Come Clarity

In Flames | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 7, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ferret Records
• ASIN: B000E1JP1A
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,239 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #14 in Music > World Music > Europe > Scandinavia > Sweden
  • #34 in Music > Hard Rock & Metal > Death Metal
  • #96 in Music > Hard Rock & Metal > Progressive Metal

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

In Flames has been one of the leaders of the underground metal movement for over 10 years. With over 1,000,000 records sold worldwide and coming off a successful tour as part of OZZFEST 2005, where they shared the festival's main stage with Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and others, the time is ripe for this Swedish quintet to continue their ascent. The band's recent success, as well as that of their counterparts -- including Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall and Lamb of God.

With the February 7th, 2006 North American release of Come Clarity, the band has chosen a new label in Ferret Music to not only serve their legions of fans, but to introduce them to a broader audience in heavy music. The follow-up to the band's 2004 album, Soundtrack to Your Escape, Come Clarity features In Flames most ambitious songwriting to date.

Striving to make music he loved, Jesper Strömblad formed In Flames with Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström in 1990. After recording a demo, the trio garnered their first record deal and began work on their debut album. Entitled Lunar Strain, the release quickly became an instant classic in underground circles. A licensing deal with Nuclear Blast Records soon followed, as did the addition of both Anders Friden on vocals and Björn Gelotte on drums. In Flames then went to work on recording Lunar Strain's follow-up, The Jester Race. The album was an immediate success and the band's profile continued to increase worldwide as did their rigorous touring schedule.

After the recording of 1997's Whoracle, Johan and Glenn decided to leave the band and both Peter Iwers (bass) and Niklas Engelin (guitar) stepped in. With the fresh line-up in place, In Flames hit the road with Dimmu Borgir for a very successful European tour. The album ultimately became known in the highly factional underground metal community as an important release not only for In Flames, but for the entire melodic death metal movement.

At the conclusion of the album's cycle, In Flames' lineup again changed and the band restructured considerably. Björn switched from drums to guitar and Daniel Svensson (SACRILIGE) joined on percussion. In 1999, the band released Colony. Excellent reactions to the album as well as increased touring the world over turned In Flames into one of the most popular metal acts on the planet. 2000's Clayman topped its predecessor and the band received international acclaim. The success of Clayman gave the band a chance to share stages with acts such as Slipknot, Metallica and Slayer. The first In Flames live album, The Tokyo Showdown, soon followed, giving a detailed insight into the band's live competence.

After touring the world twice over in support of Clayman, In Flames released their two most successful records to date, Reroute to Remain and Soundtrack to Your Escape in 2002 and 2004 respectively. The invitation to join the 2005 installment of OZZFEST as a main stage act solidified In Flames' place amongst modern day heavy music's elite and saw the band break new ground, converting scores of new fans over the course of the highly-publicized trek.

Now with the imminent release of Come Clarity, In Flames are ready to take North America by storm with their best album to date. The band will finally call the continent their second home by touring the continent for more than half of 2006, beginning with a headlining tour set to launch in January that will include support from well known acts Trivium, Devildriver and Zao. Come Clarity features thirteen explosive tracks, including the roll-out single and video, "Take this Life".

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best In Flames Album Since Colony-Best of The Old and New, February 7, 2006

By 

Phil "leaderoftheplague" (**Classified**) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Come Clarity (Audio CD)

MY OPINION: Ive been an avid In Flames fan since the days of Whoracle. Ive seen the band only once, which was on last years edition of the Ozzfest, but I own all their albums (including reissues), so I can give a good, honest review of their albums easily. Now, as most of their hardcore fans, I initially was kinda of thrown off by their change from complete melodic death metal to thier incarnation now, but it has grown on me immensly and I now enjoy Reroute to Remain and Soundtrack to your Escape as much as, say, Colony and Clayman. So, enough of blabbering about the old days :P. On to the review.

1.Take This Life-The opening song wastes no time in blasting you in the face. A killer riff lays over some of Anders' most frantic vocal work this side of R2R. A good song, albeit not the best on the album. Also the first single. 9/10

2.Leeches-This song got me right from the beginning. The drumming and riff fits so well that the song just, well, works. I really dig the vocals and lyrics here, and it showcases a return to form with a solo from Bjorn. 10/10

3.Reflect the Storm-WOW! Thats all I have to say abou this one. Totally old-school In Flames, the kind of band I fell in love with from the beginning. A killer harmony in the beginning lashes with machine-gun drumming and riffage from Bjorn and Jesper. This song is one of the highlights of the album, aside from some others. 12/10

4.Dead End-Now heres something I wasn't expecting; A female singer on an In Flames album? New, not really innovative, but quite new for this band in itself. Ander's voice meldes well with Lisa Miskovsky's, making the song different from the others. The song is well done, but not the best on the album, but still quite good. 8/10

5.Scream-Decent song, probably the most generic on the album, aside from a few others, but it is still well done. Hey, In Flames can't really do bad things anyway. 7/10

6.Come Clarity-Holy hell. Incredible. Beautiful guitar work from Jesper in the beginning harkens back to the glory days of The Jester Race, and more specifically, Moonshield. Just listen to Peter's bass on this one. Thumping like the heartbeat of the devil! One of the highlights of the album by far! 10/10

7.Vacuum-Another song that shows a general blending of old and new In Flames. Very good song in my opinion, but not the best. Great guitar work and drumming as usual though. 8/10

8.Pacing Death's Trail-Enjoyed this song myself. Quite a good one. Again, not the best, or even one of the main highlights of the album, but still a great song on its own. 8/10

9.Crawl Through Knives-I absolutely love this song. Great music (with some cool staccatos on the main riff), killer lyrics and vocal melodies. An all-together great song. Right up there as a highlight of this album. 10/10

10.Versus Terminus-Another decent song, but not one of my pics for best songs. Great job though on its own. 8/10

11.Our Infinite Struggle-Dig this song. Good job by the guys with this one. One of the better average songs on the album but not quite a highlight. 8/10

12.Vanishing Light-Pretty good song here I must say, once again, as with the last few songs, not one of the better, but still good. (If you cant tell, the last part of the album isn't its strongest, as in most cases, except for Opeth, which I suggest checking out!) 7/10

13.Your Bedtime Story is Scaring Everyone-Picks back up alittle here in the end. This song is quite odd, and a bit slow getting started, but all-in-all, I like the song itself. Not really a highlight or anything but worth a listen just cause of the weird title. 8/10

BOTTOME LINE: This album is a great album, and a true return to form for the guys. They mixed what worked from the old with what worked from the new and made an album worthy of PLENTY attention from fans and non-fans alike. Hopefully this will bring back some of their old fans who can't except change. Check it out, you shouldn't be dissapointed, but if you're looking for The Jester's Race, this isn't it. Keep that in mind, and you'll enjoy this kiler album. Peace!

Highlights: Take This Life, Leeches, Reflect the Storm(!!), Come Clarity, Crawl Through Knives

OVERALL: 9.5/10

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's still a must own for me, but...., November 21, 2006

By 

Atub (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Come Clarity (Audio CD)

I'll start this review by saying that In Flames is my favorite band of all time. They have changed SO much since Lunar Strain (a must own for any melodeath fan), and for the record, that's a good thing. If they wanted to release the same album 8 times like so many bands do, I would be seriously disappointed.

That being said, this is not the same band that put out Colony and Whoracle, don't expect it to be. I've read a lot of reviews from the kids who are apparently still taking "intro to metal" and thought In Flames peaked with Reroute, along with a lot of heavier guys who loved the older sound, and neither seem thrilled with this album. Each In Flames has an evolving sound, and this album sinks nicely into the 8th different sound that they have come up with. If you aren't such a metal snob that you refuse to acknowledge clean vocals and aren't so mainstream that 50 Cent will pop up on your iTunes after this album, you'll probably enjoy it.

If you want some In Flames with a real melodeath sound, check out Lunar Strain/Subterranean, The Jester Race/Black Ash Inheritance, Whoracle, and Colony.

If you like the newer sound, Clayman, Reroute to Remain, Soundtrack to Your Escape, and Come Clarity are a better bet.

If you like In Flames, buy them all. I did. It was worth it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Come Clarity, February 15, 2006

By 

D. Bridglal "Metal Lordess" (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Come Clarity (Audio CD)

Well here we are. The 8th studio album from the highly acclaimed Melodic Death metal band, In Flames is out. However as most fans agree, the last two albums have been somewhat disappointing. Especially Soundtrack To Your Escape, with the lack of proper solos and Anders screaming vocals, to name a few problems. (Some have even gone so far to call them nu-metal, which is absolutely absurd, because nu-metal isn't even real metal - it's alternative metal with hip-hop/rap influences). So In Flames have brought a new album out, with "more guitar solos" and is "more upbeat." But the question still remains...are they the old In Flames, or the new? To be honest they've sort of combined the two sounds, as Anders described this album as a `best of In Flames.'

They are some strong moments in the album but also some weak. Firstly, when I think of the older In Flames, I think of well-constructed, highly melodic songs, such as Colony, Jotun, etc. Basically everything from the Jester Race to the Clayman era. These new songs don't really sound like that anymore. The harmonics between the guitars are not so strong, and don't interlock in a decent melody to remind me of the `Food for the Gods' music. On the whole the songs in the past were more epic, majestic and out of this world. Come Clarity presents a little more modernized songs. Secondly Anders voice hasn't really improved since STYE. It's not a proper death growl, unlike the other albums. It's more like a constrained scream. I'm not saying death screams aren't good, but they don't fit with In Flames' style. For example, Alexi Laiho has a high-pitched GROWL that goes well with Children of Bodom's music but Anders' SCREAM is too forced. Thirdly, some of the drumming gets out of control. Instead of the old blast beats, it's just a pounding overlay of noise. This can be felt most prominently in "Take this life", which also features Anders appalling screams. However a great solo slightly redeems the song.

Don't worry though. There are plenty of good aspects in the album: I'm only fussy because I'm a huge fan of their older stuff, and people who like both new and old, tend to agree their older material is more superficial and easily surpasses RTR and STYE. "Leeches" is a monster of a track. Only 2.55 minutes long, it bursts with energy the whole way through, including the 38-second solo. In has almost an Industrial sound to it, and a very catchy beat. "Reflect the storm" has the old In Flames classic style (albeit Anders voice).

Another good thing is that Anders clean vocals have definitely improved. On STYE his voice sounded strangled, but they are much better now. "Come Clarity" is a shocker. It sounds nothing like a melodic death metal song, but a slow but heavy power metal song. There is beautiful clean vocals, with Anders singing "I want you to lead me, take me somewhere, just don't want to live, in a dream one more day." This could hardly be called a `melodic DEATH metal song.' Especially with the lyrics.

"Pacing Death's Trail" has a very catchy beat, and is exactly like the old In Flames, lyrics, music, drumming and everything. Anders voice goes pretty well with this song.

"Crawl through knives", "Vacuum" "Versus Terminus" and "Our Infinite Struggle" all have `death growls/(screams)' for the verses but clean singing for their chorus.

An interesting song is "Dead End" which features the female vocals of Lisa Miskovsky. It fits rather well with the music, and chorus (clean singing by Anders), and contrasts vividly with the death screams.

A song to be wary of is "Scream." This is rubbish for In Flames' standards. In fact a mediocre band should be ashamed of producing such nonsense. Basically as far as the music goes think: Linkin Park. A cruel comparison, but when hearing the chorus it's exactly what it sounds like. Obviously it's a lot heavier, but it's just an embarrassment. The lyrics go like "I say scream, you scream. Scream, we scream but no one listens", with Anders literally screaming the words. Gah. Avoid at all costs. The song isn't even structured well; it's boring and annoying.

"Your bedtime story is scaring everyone" is a slow atmospheric long song to close the album. It's slightly pointless though. You get 3.45 minutes of scuffling noises, with a chord here and there, then Anders voice suddenly booms out and ends at 4.30 leaving some more scuffling noises.

In a nutshell: Anders clean singing voice is great; his growling is no longer a proper growl but a bark; Jesper and Bjorn play well, but they don't harmonise enough (except for a few old-sounding songs like "Dead end", which has the Godly harmonies); the bass is good, but the guitars cover the sound sometimes; and Daniel's drumming is good (epecially in "reflect the storm", but in some songs ("Take this life" and "scream") there's an excess of pounding instead of the well crafted blast bleats.

Now this may seem like a harsh review, but considering In Flames are my favourite band, I have very high expectations of them, and this is a review mainly to old-school fans. For a random band, this album would probably get 5 stars. To new fans of In Flames or melodic death metal, I'd advise you to get the first 5 albums first!