i thought the clips sounded good, albeit really dialed in for an industrial/early In Flames kind of tone.

what guitars/pickups are you using?  pickups can make all the difference.  I used EMG's a long time ago.  Was never anywhere near satisfied with my tone.  I also tried Blackouts and thought I found what I was looking for.  But there's something about actives that really makes the tone one-dimensional - like it always wants to sound a certain way.  I switched out the blackouts on my RGA8 with D-Activators.  I also changed the Steve's Special/Air Norton on my EBMM to Crunch Lab/Liquifire.  Can't be happier with both choices.  Gonna put the Steve's Special/Air Norton in my old Yamaha Pacifica and tune that to D.  And gonna put some Gravity Storms in my Jem clone.  Dimarzio is my friend.

The biggest difference to me was the amount of expression I could get out of a note.  You got more of that round, vowel-y tone out of a note.  Plus more dynamics.  And I found the SNR was just as good as the actives, which was my main interest in getting them.

Other suggestions - don't overlook cab and mic choices.  I got stock into paradigms of finding a combo I like and trying to tweak it to sound like something it couldn't be.  And don't write off a mic just because you don't like the way it sounds with one cabinet.  I generally use dual cabs - same amp as dual amps but different cab/mics on each.  I generally like something with a 57 on axis mixed with a cab that has the 121 ribbon or one of the condensor mics.  but even the 57 off axis can work if the cab is dark/warm enough.  And this means trying to put an EQ possibly behind one of them to prevent phasing issues.

Even if you don't use onboard cabs and use external IR's, you can still apply the theory.  A lot of great tones use 2 different cabs and/or mics.