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In Flames - Colony review



Reviewer:
9.4

1170 users:
8.49
Band: In Flames
Album: Colony
Release date: June 1999


01. Embody The Invisible
02. Ordinary Story
03. Scorn
04. Colony
05. Zombie Inc.
06. Pallar Anders Visa
07. Coerced Coexistence
08. Resin
09. Behind Space '99
10. Insipid 2000
11. The New Word
12. Clad In Shadows '99 [bonus]
13. Man Made God [bonus]

Melodic Death Metal band In Flames are considered as the founders of the so-called "Gothenburg Sound" along with Dark Tranquillity [both bands hailing from the Swedish city of Gothenburg], opposed to the "Florida Sound" [Cannibal Corpse inc.]. In other words, this term was created to oppose two different kinds of Death Metal styles. With the album Colony, In Flames definitely shows us how to define again a new style of Death Metal: a full package of thrashy guitar melodies and both clean and death voices; and overall, a complete set of outstanding metal anthems.

The album starts with my all time In Flames favorite song, 'Embody The Invisible' and its ultra-catchy guitar lines. A real torpedo of melodies, in fact the only song that produced the same effect on me was 'Tornado Of Souls' by Megadeth [a long time ago...] but you have to add speed to it. In a nutshell, 3:37 minutes of heaven, Melodic Death Metal sauce. That's the perfect way to begin such an album! And the rest of it is, in my opinion, simply breathtaking.

'Ordinary Story' features some magnificent piano lines [yes, piano and Death Metal is something else!] and a terrific rhythm, the work achieved by both guitar players is just too much to be true... There is an alchemy between Jesper Stromblad and Bjorn Gelotte that has no equal in my mind. If you still don't believe it, 'Scorn' is another killer, which belongs to In Flames' best compositions ever. As usual, tremendous guitar solos conclude the track with fury.

Now, the title track 'Colony' is also a pure gift to mankind and deserves to be the title track. I think that 'Zombie Inc.' features the best chorus, however, 'Colony' is second best. Once again, huge impact of the guitar solos combined with Anders' excellent vocals. But it's no secret that the essence of the whole album is its monster rhythm.

Hard to succeed well to these tracks, nevertheless 'Zombie Inc.' makes it with no problem, even featuring the best chorus on Colony along with the best acoustic guitar melody! What an album, it's still amazing to me, even 5 years later and it probably will be in 50... 'Pallar Anders Visa' is a beautiful acoustic song, one of the remain of their early albums, and sincerely, it rocks.

With 'Coerced Coexistence', we're back to the essentials and that's probably the closest song to what could lead to their new conception of Death Metal [Reroute To Remain], but in much better. 'Resin' is also hard to categorize, with its strange structured tempo. But no need to classify a song to enjoy it. And that's our point here, enjoy!

To conclude, this exceptional album, a new version of 'Behind Space' [originally from their debut album Lunar Strain], which sounds definitely very different from the other songs on Colony, but that's still excellent material!! Then 'Insipid 2000', closer to the general sound of the album, maybe even a little bit atmospheric. Finally 'The New Word' concludes that record with a large amount of positive energy, but without reaching the highlights of Colony i.e. the five first tracks!!

No wonder In Flames are considered as one of the leading bands on nowadays metal scene, with such an album and also considering their previous efforts [without talking about Clayman], the Swedish combo deserves its fame and Colony is a living proof of it.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 10
Songwriting: 10
Originality: 9
Production: 9





Written on 02.09.2003 by Bringing you reviews of quality music and interesting questions such as:

"A picture is worth a thousand words. How many words is a song worth?"

I have only got so much patience and skills, you do the math.


Comments

Comments: 16   Visited by: 209 users
23.07.2006 - 13:20
Rating: 9
dark awakening

Totally agree!
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Baptized in a lake of acid tears...
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24.07.2006 - 02:24
Rating: 7
Dangerboner
Lactation Cnslt
Embody the Invisible is one of the most amazing songs ever. The opening guitar riff is orgasmic. Anyways, I think this album is kinda overrated but I still think it's pretty good.
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14.12.2006 - 17:43
Shadow Of A Man
Account deleted
Good review this was an amazing album...
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27.12.2006 - 22:59
Opium Magnet
Account deleted
This album was good, but by no means awesome. The only track I can still listen to without becoming bored of it at this point in time is "Man Made God", and even then, that's only one song, which isn't enough to do this album any justice. I'd probably give this album an 8, to be fair and also because my first impression was different to what my impression of it is now.
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05.07.2007 - 21:57
Rating: 9
BlankFile

At this point all the complements of the World given to this band were not enough to describe their quality. This album simbolizes all the aspects and excellent performance of the band.
Another Great Melodic Death release.
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02.08.2007 - 11:21
Carrion
Account deleted
I only had heard couple songs from Come Clarity and Rerout to Remain, so I decided to get some of their elder stuff and got Colony. And believe me, now I can see why so many people have been dissapointed for the newer In Flames. This is a great album, love it.
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31.08.2007 - 21:32
Mizer84
Account deleted
First 5 tracks are pure metal bliss, 6th (Pallar Anders Visa) is great acoustic rest pause, the rest might not be that amazing but still great stuff. 9.4 is a bit overrating though. In my opinion this album doesn't deserve any better score than Whoracle or Clayman albums..
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22.04.2008 - 03:50
Uirapuru
Liver Failure
another masterpiece of in flames, slightly worse than Whoracle. Its very hard to find bad songs in this album, i like them all!! (well.. colony is the worst) and i speacially liked the new version of Behind Space, nostalgic...
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member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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12.08.2008 - 16:32
Rating: 7
Elio
Red Nightmare
why the hell colony and clayman have votes superior than whoracle and the jester race?I mean, those albums are good, but no way better than the first productions!
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IntoPlighT said: "Slipknot is 15 years old how the fuck is that Nu metal?"

BEST. QUOTE. EVER.
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14.08.2008 - 23:56
Rating: 8
BloodTears
ANA-thema
Written by Elio on 12.08.2008 at 16:32

why the hell colony and clayman have votes superior than whoracle and the jester race?I mean, those albums are good, but no way better than the first productions!


I agree with you. 100%
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29

Like you could kiss my ass.


My Instagram
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05.01.2009 - 19:15
Rating: 8
X-Ray Rod
Skandino
I don't know... This album is probably the only album that I will ever put my interest on. The first ones are good but "meeeeh" [if you guys understand what I mean with that ] and the later ones went waaaaaay to melodic and... well, you guys know the rest of the history!

But this album appeals to me. The first song is just a killer. And I really liked the lyrics on that song.

The vocals are also something interesting. Maybe it's just me but I sense a different kind of vocals on this album. It's more aggressive than the others IMO. I mean... the way the vocalist started the first song was just savage and I was like "o shit... this guy is serious this time."
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29
Like you could kiss my ass
Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
Rod, let me love you.
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12.01.2009 - 22:41
Metalbound7

Colony is my favorite In Flames song, a lot of feeling, good lyrics and have a very true message about how shitty and ignorant are society now days. the other songs in the album are great too.
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20.03.2009 - 13:50
Mince&Cheese
Account deleted
This Album is my favorite out of the 4 Albums (the new shit doesn't count). There is not one single bad song, this album should be put on a pedestal and worshiped.
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06.01.2011 - 09:36
Rating: 10
Kuroboshi

Just listened to this CD for the first time in perhaps 3 years.. In flames was the band that got me into metal, and I realized this cd is pure bliss!! The catchiness is unpreceded, I'm gonna give it a 10.
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30.01.2011 - 00:59
Rating: 8
X-Ray Rod
Skandino
I finally heard it from the start to finish and my opinion has changed quite about In Flames in general. I'll probably get more of their older stuff. This album being great specially the first 5 tracks that are top notch.

I believe the rating is too high though, I'll give this album a confident 8,2
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29
Like you could kiss my ass
Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
Rod, let me love you.
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05.01.2012 - 18:34
TrueMetalWarrior

My fav album
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