In Flames - Come Clarity Review

So In Flames had just left us with two stale releases which, although hated by the hardcore fans, they were gaining them massive popularity amongst the mainstream scene. Now im the first to admit Reroute to Remain wasnt that bad (although flawed as you'll see down below) but Soundtrack to Your Escape was just terrible.
So what would the mighty In Flames do next. Well ill tell you what they did. Instead of selling out and making another crap album they made Come Clarity which you tell by the name and the cover art that the album has been taken more seriously. That said this is not the sound of old In Flames. What it is is the sound of a band having an Identity crisis. On some parts of the albums they sound like their trying to be very hardcore Black Metal and on other parts they sound like the new experimental In Flames we're starting to get used to. Still at no point on this album do they sound like the old In Flames that we know and love. Though I will commend them for trying and being more hardcore with the Black Metal stuff unfortunatley its that stuff that just doesnt often work on this album. An example I like to use is the first song Take This Life. This is an amazing song and it merges the two In Flames styles perfectly. Heck if every track on the album was this good the album could be their best. But unfortunatley its not. Most of the other songs lean to heavily in one direction or the other and sometimes the Black Metal influences are just to harsh. Sometimes the Nu-Metal influences sneak back in and it never really meshes. The album just isnt that cohesive. Then theres the title track Come Clarity which is In Flames trying something completly diffrent that what they've done before. This album is a bit of an experimental mish-mosh but it does have some incredibly good lyrics and the instrumentation is back to where it was on Reroute to Remain. Anders incorperates alot more clean vocals than before and it actually works pretty well. As for his harsh vocals well they are... harsh. Too harsh actually as he tries to sing in a Black Metal style with the higher thrashier screaming and sometimes its just painfull. Overall this was In Flames in an identity crisis and even then they managed to craft an ok album. Still it has its flaws and faults and is not as cohesive as most of their albums. A solid 7.5/10.