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CLAY MAN
In Flames
(Nuclear Blast)
Congratulations to In Flames for being the 1,000,000th band to start their disc with the most cliche sound effect of the CD age -- the scratch of a phonograph needle dropping onto an LP. Although, we will admit that in their case, it makes perfect sense. Clay Man, their eighth album, is a set of gothy, melodic metal straight from the leather-and-studs days of the pre-CD '80s. Kudos also to singer Anders Friden, who has the sort of demonic tone that presumably comes from filling his Water Pik with Drano. Even better, we can barely make our a word he's saying -- and he's singing in English! (At least we think so.) Anyway, we must admit, it all fits quite nicely with the band's industrious sound, which attempts to conjure up 17 varieties of subterranean demons with a furious, blood-letting offering of intricate riffage and blistering pounding. So we'll let the cliche sound effects slide. As long as they don't start their next disc with the sound of a motorcycle revving.
Saturday, August 5, 2000
In Flames go goth
Winnipeg Sun