What a lovely can of worms.
This has been gnawing away at the back of my mind for the last few days now. For me, this debate raises alot of other questions beyond whether or not this albums is "good" or not. If one will step back a moment, and consider the cyclical nature of music, a bigger picture just might come into focus.
Within the last year or two we have seen releases from established metal heavyweights such as Arch Enemy, Children of Bodom, Soilwork, In Flames, and others met with utter contempt. All have had nearly identical complaints. Accusations of "selling out" and "going commercial" are all over the place. What all of these bands have in common is achieving critically acclaimed land mark albums early on in their careers and then having people get more and more discontent with each following release.
But this is the SAME song and dance that took place about a decade ago.
Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth.....very similair stories. These bands came out swinging and changed the course of metal history forever. That is an undeniable fact that could also apply to most of the bands mentioned above. But what happens to these guys? Do they get old or slow down? Does it really become about money? Do they just lose touch? I don't know. It's not my place to say. It's not ANYONE IN THIS FORUM'S place to say why these bands go the directions that they do.
My question is this: If you were ever a genuine fan of any of these guys, if any of their albums at one point made you stand up and bang your head and scream and curse and make you glad to be alive at that place in time, if you went to their concerts and had the time of your life, how could you possibly turn around and mercilessles rip into them later on, regardless of what they had done?
The reason I ask this is because people who post about how bad the last few In Flames albums are almost ALWAYS add something about how the old albums were so much better and how great they "used to be." If I am a fan, and the band I like starts doing different things and changing their music in ways I don't like, I simply don't buy it and walk away. But I could never even fathom calling them sell outs and telling other people they are shit and not to buy their albums.
But then that's the difference between a genuine fan, and someone who simply took the first few albums that EVERYBODY ELSE LIKED and holds them up as an unreasonable artisitic standard. I wouldn't be so annoyed by the people who are mad at In Flames for changing their style, if it wasn't for the fact that they've had
years to get over it. Jesus, pick a new band already and stop ejaculating all over your copy of Jester Race.
Despite the people lining up to give Jason a blow job, I thought just reviewing the album would have been nice.
Quote:
So, you honestly think this is a perfect album?
In the context of combining the heaviness and experimentation of Soundtrack, with the brand of melodic death In Flames is famous for, this albums is just about perfect. It is immediately modern, yet there is no mistaking who it is. The screams have never been harsher, and the riffs have never been heavier. I'm not going to blame anyone for hating the clean vocals, I happen to welcome the change. What was so sorely missing from Sountrack was some enthusiasm, but In Flames has never felt as energetic as they do in Come Clarity. You may not like the music, but at least it doesn't feel insincere or half hearted.
I do have a few gripes however. Mostly the last song, "Your Bed Time Story is Scaring Everyone," I was so glad to hear a piano piece in the album but it ends up as little more than a glorified outro, when it seemed like it could have been developed into a full fledged song. And the cover illustration is very juvenile, especially compared to past covers. It didn't help that they put the little sketchy heart man all over the lyrics sheet as well. It looks like something I would sketch in my diary if I were a 14 year old girl. Overall though, my faith in this band is totally restored.
Oh and saying that people shouldn't rate this album high because the older albums are better is rediculous because you are assuming that everyone likes the albums in the same order you do. If someone wants to rate this album as 0 with utterly no listening value whatsoever, than it seems reasonable enough for me to rate it 100.
