Style: Melodic death metal, melodeth
Primary Emotions/Themes: Return to form, respecting where you came from, betterment of self
Thoughts: At what point did In Flames lose it? I have no idea how a band that started out so incredibly good could degrade and erode over time until you're left with albums like Battles or Siren Charms... just unalienable garbage. Come Clarity is the last album that In Flames put out that I consider good, not great, but solid - something that is worthy of their history.
When this one came out I had zero expectations. Soundtrack To Your Escape and Reroute to Remain were lackluster at very best and downright bad at their worst. You have some stellar songs like My Sweet Shadow but one to two songs does not a good album make. It's the exception rather than the rule.
Come Clarity is almost prophetic in it's naming. It's almost like the band saw where they were going, had a moment of clarity and decided "Fuck it, let's bring back the leads and harmonies." I for one am very glad that they did, Come Clarity has some truly excellent songs on it. Some duds regardless, but most of the album is solid as a rock.
The opener Take This Life bursts in with an energy that the band hasn't had since... Colony? I'm not sure but it's been a while. After the opening riff the band teases us with a small little "In Flames" riff. What is left over from Soundtrack and Reroute is the production, this is loud and in your face. The drums are pushed way forward and have a lot of punch to them. They are produced forward but they aren't sloppy and they don't dominate the mix despite how noticeable they are.
As Take This Life continues we hit the instrumental section, this is where things become clear. The band is embracing their modern sound with the harmonies and melodies from the past. This instrumental section is vintage In Flames, the leads, the guitars harmonizing off of each other. It's glorious.
Another clear highlight of the album is Dead End. While the verse is a bit on the weak side the inclusion of female vocals is a nice surprise but it's nothing compared to when the band truly lets loose in the instrumental. This one is something special, the closest the band has come to sounding anything off of the first three albums in forever. This is the shit I crave from this band, even though it's 30 seconds long when I first heard it I got goosebumps. Fucking amazing riff.
There's similarly good moments scattered throughout the album. The acoustic driven title track shows that Anders can indeed sing clean without being super annoying. Vanishing light is an upbeat track that is super fun to drive to. Versus Terminus is a heavy mother fucker that still retains that In Flames feel.
This is the last album in their discography that I have strong positive feelings about. The albums that came after this have decent moments, a song here or there (A New Dawn fucking kicks ass)... but this was the last one where I felt that the whole album was well above average. I haven't given the new album as much of a chance as maybe I should, I've heard that there are a couple of tracks that bring back the old days. Lets hope that that will be the second album post the golden years that I think is worth the In Flames name.
Written February 2nd 2024
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