Band:	In Flames
Album:	Colony
Style:	Gothenburg metal
Release date:	June 22, 1999
A review by:	Dream Taster

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.