Originally, I wasn’t going to review this. I was originally not even going to listen to this, but rather pretend it didn’t exist and that a mythical "Whoracle 2: The Fellowship of the Two Decent Gothenburg Kings’ Return" was forever in development hell and that is why there were no new good In Flames albums. After the abortions that were Reroute to Remain and Soundtrack to Your Escape, I had entirely written off any possibility of there being another good In Flames album. Hell, even looking at the track listing to their live album Used " Abused- In Live We Trust made me wince with pain. However, Nuclear Blast Records are tricky little devils.

See, if anyone has been paying attention to that label for the last 3 years, one thing becomes drastically apparent: they love blowing FAT wads of cash on releasing their bigger bands’ albums. Anyone remember the release of Dimmu Borgir’s Death Cult Armageddon? No, not the Ozzfest rerelease; think further back, asshat. When they released it, they released several versions: the jewel case, the digipak, the metal notebook (yes, a notebook comprised of metal binding, metal covers, and metal fucking pages with the cd in back), and the mail-order only 8 lb. military box set (complete with cloth shit, trading cards, dog tag number and lock, and that fucking notebook I mentioned). In Flames‘ Soundtrack to Your Escape got a jewel case, a digipak, and got a wooden box set with album plus a bunch of CD-R’s of limited unheard recordings. They even pulled the same shit with Exodus‘ Shovel-Headed Kill Machine and sister label Century Media did the same on Shadows Fall’s The Art of War. Now, of course it’s easy to write off this crap as expensive marketing, but in some cases there’s cool shit to be had (i.e. Discordance Axis‘ box set version of The Inalienable Dreamless).

So what fiendish plot has the evil label laid out that would force me to listen to the new In Flames? Get this: a plexiglass cube. They made 1000 editions of a clear plexiglass cube that houses everything from the digipak release of the album. Holy mother of titty-fucking, cum guzzling Christ, that is fucking cool. Since I had a promo copy of Come Clarity lying around, I figured, "Hey! I can give it a test run and see if it’s only minorly shitty enough (like the albums in between Whoracle and Reroute to Remain) to warrant me blowing some cash." Oh, these are the best laid plans of mice and men.

So here we are. I’m now reviewing Come Clarity in hope beyond hope that it isn’t utter shit and that I can get myself a shiny plexiglass cube that I can throw at people while screaming the lyrics to "Jotun". Alas, the plexiglass cube is out of my reach… far out of my reach. Fuck you In Flames, fuck you.

To begin, this isn’t an In Flames album. Oh no, I don’t mean as in it not being an In Flames album in the sense that the last two albums haven’t. I mean this isn’t an In Flames album at all, including the shitfests Reroute to Remain and Soundtrack to Your Escape. Those albums, while being nothing like the rest of In Flames‘ discography, at least looked like they had In Flames‘ members playing them. There’s very little in here to make you think you’re hearing In Flames outside of Anders’ vocals… and even then it sounds like he is imitating someone else.

So what are we actually hearing on this album? We are listening to a sexually confused Soilwork as manned by menstruating 14 year-old bipolar girls from the galaxy Hot Topic, who are currently being bombarded by intergalactic nu metal anal missiles. While that sure is a lot of hyperbole, it’s dead accurate. A good 7/8 of this material sounds like a mongoloid rehashing of Natural Born Chaos-era Soilwork that is reworked with the occasional Avenged Sevenfold melodic part or generic sappy feminine nu metal ballad here or there. Even Anders is starting to sound less like himself and more like Speed from Soilwork. Now I’m sure some apologists will contend that there has always been some similarities between the two bands, but those older times still had two distinct sounds; here, the distinction is all but gone. In the entire time I listened I counted 3 times and only 3 times where I heard an honest to God In Flames riff (the songs "Dead End", "Pacing Death’s Trail", and "Our Infinite Struggle"). The rest sounded just like poorly executed Soilwork, right down to the melodic mid-speed solos, with the additional nu metal mentalities In Flames picked up on the last two albums.

Then there are the additional gripes. You have the misplaced female vocals accompanying Anders on "Dead End" that don’t even match the song or mesh very well with what is trying to be achieved. Let’s not also forget about "Scream", a song Michael and Janet Jackson could pull off infinitely better and, no, it’s not a cover of their song. While some people don’t care about lyrics, this song will make them reconsider. Ever hear a "metal" song whose lyrics are serious yet sound like they could have been entirely derived from the childhood catchphrase "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!"? Yepper, that’s "Scream". While I’m sure a lot of people will cite that metal songs have never been particularly poetic, all I have to do is point them over to St. Anger and go, "In comparison to that? In light of that album, most metal lyrics are fucking Shakespeare." We got St. Anger-quality writing here on Come Clarity and it sure as hell ain’t pretty.

Do not buy this album. Do not accept this album as a gift. Do not accept this album as payment for a loan or debt. Do not buy a digipak version, and most definitely do not buy the plexiglass cube version. I don’t care if someone offers it to you for free with $100, don’t take it. Even if Anders himself were to get Jenna Jameson or Belladonna (with the broken ass smile) to suck you off, DO NOT GET THIS ALBUM. Buying Come Clarity only encourages In Flames to put out shit after shit. If you see someone buy this shit, smack them. If you get the urge to buy it, go whiz on an electric fence. But for the love of all that is holy, stay the flying fuck away from Come Clarity.



Written By: Necro-tron