In Flames – Pinball Map

From the Swedish purveyors of “heavy metal hits” with drummer Daniel Svensson, Pinball Map is a classic syncopated In Flames banger.

Clayman was the fifth album from In Flames. Released in 2000 on Nuclear Blast, it was an exciting follow up to the Whoracle and Colony albums, all of which were on high rotation in my home at the time and were inevitably a big influence on the melodic death metal we were playing in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

Revisiting this album 20 years later has been a lot of nostalgic fun. The syncopated accents – on the ‘a’ of ‘4’ rather than an emphasis on the ‘1’ is something In Flames do a lot and it really keeps this track rhythmically interesting and in motion. The huge drum fill leading into the chorus is a highlight. I’ve interpreted this using a familiar linear pattern. In this case – four on the hands, two with the feet (4 up 2 down) repeated, then two with the hands two with the feet (2 up 2 down) repeated four times. Played as 32nd notes, it finishes back on the snare on the ‘&’ of beat ‘4’.

here’s a breakdown ;

In it’s simplest form : RLRLKK RLRLKK RLKK RLKK RLKK RLKK flam. This is orchestrated around the toms and snare – refer to the pdf transcription. I’ve written this for a 5 piece setup but interpreted and orchestrated it on a 4 piece setup in the video.

This is some classic metal drumming. Give the drummer, Daniel Svensson some. Give it a hit.

The link to the complete transcription is here ;