UMUR
A Sense of Purpose is the 9th full-length studio album by Swedish melodeath/ alternative metal act In Flames. The album was released in April 2008 by Nuclear Blast Records/ Kock Records.
I was actually pretty impressed by the last album by the band Come Clarity from 2006 and I expected In Flames to continue their vital approach to melodic death metal/ alternative metal on A Sense of Purpose. After listening to A Sense of Purpose it´s safe to conclude that they certainly do just that. This is another high quality melodic death metal release by In Flames yet it´s a step down compared to Come Clarity if you ask me. I can´t put my finger on exactly why but maybe A Sense of Purpose is a bit softer and more polished than its predecessor or maybe the two albums just sound too much alike in the end. The good thing is that you can pick any song off this album and they are sure to be a great listening experience. Powerful and melodic metal songs each and every one of them. The bad thing is that the songs are pretty formulaic and tend to sound too much alike.
The musicianship is as always of high quality and the production, while being a bit too polished for my taste, is also really professional and well sounding.
Overall A Sense of Purpose is a good release, but a bit too standard compared to the band´s best output IMO. A 3 star rating is deserved.