IN FLAMES Drummer To Sit Out MOTÖRHEAD Tour

IN FLAMES drummer Daniel Svensson will sit out the band's upcoming U.K. tour with MOTÖRHEAD while awaiting the birth of his second child. "We asked an old friend of ours, Tobbe Kellgren, to handle the drums for the tour and he gladly accepted," the band write on their web site.

In other news, IN FLAMES held "a listening party" for their new album, "Come Clarity", with media people and guests at the Storan Theater in Gothenburg. "For this special occasion, we made a 'rehearsal video' for the whole album that we showed to our guests," the band write on their web site. "Directing it was once again Patric Ullaeus [DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL]! Patric and Anders [Fridén, vocals] worked really hard to get it done in time for the viewing and when the rest of us saw it it blew us away! Hopefully this is something that also YOU will be able to enjoy in the future — we'll see."

On the touring front, IN FLAMES will kick off a U.S. headliningtrek at "the end of January that will be running until the end of February," according to a posting on the gorup's web site. "After that we are touring Europe from early March until April sometime. We will let you know as soon as we have some details (dates, support, etc.). On this Eurotrip we will try to do at least 5-7 shows in the U.K. — hopefully even getting to Ireland for the first time!"

As previously reported, IN FLAMES's new album, "Come Clarity", is scheduled for a February 7, 2006 North American release through Ferret Records. The CD will be issued in Europe on February 6, 2006 via Nuclear Blast Records.

The follow-up to 2004's "Soundtrack to Your Escape", "Come Clarity" was mixed at Tonteknik studio in Umeå, Sweden and is "the best one we've ever done," according to IN FLAMES guitarist Jesper Strömblad. "It's kind of a mixture between the new stuff and the old stuff," Strömblad told Greece's Metal Temple webzine in a recent interview. "Like the previous two albums were a little bit experimental for us, we changed producers and we changed studios. So we took all the good stuff from the old stuff and the new and we did this album and it's brilliant. It's awesome. . . Musically it's more up tempo, more melodic to show that we have so much more to give and we're really hungry. The best album is yet to come."

IN FLAMES recently completed a U.S. tour as one of the main-stage acts at this year's Ozzfest. The band will tour the U.S. for over half of 2006, starting with the headlining tour in January. A video for the new album's opening track, "Take This Life", is being shot this week with director Ullaeus.