but even filler songs by In Flames are good.

This song gets an 8/10 for being a good song, but it is truly nothing special.

Summary
This is an amazing album. It has great songs with great riffs and great melodies. The vocals are absolutely astounding and I could not be more pleased. The only thing I would have personally done different is added more guitar solos. This is quite possibly my favourite In Flames album because it has three of my favourite songs by them. If you like metal and you haven't given this album a listen, I suggest that you do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPbObVABzz4

*Reference to the Sum 41 album All Killer, No Filler

An Interview with Aaron Minter

Written by Aaron Minter

Q: What is your name?

A: Aaron Minter.

Q: What is your home school?

A: Prospect; I hated it.

Q: What is your career pathway?

A: Something having to do with adventure.

Q: What year are you in school?

A: I think I’m a junior.

Q: Why are you at Vanguard?

A: It kind of started by wearing a hat at Prospect, they weren’t big fans of that.

Q: How do you feel about Vanguard so far?

A: I dig it.

Q: What activities do you do outside of school?

A: I like to skateboard and play video games.

Q: Do you play any sports?

A: I used to play football and soccer.

Q: What subjects do you enjoy?

A: I don’t really enjoy school, but I’m good at math.

Q: What are your least favorite subjects?

A: English and science.

Q: What are your thoughts on this election?

A: America has fallen into the hands of someone unfit for presidency, although both major candidates would have been undesirable.

Q: What are your musical preferences?

A: I enjoy everything except country but Indie-Folk is probably my favorite genre at the moment.

Q: What is your favorite season and why?

A: Summer because the sun comes out and it’s warm, so I don’t have to wear shoes, and there’s no school.

Q: When are you graduating?

A: Preferably June 2017, but it will probably come closer to January 2018.

Q: Do you play any instruments?

A: I play a little bit of the ukulele.

Q: What is your favorite color?

A: Orange, because it is the color of our sun.

Q: What is your favorite drink?

A: I’m pretty into milk.

Q: Are you employed?

A: Yes, I work at the AMC in Randhurst Village.

Q: What motivates you?

A: Making people happy.

Q: What book have you been reading during silent reading?

A: Harry Potter.

Q: What classes are you taking this quarter?

A: Only algebra and English.

Q: What is your best quality?

A: My positivity.

Q: What is your favorite decade?

A: The 70’s man, I’d love to chill with those hippies.

Q: What would be your last meal if you were on death row?

A: A large cheese pizza from Papa John’s and a gallon of some Oberweis chocolate milk.

A Letter to Future Webmasters and Editors of the Newspaper

By Ayumu Glover

At this point in time, I, the first and current webmaster, am in the process of redesigning and cleaning up this website. In this post, I will explain what to do, my reasons for doing it, and how the jobs of the editor and webmaster intertwine. 

As a foreword, I will say that there is no easy workaround to fix the problems that I have explained in here. I have tried to find a way to do this more efficently, but alas, there is not.

Currently, there are many posts with a white background highlight behind the text. This looks hideous, and I am not the only person who feels this. The white clashes with background and there are slight spaces the lines. It does not look pretty at all. In order to fix this, you must go into the HTML code of an individual post and search for (an easy way to do this is to press command + f on a mac or control + f in windows and type in the code) and the text "background-color: white;".  Once you do this, delete that code - or at least just the word "white" - and then preview the post to ensure that the white highlight is gone. If it is not gone, there may be more places within the code that contain this text. As a demonstration, I will show you the way that some posts currently look.

See how this looks?! It's not pretty.

Many posts on this paper currently use black text. The black text is very difficult to read on this colour background. "Why not change the colour of the background," you may inquire. I have not changed the background because our school colour is blue. If our school colour is blue, the background should be blue. This is why I have not changed the background colour. If you are the editor, please do the webmaster the favour of using the tool to change the colour to gray. The gray you should be using is the gray that is fourth from the right. This gray is very nice looking, and it matches with the blue background. Once you, the editor, have changed the colour in the "compose" area, preview the post. If changing the colour via the "compose" area did not work, get in touch with the webmaster and have the webmaster change the HTML. Webmasters, what you should be looking for in the HTML is "color: black;". Delete the word "black" and then the colour will be appear as intended. In my experience, this tends to show up rather often. Be sure to clean it up of this black.

The editor and the webmaster need to work together. It is a good idea to try to get closer to each other in order to work more efficiently. The editor should be changing the text from black to gray. The webmaster may like to request the editor - myself included - to check for and fix the HTML, but this is not fair to the editor. That is giving the editor an extra job that should belong to the webmaster. The webmaster's job is to design and maintain the website. Designing and maintaining the website includes fixing the HTML code. The editor's job is hard enough. How would you, the webmaster, feel if the editor asked you to proofread the paper? This may slightly contradict my previous saying, but editors, it is good to know how to change the code in case the webmaster is not present. That is partially why this letter is also addressed to you. The webmaster and editor should cover for each other when the need arises. 

Now for colours. These are the colours you should and should not use according to the blue background. For the do not's, I will explain why you shouldn't use them. I will also put the words in the stated colour as a demonstration.

Do:

• Gray (light gray)
• Red
• Purple (light purple)
• Green (light green)
• Yellow - use sparingly
• Orange - use sparingly

Don't:

• Black - the black isn't very readable on a blue background.
• Blue - the blue also isn't very readable and it feels redundant. Teal may be okay, but use it sparingly.
• Brown - it's very unappealing on a blue background.

In conclusion, always think about the reader. Think about what the reader would find appealing to the eye, then do it. That is your job as webmaster.

PS: As I read this in a preview, I thought that the use of the white background with black text would be okay for emphasis.
PS2: I would have liked to put in the full code for what I was addressing, but alas, it made the whole post black with a white background.