Reasons Why "Clayman" May Be the Best Album for Swedish Band "in Flames"

In the long history of Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames (since 1990) their ability to excite, entertain, and innovate themselves as a band has been a few keys to their survival. Their 2000 studio album "ClayMan" may be their best album. With the first song Bullet Ride, we witness the band’s innovation right away as the acoustic parts are blended in to create just the right amount of creativity. The song is about being ready for the fast ride called life itself. Cowardice will take a person back to the end, the starting point where life begins. The world is here for us to show our abilities, talents, and skills. The next song called Pinball Map features some fast, rough vocals by Anders Friden. The song called Pinball Map is a song about someone that has lost their sense of the “sweet things” or the things that he once enjoyed doing. He only has a brief glimpse of joy only to return to his usual shriveled and destroyed self. I see the Arch Enemy influence in this song. How far can In Flames go in terms of greatness? Even albums such as Reroute to Remain are pretty darn good even when their style has changed slightly.

In a way, the album addresses the concept of depression even if the band doesn’t literally bring up that term. A depressed person may feel very guilty when they see a person laugh and express joy. They (the depressed person does not seem to want any sympathy or do they)? The concept continues in the song ...As the Future Repeats Today. The person who is struggling to find better days in his life he has lost the faith that he once had and he feels like he will become a dissolved mess. The song Square Nothing addresses pretty much the same concept of the previous two songs. A person that has lost their sense of direction in life knows that he cannot allow it to slip through his fingers. The song also has some modern feel to it with the acoustic guitar as the band slowly would start to move away from their old style of melodic death metal. They have moved away from the keyboard and instrumental driven style of their first two albums and combined the modern feel with the same impressive melodies.

The style change with the melodies still intact is the third major reason why ClayMan may be the band’s best album. The impressive melody driven song called Satellites and Astronauts has been my favorite song for the past three days as I have tried to establish a sense of normalcy given the political climate was in the US in 2017. This song may take your mind off it in a while as you hear one of Sweden’s best metal bands show their awesomeness once again. The song called Brush the Dust Away is actually about what can happen to people who turn to gangs out of desperation. It is better to change course and live a life that has a prosperous future where we can be admired by people around the world. The song Suburban Me is about a person that wakes up and cannot see that he is apathetic, not caring about his life, yet he does not like what he currently sees. If you don’t like how you currently feel or the reality that you are currently experiencing, take a look at this brilliant album called ClayMan that has no bad songs as even the weaker songs are still good.