In Flames
Colony

THE REVIEW

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the drum kit to newcomer Daniel Svensson) and with a new sound, in which the folk atmospheres of the early days have been replaced by keyboards and synths: the result of this transformation, which will then be successfully carried forward in successive works, is a powerful and avant-garde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.