When In Flames burst onto the world metal stage in the mid-’90s, they helped introduce the world to melodic death metal. It was a sound that would come to be known as “the Gothenburg sound,” taking the name of the city in Sweden that spawned In Flames, Dark Tranquility, At The Gates, and many other early architects of the genre. Over the course of 20 years and eleven studio albums, In Flames has grown to be one of metal’s biggest and most influential bands spawning countless imitators. The band’s sound has evolved beyond the melodeath genre that they helped create, but the name In Flames will always be synonymous with “the Gothenburg Sound.”

Here, from their legendary fourth album, Clayman, is In Flames with the official video for “Only For The Weak.”

Watch the video here, below.

When I was growing up in rural Indiana in the early ’80s, there was very limited access to heavy music. These were the days before MTV blew up with the whole hair metal, Headbangers Ball phenomenon. But on Sunday nights, there was a two-hour radio show that came from WOXY, the radio station of Miami University of Ohio, just across the state line in Oxford, Ohio. It was called Massive Metal for the Masses and I would wait all week for it to air. It was through this show that I was introduced to bands like Venom, Bathory, WASP, Michael Schenker Group, Slayer, and countless others. This Monday weekly column is my tip of the hat to that show. I call it Massive Metal Monday. Every week, I will pay tribute to defining moments by the artists that laid the groundwork for heavy metal to become the worldwide cultural bond for all of us metal heads.

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