Clayman is an album I've been listening to for 3 years and it is still one of my favorite albums ever to listen to. Although The Jester Race is my favorite album, this is my 2nd favorite album from the band. So the first thing that comes to mind is what makes this beat the other 5 albums that In Flames has created (not including Lunar Strain/ Subterranean since the band wasn't really In Flames back then it was Dark Tranquility except with one In Flames member and one less DT member). Well it would have been just a plain album, maybe about as plain as Reroute To Remain if there wasn't just one thing in it. The sound effects. Thanks to the sound effects, the bass has been edited to make it sound explosively amazing. Not only that but the vocalist's voice gets edited into a better sound with the editing. Thanks to this editing the album sounds like your normal In Flames except a lot more chaotic and heavier. Not only that but the guitar work off this album is phenominal. Jester had a lot of great ideas obviously for this album and the guest guitarist off the song Suburban Me was just plain awesome also. Some of the band's best work is off of this album like the metal anthem Only For The Weak and the Opethish sounding Bullet Ride. Although not one of the bigger hits my favorite off the album was Another Day In The Quicksand. The solo off that song to me was worth the entire album in itself and beats just about every solo Metallica has ever done. But anyways if you care I will give you a quick run down on all of the songs. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1. Bullet Ride: An absolutely amazing song that made my heart almost stoped when I first heard it. One of the best off the album. 10/10 (third favorite)
2. Pinball Map: Good song. Sorta sounds like Bullet Ride but has a more thumpish feeling to it instead of the Opethish guitar feelings. Certainly not as good as the before song though. 8/10
3. Only For The Weak: Known as a metal anthem, this song is definitly one of the best songs off the album, but it's not a favorite. The whiny vocals is an additional minus for me but still it deserves a 10 because of how... amazing the instrumentation is. Slow and boomy. 10/10
4. ...As The Future Repeats Today: Another great song. Feels like I'm going through a time demension while I listen to this song. Time demension to hell. 10/10
5. Square Nothing: I have to be in the right mood to listen to this due to the soft accoustic begginings. Still the song picks up later on and it sounds really good. Absolutely love it. 9/10
6. Clayman: Good song, really like the vocalization somewhere later on in the song, Anders voice gets edited. The bass is also edited here to enhance the coolness of this song (hey my name is Clay haha!!) 8/10
7. Satelites And Astronauts: This would beeee... one of my favorites. Absolutely amazing and there's something about this song that makes it not get as old as fast. The lyrics are probably some of the best lyrics the band has done. The rhythm is very nice but it is not spacy like so don't get confused by the song's name. 10/10 (2nd favorite)
8. Brush The Dust Away: May take awhile to grow on you. This song is very heavy and doesn't let up. You can tell Anders hobby as a card player is getting shown in the lyrics here. 9/10
9. Swim: I hate this song. Others may love it but I never liked this song from the first time I listened to it to the most recent time which was today. 3/10
10. Suburban Me: Great song. A guest guitarist (forgot his name) makes an appearance here. The guitarist is about as good as Jester if you ask me off this song. 9/10
11. Another Day In Quicksand: Absolutely my favorite off this album. It starts off with an awesome guitar rift. Then followed by some heavier guitars with Anders adding in his vocals. The song never lets up in variety then soon comes the epic solo. This solo is so good I cried over it actually. Definitly worth a listen, it will turn someone not an In Flames fan right into one guranteed. 10/10 (my favorite)
If you get the limited edition (yes the album was a big enough success to come out with a limited edition) then you'll get two brand new songs. One was horrible called Strong And Smart and gets a 1/10 not even worth explaining.Easily my least favorite. The other one World Or Promises has a very catchy chorus and a very different guitar rhythm compared to the other songs. Still it sounds like something you'd hear off Clayman and is still very awesome. 10/10
Awesome album. What else is there to say about it other than just two bad songs to mention. The rest are metal goodness and some others might even like the song Swim (ran into people who like it on the forums). The only other fault I can think up of is you can't really hear the drums off the album. But still the excellent bass quality makes up for it. You'll hardly hear any bass off a metal album now adays. So yes this is worth getting. Any true metal fan should have listened to this album in it's entirety by now.
1. Bullet Ride: An absolutely amazing song that made my heart almost stoped when I first heard it. One of the best off the album. 10/10 (third favorite)
2. Pinball Map: Good song. Sorta sounds like Bullet Ride but has a more thumpish feeling to it instead of the Opethish guitar feelings. Certainly not as good as the before song though. 8/10
3. Only For The Weak: Known as a metal anthem, this song is definitly one of the best songs off the album, but it's not a favorite. The whiny vocals is an additional minus for me but still it deserves a 10 because of how... amazing the instrumentation is. Slow and boomy. 10/10
4. ...As The Future Repeats Today: Another great song. Feels like I'm going through a time demension while I listen to this song. Time demension to hell. 10/10
5. Square Nothing: I have to be in the right mood to listen to this due to the soft accoustic begginings. Still the song picks up later on and it sounds really good. Absolutely love it. 9/10
6. Clayman: Good song, really like the vocalization somewhere later on in the song, Anders voice gets edited. The bass is also edited here to enhance the coolness of this song (hey my name is Clay haha!!) 8/10
7. Satelites And Astronauts: This would beeee... one of my favorites. Absolutely amazing and there's something about this song that makes it not get as old as fast. The lyrics are probably some of the best lyrics the band has done. The rhythm is very nice but it is not spacy like so don't get confused by the song's name. 10/10 (2nd favorite)
8. Brush The Dust Away: May take awhile to grow on you. This song is very heavy and doesn't let up. You can tell Anders hobby as a card player is getting shown in the lyrics here. 9/10
9. Swim: I hate this song. Others may love it but I never liked this song from the first time I listened to it to the most recent time which was today. 3/10
10. Suburban Me: Great song. A guest guitarist (forgot his name) makes an appearance here. The guitarist is about as good as Jester if you ask me off this song. 9/10
11. Another Day In Quicksand: Absolutely my favorite off this album. It starts off with an awesome guitar rift. Then followed by some heavier guitars with Anders adding in his vocals. The song never lets up in variety then soon comes the epic solo. This solo is so good I cried over it actually. Definitly worth a listen, it will turn someone not an In Flames fan right into one guranteed. 10/10 (my favorite)
If you get the limited edition (yes the album was a big enough success to come out with a limited edition) then you'll get two brand new songs. One was horrible called Strong And Smart and gets a 1/10 not even worth explaining.Easily my least favorite. The other one World Or Promises has a very catchy chorus and a very different guitar rhythm compared to the other songs. Still it sounds like something you'd hear off Clayman and is still very awesome. 10/10
Awesome album. What else is there to say about it other than just two bad songs to mention. The rest are metal goodness and some others might even like the song Swim (ran into people who like it on the forums). The only other fault I can think up of is you can't really hear the drums off the album. But still the excellent bass quality makes up for it. You'll hardly hear any bass off a metal album now adays. So yes this is worth getting. Any true metal fan should have listened to this album in it's entirety by now.
