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In Flames Laugh Royalties Battle Off

November 26, 2014

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In Flames laugh at the attempts of the band’s ex-vocalist to get more royalties by posting a funny photo on Facebook

Until now most In Flames fans had no idea there had been any vocalist in their favourite Swedish band other than Anders Fridén. Recently they have got to know about the original vocalist Henke Forss, who sang on the band’s 1994 EP “Subterranean”. His name is used way more frequently now, but only in relation to his public attacks on In Flames for not having received proper songwriting credit for the band’s early songs.

This basically means that back then Henke Forss simply didn’t give a damn, because the band wasn’t a world-famous act. Many years later, he came back demanding a slice of the cake. It is not the first time the singer insists on getting his songwriting royalties. Forss says he has been trying to claim his rights to the songs for over a decade. Obviously, without success.

And Forss got his response recently: EMP Rock Invasion asked In Flames’ guitarist Björn Gelotte about the band’s standpoint regarding these claims. “Stuff like this happens all the time ‘cause in the past In Flames wasn’t really a band, it was more of a project”, Björn explains. We had a couple of different singers. Mikael [Stanne] from Dark Tranquillity was one of them, and Henke Forss, I don’t know where he was from, but he was another singer. …members come and go, and some people are content with what they did, and some are not.”

Outraged by such indifference, Forss stroke back by asking the metal website Blabbermouth to publish the following statement: “I’m not surprised Björn doesn’t realize up on his high horse that I’ve been trying to claim my rights for the songs I co-wrote for over 10 years. Due to shifty record company CEOs and misleading advice from various people, nothing has really happened until recently when I saw that In Flames once again made a re-release of the Subterranean album… It’s no big secret that former original members have fought In Flames for 10+ years to get their right as well…”

In Flames, however, couldn’t care less. They went as far as to post this photo below of Björn Gelotte on the horse to their Facebook page. The band is openly demostrating this way that they are not going to take any actions and share the cake with Forss. The question is: Will the ex-vocalist be always fighting windmills, or will the battle get further than web attacks and amusing pictures on Facebook…

In Flames Tour Dates:

Nov 25 HQ / Adelaide, Australia

Dec 03 Riviera Theatre / Chicago, IL

Dec 04 Mill City Night / Minneapolis, MN

Dec 05 Sokol Auditorium / Omaha, NE

Dec 06 Ogden Theatre / Denver, CO

Dec 08 Warfield Theatre / San Francisco, CA

Dec 09 Hollywood Palladium / Hollywood, CA

Dec 10 The Marquee / Tempe, AZ

Dec 12 Warehouse Live Ballroom / Houston, TX

Dec 13 Gas Monkey Music Hall / Dallas, TX

Dec 15 The Tabernacle / Atlanta, GA