A year later Stromblad tapped another Dark Tranquillity member, this time their vocalist proper Anders Friden, to join In Flames as a full-time member, resulting in the landmark album The Jester Race.

The influence and importance of Gothenburg, Swedish’s In Flames is familiar to devoted metalheads but bears repeating to the rest: along with At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity, In Flames pioneered ...

As for Clayman itself, it undoubtedly arrived with high expectations considering that it followed In Flames’ “holy trilogy” of 1996’s The Jester Race, 1997’s Whoracle and 1999’s Colony.