Music Box | In Flames

Mike Newmark Assistant Arts Editor

In Flames
Come Clarity
[Ferret Music]
4.5 stars out of 5

There may be nothing more devastating 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 the band got a little too big for their britches, and when Reroute to Remain came out in 2002, it drew comparisons to Linkin Park and left purists slack-jawed in horror. Rather than trying 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 number 58. The album was even reviewed by Pitchfork, the likes of which doesn’t come near death metal with a ten-foot pole. Third time’s the 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. Jesper Stromblad’s 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 harsh cold 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 earth bound.

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 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 ones that mold marginalized music into something that just about anybody can enjoy.