In Flames
A Sense Of Purpose

This is what happens when a band loses its class, its inspiration, when they try to ride the wave of success, or embark on musical paths that have nothing to do with their artistic history.

A descending trajectory is what describes InFlames, creators of melodic death masterpieces like "Whoracle," "Clayman," or "Colony." Here we are faced with a band that since turning towards more mainstream paths, has lost its senses. Comparisons with the previous "Soundtrack to Your Escape," "Reroute to Remain," or that glimmer of light that was "Come Clarity," abound. Those three albums, compared to this new and utterly banal "A Sense of Purpose," seem like musical pearls, they seem extraordinarily inspired. There is nothing to be done for InFlames: abandoning the harsh and anguished growls, what remains is a strangled voice that reminds me of the worst of Linkin Park, and the melodic openings are heartbreakingly banal, as are the riffs or the drum rhythms.

Where is that drumming that thrilled me in the band's early records, or even, and I say this blasphemously, in songs like "Take This Life" from the previous album? The drumming is feeble, while the guitars do mediocre work, worthy of a new nu-metal band that might be played on MTV. The cover itself is uniquely ugly.

Nothing remains of the old and glorious In Flames and right from the start of the album, we notice the incredible blunders: "The Mirror's Truth" and "Disconnected" are only apparently intense, leaving wide spaces for melodies which I will now refer to as fan-catching. And yes, because these are the classic tracks that attract new fans, perhaps younger ones, who hear in these heavy riffs the new cool and super cool band without knowing anything about the glorious musical past of these Swedes. "Sleepless Again" starts with an acoustic guitar arpeggio that doesn’t fit with the progression of the song. It's pointless to have an acoustic intro if the rest of the track is completely distorted. "Alias" is over-done, "I'm the Highway" is recycled.

There's a lack of incisiveness, as well as any working idea in this album: the continuous melodic openings of "Delight and Angers" or "Sober and Irrelevant" have now become unbearably annoying. Not even the small and hinted ballad "The Chosen Pessimist" is saved, which occasionally makes me consider "Come Clarity" a masterpiece. The album closes poorly with "Drenched in Fear" and the pathetic "March to the Shore." An unprecedented ordeal for me.

I can't redeem anything from this album. A mediocre album from every perspective. Maybe I'm being harsh because you expect so much more from certain bands. But a band like theirs that has given so much to a musical scene, I hope at least remains within certain standards of decency, a bit like Dark Tranquillity does, which follows a standard by renewing itself slightly, or at least, by experimenting just enough to make an album interesting.

There is no experimentation here; they change entirely, a band that used to be someone in the extreme scene is now just a group playing at being stars. This album isn't even interesting because listening to the first riff of each song makes it evident what kind of stale air it carries, besides all being the same. A consumed air.

I say goodbye to In Flames. But the real ones. These are not the In Flames that I adored and that will not return anymore.