After the greatness I heard on Colony I was expecting quite a lot from In Flames on this release. They didn't let me down one bit. The style here is nothing new to In Flames fans, but they are doing a better job here than ever. Everything comes together here to form a great melodic death metal cd from start to finish. There are no weak tracks on the entire cd! The leads are awesome as usual and the solos are god-like. One track I am particularily impressed with is Only For The Weak. Even though it is not very fast or aggressive it still manages to smash your face in with pure heavyness! Every song on here offers you something to be amazed with. Clayman is definately one of the best releases so far this year.
This is, without a doubt, one of the best melodic-death metal cd's I have ever heard. The music itself reminds me of Iced Earth and Iron Maiden, but is heavier than both. The vocals range from traditional death screams to softer melodic singing. The variety in this cd is what really makes it stick out. One minute they will be playing an incredibly heavy riff like there is no tommorrow and then all of a sudden they jump into an awesome acoustic passage that really pulls you in and mezmorises you. The best example of this is on Zombie Inc., which one of the best songs on here. It has a great central riff, an astounding acoustic part, and then finally a fantastic solo. Many of the other songs on here also kick lots ass such as Ordinary Story, Behind Space '99, and Coerced Existince. Another really great song on here is Pallar Anders Visa. Even though it has no lyrics and barely clocks in at over a minute, it has one of the best acoustic melodies I have ever heard. There really aren't any bad songs on this cd, there are just a few that don't measure up to the greatness of the rest of this cd. Overall though, this a great cd for anyone who loves to hear true masters of music at work.