Style: Melodic death metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: The final truly great album from the band
Thoughts: This is it. The final album that was done in classic In Flames style. You could argue that Clayman was that album, but for me the performance here is far superior.
The main driving factor on this album is the intensity of Anders' vocals, he never sounded as good as he does here. His growl is deep, emotive and powerful. His cleans are immaculate (as opposed to the odd crooning he would adopt later), and his stage presence was second to none at this point in their career.
Musically Colony is one of the more interesting In Flames albums. In a lot of ways they slowed down from previous entries, yet they managed to create a more diverse sound at the same time. The only real scorcher here is the opening track Embody the Invisible. This matches the intensity and speed of Whoracle beat for beat.
The variety on the album is first seen on Ordinary Story. I was shocked the first time I heard this, Anders was singing. Outright singing. I had heard him speak before, but never in a melodic tone as he does here. He does it so well that I wonder what the hell happened on future albums? Why did he abandon this style? I guess we'll never know.
Some other noteworthy moments on the album come with the title track and it's cool use of Hammond organs. Pallar Anders Visa is a great acoustic instrumental. The rerecording of Behind Space is also a great addition to the album. Zombie Inc has some cool clean guitar moments. In fact pretty much every song has a moment or two where I have to stop what I'm doing and acknowledge how good the music is.
When Colony first released I wasn't the biggest fan of the difference between it and Whoracle. As time has gone on though I have gotten a much deeper appreciation for the album. They truly show a mastery of the In Flames style of riffing here, almost more so than any other album. It stands as one of the finest entries into the genre, and is the last In Flames album that I consider essential in their discography.
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