Customer Reviews

Come Clarity

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

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.

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!

In their latest album, In Flames has managed to somewhat successfully blend their sound from pre-"Reroute to Remain" albums with good aspects of their newer material. The lyrics are much better than their last two albums, although I have to say they have lost some of their edge from earlier albums. Their last album was not even Death Metal, and was mediocre at best. Although they cannot be compared to their rivals in Swedish Metal, most starkly Dark Tranquillity, they have managed to find 'clarity' in their sound again. For this, I do commend them. If you love Death Metal and heavy music in general, this should be midway down you list of things to buy.

IN FLAMES - Come Clarity
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Coming off their last releases: Reroute to Remain + Soundtrack to your Escape many fans were left wondering what was next.... To be honest I was worried. Let me tell you all to Stop Worrying!
COME CLARITY is able to blend the best of later day In Flames' experimental sound with the raw-aggression that made Colony such an amazing CD. I had felt that both `Reroute' and `Soundtrack' had some alright tracks but they also had too many experimental nu-metal tracks filled with lots of Clean singing... (And sadly each album had only a handful of songs that really sounded like In Flames. The rest were just too `out there' for what fans had come to expect.) I believe this album is what the band was really aiming for after Clayman.
I know it's hard to look forward with a band when they change directions you really can't expect another `Jester's Race', `Whoracle' or even another `Colony'... But in comparison to their last 2 albums this is a definite step towards progression. This is album is littered with catchy sing along Choruses (Which actually sound great...) and powerful hard-driven melodic riffs. Anders clean voice has never sounded better and his growls are more ferocious than ever. The rest of the band is, as always, amazing... Few bands can compete with their Musicianship and overall Song Writing.
Finally it seems as though the band returned to form and I, for one, could not be happier....
[Can't wait to see them February 21st in Toronto!]
Favorite Songs: Take This Life, Pacing Deaths Trail, Versus Terminus and Vanishing Light.
-4.25


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Yes, this CD is different than their prior albums. Maybe it has to do with a new recording company, maybe it has to do with the emerging popularity of screamo, or maybe it is just their newer sound. Whatever it is, it is definitely different than their prior albums.

Now that we cleared that up, let's get on with the review. This is their best album to date. Honestly. The vocals are clean, understandable, and meaningful. The guitars shred and the melding of Lisa Miskovsky's voice with the normal vocals is an interesting twist (try "Dead End" to hear this).

Ignore the other people who bash this CD as selling out or criticize In Flames for changing. The very same people would have criticized them if they had made the same record they've made again and again for being repititive.

"Come Clarity", the latest album by the highly influential Gothenburg melodic metal act In Flames, is a strong album that mixes both their modern and older sound very nice. It's a good recovery album after the mediocrity of "Soundtrack To Your Escape", which only had a few highlights and nothing more.

"Take This Life", the first single of this album, shows promise. With staccato riffage in the beginning and a more dynamic sound, it got me looking into this album. Other tracks such as "Leeches" and "Crawl Through Knives" show off more spectacular work from this band. "Come Clarity" was a surpise for me, though, as it was more of a ballad. The only thing that the band could improve on more is the clean singing. However, if you're not a vocalist purist, you may be able to get by it.

Overall, this album gets a 4. The band has not lost hope, but this disc doesn't have the band going back to the "Lunar Strain" and "The Jester Race" anytime soon. Recommended for something original.

After listening to this album multiple times, I have come to the conclusion that In Flames have returned to form. I must admit, Soundtrack to Your Escape and Reroute To Remain were not well accepted and they were not the best musically. Everyone knows Whoricle, Colony, and Clayman are some of In Flames best work, but Come Clarity is a nice mix of the new and old styles of In Flames. And what is the coolest about this, is that it works, and works well. The riffs are heavier, the solos are screaming, the lyrics are better, and vocals are stronger, and the drummer is great, and the electronics dont overshadow. When In Flames experimented with their sound they didnt really get the recognition they hoped. But everyone needs to understand that a band cant just keep making albums that sound the same because it gets boring. By experimenting, the band gets to try and create a more evolved sound. In terms of In Flames, it took them a few tries, but they have finally found their evolved sound. Yes, their older albums are amazing, and their newer ones are a little less appealing, but come clarity is a perfect mix of both sounds. I recomend that every fan of In Flames gives this one a listen. It is well worth it, and you will not be dissapointed. The special addition is also really cool, and you will really enjoy the bonus dvd. I must also say that the artwork on this album is outstanding, and it alone is reason to give it a listen. In conclusion, In Flames are back, and here to stay.

This is a fast paced super sick cd. All the tracks are fierce and unrelenting. Again this band has made a perfect Album. In my opinion is the best since Clayman!!!

Take This Life, Vacuum, and Crawl Through Knives!!!!
SICK SICK SICK!!!!!!

GET THIS CD!!!!!!!

10/10 FIVE STARS*****

There may be nothing worse for a metalhead than hearing a favorite band go pop. Sweden's In Flames was one of the most respected acts in death metal, having emerged terra firma with The Jester Race in 1995 and steadily releasing solid albums thereafter. But then the band got a little too big for their britches, and when 2002's Reroute to Remain came out, it drew comparisons to Linkin Park and left purists slack-jawed in horror. Rather than try to win back their core audience, however, the band clung to their hopes and released their second radio-ready cherry bomb in a row--Soundtrack to Your Escape. For all but the most faithful, the future of In Flames looked bleak.

Of course, the trade-off of mainstream dilution is a wider audience, and their swerve toward pop culture granted them the exposure that allowed their incredible new album, Come Clarity, to be heard by people like you and me. They landed a premier spot at last summer's Ozzfest, and Come Clarity debuted on the U.S. Billboard charts at a whopping #58. The album was even reviewed by Pitchfork, the likes of which doesn't come near death metal with a ten-foot pole. As they say, three times a charm, and while Come Clarity won't pick up all the pieces of their shattered fan base, it thankfully finds the band moving back toward the melodic death metal that made them a hit.

When I say that Come Clarity is melodic, I mean it. Even the most skull-crushing riffs are quite tuneful, and as catchy as the limitations of death metal will allow. So, while vitriol-soaked thrashers like "Take This Life" and "Versus Terminus" will blow your ears clean off your head, they won't make them bleed. That principle lies at the core of the "Gothenburg sound"--a Swedish death metal subtype whose bands wrote songs-with-a-capital-S while working within metallic boundaries. These are songs, without a doubt; almost all employ bridges, boast killer choruses and end up around the three-and-a-half minute mark. I would call Come Clarity metallic pop if the term didn't make me think of Whitesnake, so let's call it death metal for beginners.

Despite the added melodicism, and the band's country of origin, Come Clarity isn't very "Scandinavian." The lofty, classically-influenced lead guitar is present, but their new label treats them like a hardcore band, shifting the focus to the chunky, earth-shaking rhythm guitar. Vocals run the gamut from a throaty, mid-range death growl to soaring, beautifully introspective alterna-rock bellows. Finally, there are none of those preening keyboards to hijack the rock; Come Clarity lets the bass, drums, and dueling guitars do all the talking.

A typical winter in Sweden is a little like being assaulted with 10,000 snowballs at once. The harshness of the winter months tends to influence the bulk of Scandinavian metal, but In Flames is more concerned with creating electricity, and you get the feeling that they would be much happier if the earth exploded than if it froze over. While their heavy metal brethren often set their sights on hell or the tops of castle towers, In Flames keep their music strictly earthbound.

Old fans may be hesitant to embrace Come Clarity because, even with the Judas Priest influence in tow, it still contains a healthy dose of nu-metal in the vocals and riffs. Grumble and seethe they may, but much of the Swedish death metal that saw its greatest days in the `90s is now beginning to show wrinkles. Come Clarity refreshingly extracts the best from both camps and fuses them into one cogent, powerful, challenging and electrifying statement of purpose. We desperately need albums like this--ones that are easy to access but never pander, and mold marginalized music into something that just about anybody can enjoy.