Clayman
| Clayman | ||||
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| Studio album by In Flames | ||||
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Publication |
2000 |
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| Label (s) | Nuclear Blast | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
43 min 39 s |
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| occupation | ||||
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Studio (s) |
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Clayman ( English for "clay man") is the fifth album by the Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames . The album was released by Nuclear Blast in 2000 .
History of origin
After Colony was completed , In Flames toured extensively, for example in the USA with Moonspell . The musicians saw the world and gained new impressions that demanded to be translated into music, which was not difficult given the perfect interaction with one another. In February 2000 he returned relatively quickly to Studio Fredman, where the recordings began under the direction of Frederik Nordström.
Keyboards , samples and drum loops were used more than on the cautiously experimental previous album . Christopher Amott of the band Arch Enemy plays a guitar solo on the song Suburban Me .
The cover artwork is based on Leonardo da Vinci's drawing The Vitruvian Man .
Music genre
With Clayman In Flames broke with their usual style, the new songs are more melodic and catchy than before. A synthesizer programmed by Charlie Storm is also used for the second time .
Frank Albrecht wrote in Rock Hard that In Flames had already used comprehensible melody lines, riffs from rock music , which sometimes ventured into unknown realms, and multi-faceted singing in real refrains have now been added . These made the pieces more individual than they were on Colony . For Patrick Schmidt ( inHard ) Clayman was the logical continuation of the path started with Colony : Death Metal had disappeared another bit, "clean vocals, calm, almost ballad-like interludes" and "harmonies influenced by traditional metal" would become a style somewhere between hardness or create aggressiveness and melody or calm poles. The concept is still loud, it says in Michael Schäfer's metal hammer album review, to bring together death metal and classic heavy metal "into a coherent whole". The electronics used could "be given a melody-leading task, for example in Only for the Weak or [...] wash down the organic basic structure with electronic star winds, of which an elegant trickle is usually perceptible". Partly softer guitars and sadder vocals would be added. The internet platform whiskey-soda.de describes the style as "mighty hard" and praises the vocal variations, the guitar presence and the song structure. Martin Popoff described the music on the album as classic Gothenburg death metal in his book The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 4: The '00s . Parallels to Moonspell and Children of Bodom can be heard in the songs . In addition, pop hard rock has been incorporated into the songs.
Andreas Stappert gave his first impression of Bullet Ride in Rock Hard : “After a true metallic introduction, the song , which is interspersed with many tempo changes and built on a kind of Led Zeppelin groove, turns into a very trendy sounding 'Spoken Word' part to finally explode in a brutal chorus typical of In Flames. ”On Pinball Map, he noted that the song attacked the listener quickly and brutally in its rawness and angularity, but then“ all of a sudden with a folky touch Running wild reminiscent refrain “surprise. The song Only for the Weak delighted him with "an enigmatic accompanying keyboard melody that gives it a completely unique flair". When asked about the catchiness and the title, Fridéns replied "smugly", inside the band he would be called " Metallica ". “ … As the Future Repeats reminds”, can be read in Stappert's report, “initially very much like Manowar , but then mutates into a medium-fast pounder in the usual style. At most a few spacey keyboard passages are surprising here. ”With Square Nothing, he noted the wistful vocals with an aggressive ending that had moved closer to the ballads . This “loud-quiet dynamic” is what is really fascinating about the piece. In Clayman , the death metal roots would emerge. Instead of a catchy melody, "massive riffing" is in the lead. In terms of content, it is about the lifelong shaping and influencing by people close to you as well as by people in the more distant daily environment. "I describe on the album how difficult it is nowadays to stand up for your opinion, because someone is constantly writing something for you," said Fridén in the previously given title explanation. According to Stappert, satellites and astronauts live “on a very calm basic atmosphere” and “reminds of HIM in terms of their singing and otherwise sounds like infinite space ”. Fridén's comment: “A few years ago a song like Satellites and Astronauts would have been absolutely unthinkable for us.” Stappert called Suburban Me a hymn contender with its “quiet speech passages combined with wild barking”, which is characteristic of the entire record.
On metal.de it is emphasized that there can be no talk of slower song structures in view of the predominantly "rapid melody runs and [...] driving drum parts". Pinball Map and Clayman stand for this statement. Mike Stagno considers the songs Only for the Weak and Pinball Map on sputnikmusic.com to be particularly sophisticated . The former is his personal favorite alongside the title track. The album consists mainly of hard passages, but also melodious ones, which unites the two guitarists particularly well in Swim and Suburban Me .
reception
In Rock Hard, Frank Albrecht gave what he believed to be a “formidable masterpiece” 9.5 out of 10 possible points. In the teaser of his following article, he said that the “awesome” album could be “an even bigger hit” by the Göteborg Sound co-developers. Since the rest of the editorial team held back in this regard, the album placed third on the new release table with an average score of 7.8.
The mixture of speed, melody and thoughtful aggressiveness is the best so far that In Flames has produced. Even the first notes cast a spell over the listener, who could come from the Queensrÿche , Arch Enemy or Satyricon corner, and promise constant energy output and lasting tension right through to the end, writes Matt Kantor on the Allmusic website . It was given 4 out of 5 stars.
For Michael Schäfer from Metal Hammer , the band occupies the top position in their genre, not least because he creates "that certain something" with them, and Clayman in turn beats Colony in his opinion despite the "bulkier" arrangement, because these ensured intensive occupation with the album. Thus 6 out of 7 possible points jumped out.
“That certain something” that he was missing from Colony also pleased the metal.de editor, who with his 9 points was also only one below the highest rating. Mike Stagno prefers The Jester Race and Colony to the 2000 album, but he still considers it to be an unparalleled listening pleasure that is worth 4 out of 5 possible points on the sputnikmusic scale. Clayman received grade “2” in the online music magazine Whiskey-Soda . Degree of hardness, versatility and catchiness make up a “refreshing mix”.
Martin Popoff criticized in his book The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal. Volume 4: The '00s the titles of the songs that sound like modern bad poetry to him, and he didn't like the lyrics themselves either. Otherwise, he had little to complain about the album and described it as a masterpiece, which he gave nine out of ten points.
In a success analysis carried out by Billboard magazine , it was said that Korn and Slipknot had broadened the listening habits of Americans and that In Flames, in turn, would favorably stand out from their extreme style.
The German magazine Visions had the album in their list of the 66 + 6 best metal albums of the third millennium in spring 2017.
Track list
- Bullet Ride - 4:42
- Pinball Map - 4:08
- Only for the Weak - 4:55
- ... As the Future Repeats Today - 3:27
- Square Nothing - 3:57
- Clayman - 3:28
- Satellites and Astronauts - 5:00
- Brush the Dust Away - 3:17
- Swim - 3:14
- Suburban Me - 3:35
- Another Day in Quicksand - 3:56
Republication
In 2005, the album was re-released by Nuclear Blast as a so-called "Deluxe edition". In addition to the eleven titles of the regular version, there are two bonus songs and a screen saver .
- Strong and Smart ( No Fun at All - Cover Version) - 2:22
- World of Promises ( Treat - Cover Version) - 3:49
Strong and Smart was previously only available on the Asian market socket .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Frank Albrecht: In Flames. Multi-mucker without a Kasper image . In: Rock Hard . No. 159 , August 2000, p. 64 f .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Andreas Stappert: In Flames. Nudist ping pong with cheese . In: Rock Hard . No. 156 , May 2000, bugging. Spied on at the mixer, p. 56 .
- ↑ a b c d Patrick Schmidt: In Flames. Getting into shape step by step . In: inHard . everything that makes noise! No. 17 or 18 (summer), 2000, p. ? .
- ↑ a b Frank Albrecht: In Flames. Clayman . In: Rock Hard . No. 158 , July 2000, dynamite. The cracker of the month and the ass bomb, p. 83 .
- ↑ a b Michael Schäfer: In Flames. Clayman . In: Metal Hammer . July 2000, Reviews, p. 96 .
- ↑ a b Soda: In Flames. Clayman. (No longer available online.) In: whiskey-soda.de. Archived from the original on November 12, 2014 ; accessed on May 8, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b Martin Popoff , David Perri: The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 4: The '00s . Collectors Guide Ltd, Burlington, Ontario, Canada 2011, ISBN 978-1-926592-20-6 , pp. 233 .
- ↑ a b In Flames. "Clayman". In: metal.de. June 19, 2000, accessed May 8, 2015 .
- ↑ a b Mike Stagno: In Flames. Clayman. In: sputnikmusic.com. November 21, 2006, accessed May 8, 2015 .
- ↑ The judgment 07/2000 . In: Rock Hard . No. 158 , July 2000, Richter scale, p. 80 f .
- ↑ Matt Kantor: In Flames. Clayman. In: allmusic.com. Retrieved May 8, 2015 .
- ↑ Clay Marshall: In Flames' 'Reroute to Remain' Marks Evolution. 'Melodic Death' Act Promoting Latest Nuclear Blast Set On Slayer Jaunt . In: Billboard . August 17, 2002, Artists & Music, p. 17 .
- ↑ oA: The 66 + 6 best metal albums of the millennium . In: Visions , issue 289, pages 52–66.
