A Sense Of Purpose - In Flames

As any fan of In Flames would know, they've certainly deviated a lot from their original music in recent years. Whereas their first albums were "true" melodic death metal, the later few have much more of a commercial and accessible sound to them. "A Sense of Purpose" certainly continues this trend. Kicking off with "The Mirror's Truth," this song is mostly clean cut and has a very catchy chorus. In fact, "A Sense of Purpose" has definite similarities with Soilwork's latest effort, "Sworn to a Great Divide." This is very chorus-centered metal that follows a very mainstream approach but in my opinion can let the rest of the ...  Read the complete review

First off in this album fans will not be expecting anything like Clayman, but in their ninth album it's more of a mix from Come Clarity, and Reroute to Remain which ends up being a pretty refreshing turnout. A lot of old school In Flames fans don't appreciate the new taste or style that In Flames has developed. This album travels steady at a moderate tempo, but the tracks all differ in different harmonies provided by both guitarists which is really neat. Also another noticeable feature in this album is the keyboard synthesizers used which gives the complete sound in tracks such as The Mirror's Truth, and March To The Shore. This album does have shorter run ...  Read the complete review

In Flames aren't going to surprise anyone with their latest album, unless fans had been yearning in vain for a return to the sound of the olden days. The strain of melodic death metal present in the previous 'Soundtrack to Your Escape' and 'Come Clarity' is furthered here, and every aspect of the album, from its artwork to the angst-ridden lyrics and Ander Friden's vocal performance, seem reminiscent of a melodeath version of Korn. The songs here are all largely the same, making this far from exciting or novel. To its credit, it doesn't try too hard to be needlessly angry or cross over into metalcore territory, but even the attempts to diversify with something ...  Read the complete review