A Review of the Album "Colony" by Swedish Metal Band in Flames

1. Embody the Invisible
2. Ordinary Story
3. Scorn
4. Colony
5. Zombie Inc.
6. Pallar Anders Visa
7. Coerced Coexistence
8. Resin
9. Behind Space (1999 version)
10. Insipid
11. The New World

Swedish metal band In Flames has a habit of writing albums that are filled with melody and creative guitars to keep the listener interested. Their 1999 album "Colony" is one of their finest works ever. It is the album that precedes Clayman. The other guitarist playing on this album other than Jesper Stromblad is Bjorn Gelotte. Bjorn was playing the drums for the band’s 1996 album called The Jester Race. Peter Iwers handles the bass guitar duties and Daniel Svensson plays the drums.

After the very good opening song called Embody the Invisible, Ordinary Story is the first song where we hear some clean vocals by Anders Friden. Another highlight worthy of mention is the song called Colony. The song is really melodic and it has always been one of my favorites. The song talks about a world where darkness is the common theme. The vocals by Friden in this song are some of his best ever because the vocal growls fit the song perfectly! When the reality of the situation that surrounds us sets in, it is our responsibility to do what we can to get us out of this darkness that surrounds us. The next song called Zombie Inc. is the kind of song that Japanese melodic death metal band Shadow would write in their albums. The Japanese band Shadow was influenced by these guys so that makes sense. Pallar Anders Visa is a short acoustic instrumental song that comes after all these heavy songs. It gives the listener some kind of break and allows them to relax briefly.

"Colony" represents what early In Flames success was. They had the heavy vocals, terrific melodies, and riffs which were and still are catchy. Lunar Strain, The Jester Race, and Whoracle are all good albums in their own right but I’m starting to think that Colony or Clayman may represent the band’s peak or finest moment musically. I know that I mentioned earlier that this distinction may go to their next album in 2000 but it is tough to vote against Colony being their best album even with a re-done version of the song Behind Space.

As the second half of the album begins, Coerced Coexistence features a guest guitar solo played by Kee Marcello (ex-Europe guitarist). Resin features some more excellent melodic guitar play. The lyrics of this band are sometimes difficult to interpret because of the way they are written. But upon further analysis, we see that their lyrics have to do with real life issues that concern humanity. Next is the famous song called Behind Space that has been re-done for this album. The one minute and 30 second mark features one of the best riffs of all time for In Flames. There are no sub-standard songs in this album and it represents one of the finest moments ever for this band. I would not be surprised if fans say that this is their best album. Colony guaranteed that the band would finish the decade of the 1990’s on a very solid note. The strongest songs include Embody the Invisible, Colony, Zombie Inc., Resin, and Behind Space. In Flames are one of the elite melodic death metal bands in the world today and Colony is another example of how these guys demonstrate their musical skills. Great job guys!

If we were to analyze how the decade of the 1990’s was for the band In Flames, we can say that it went from good to extremely solid. The Jester Race and Colony were easily the band’s 2 best albums of the decade. Does Colony get a 100 out of 100 points? Not quite but it is very close to it.