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Rating: Species come and go, but In Flames stand forever fast.
Paraphrasing the lyrics of one of their most famous songs, one could summarize the career of the Gothenburg quintet, who have managed to renew themselves album after album, updating the rules of a genre (melodic death metal) that they themselves helped popularize worldwide.
The first stylistic change comes precisely in 1999 with this "Colony" where our guys, following the success of "The Jester Race" and "Whoracle", present themselves with a renewed lineup (Peter Iwers replaces Johan Larsson on bass while Bjorn Gelotte dedicates himself exclusively to the six-strings, yielding the drum kit to newcomer Daniel Svensson) and with a new sound, in which the folk atmospheres of the early days have been replaced by keyboards and synths: the result of this transformation, which will then be successfully carried forward in successive works, is a powerful and avant-garde album, a true precursor of the metalcore wave of the following years.
To understand that you are facing yet another masterpiece, it's sufficient to listen to the opening triptych: Embody the Invisible is simply one of the best songs born from Jesper Stromblad's pen (a masterpiece of power and melody that projects the 80s Maiden-sound into the third millennium), while with Ordinary Story they use clean vocals for the first time, for a mid-tempo of rare beauty still today considered among the band's classics; concluding the triplet impressively is Scorn, another blow in full Swedish death style that takes no prisoners.
We return to more cadenced atmospheres with the title track Colony, another mid-tempo with post-futurist atmospheres, followed by the fast Zombie Inc, also to be counted among the album's highlights (excellent central break with remarkable solo work): after five decidedly modern tracks, with the sixth entirely acoustic track Pallars Anders Visa, the band seems to retrace its steps, but it's just an interlude before the reprise entrusted to Coerced Coexistence, another up-tempo to be sung at the top of your lungs live.
Closing we find another batch of fast tracks (Resin, Insipid 2000, The New World) that fit well within the track list, among which the rendition of the classic Behind Space stands out, originally appeared on "Lunar Strain" and rearranged for the occasion.
To complete everything, we find the excellent production by the usual Fredman Studios and an unforgettable cover by the famous Anders Marshall, a worthy crowning of a work that increasingly projects the name In Flames (together with that of the “cousins” Dark Tranquillity) into the metal pantheon of the third millennium.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Ordinary Story (04:16)
egoism dictates human relations
a world where fashion outshines morality
here success is written in blood-red colours
designed by the thirst for power
gather the faithful and propose a toast
to the epoch of indifference
an all to ordinary story
with aftertaste so bitter
forced to be someone I don't want to be
I'm losing myself. sinking deeper down
I'm caught in the world wound web
a time represented by the void
an excuse without content
stuck in the abyss of existence
with a content void of excuse
an all to ordinary story
this is my story
with an aftertaste so bitter
sinking deeper down
I'm caught - I'm cage
I'm gone
03 Scorn (03:37)
I perish and nobody will know
as my mouth remains still
my heart awaits me. filled with gravel
as the pain grows with each touch
since I marked her out from my tower
reality focused through forbidden lenses
she owns enough of preciousness
a penalty given by the source
but I still have no choice through
the hinderens freighten
a labyrinth closing at the edge of space
but they never allow
she's shut... for all beings but one
I give, I scorn, I threat
04 Colony (04:39)
In your world, the day is no threat
in my world, there is an absence of light
"genetic superiour cell" controled
by fathomless and undearable
A radical new form of plastic and rage
biologically optomized
but with a strangling pulse
In your world, you find me worthy
in my world, I "parashoot" my life
a virtual drogstore populated
by the fathomless and unbearable
Machine, meat and blood
in an intimate relationship
the new - superior -
more effective than all the preceeding
Where we can no longer
cry and reality is torn
then it's easy to forget
that the responsibillity lies on us all
In your world, the night is no threat
in my world, the darkness
transforms to a vision of hell
populated by fathomless and unbearable
05 Zombie Inc. (05:05)
thruth serves them embrace
and defend her case
part flattery, part threats
"for those who cling to this
dominion will partake in it's fall"
with his silence, he passes the
judgement over them
"with your feverish signs of force
you'll make them and yourself to
believe that he still retains his full power"
as a platform for divine fondations,
you want to make them suck
shallowness and beauty
was all that concerned her body
but the soul, her divine guest
were thrust to the bottom
surrendered to the sect
that has risen from it's womb
"for those who cling to this
dominion will partake in it's fall"
08 Resin (03:21)
A sad song it was,
through renewal it brought
and a month seems sometimes shorter
than a half nights longing
hidden and hard are the reasons for war
polar twist, invert and flea
I can't dissolve this feeling of mine
but patience will unlock the door
and the maps of reasons re-written for me
when the wait is over and the punishment is due
each day I crawl to the hall of the giants
and I beg for mercy -
and I beg for mercy in vein
one night is a mare - two is worse
How can I manage three?
10 Insipid 2000 (03:45)
Should I defend you for who you are?
the laws are changed and useless!
on their way to a deserted town
where empty windows wave goodbye
a helpless excuse, a falling reality
I'm changed by the shock
and the weight of the punch
a helpless excuse, a falling reality
ragments of a futile being
a puzzle to the noble ones
ignorant and pitiless they stride
the world around me -
spartanic, minimalistic
a helpless excuse, a falling reality
the large scale plan that once where
you've now drained from life
a helpless excuse, a falling reality
wo knows the proper reasons
why it all begins and ends?
ignorant and pitiless they stride
"you are but a form",
the clean, harsh silence passes
"genuine" visions by the noble
ones for the noble ones
11 The New Word (03:20)
the great word of blessendness
and a feeling of ease
a cup of the well of freedom
and a life we joyfully drink
inside, all was new, but outwards
nothing had changed
an escapade,
then to the altar to
evaluate all parts
of the great mystery
but all remains
on the same spot,
no signs of a new season
in my hand is a new word,
but the word is still
without body
a hidden life-stream that
swells in the deep
will soon give the word
a second face
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