Colony

The slightly lower popularity of "Colony" is due to a fairly simple fact. Well, the fourth lp from In Flames was placed between the much more popular "Whoracle" and "Clayman", and in fact it did not bring such changes to the whole discography of the Swedes (there will be time for that in next years). 2 years between "Colony" and the previous album, the band just took care of the more melodies, some non-metal influences and fun with the sounds - no madness, but not too much like "Whoracle" patterns. At that time, the band also experienced a lot of line-up changes, i.e. guitarist Glenn Ljungström and bassist Johan Larsson left the band, Björn Gelotte switched to guitar entirely, and bassist Peter Iwers and drummer Daniel Svensson joined the group. And that's how In Flames formed one of the most solid lineups the band has ever had.

On "Colony" there was - as I mentioned - even more space for prettier melodies (often played clean), electronic insertions, rock heaviness, keyboard inserts (e.g. piano in "Ordinary Story" and hammonds in the title track - both ideas very successful) or even clean vocals (for example in "Insipid 2000" and "Coerced Coexistence"). Surprisingly, "Colony" it's not listened to badly. First of all, the "novelties" are not exaggerated here, and the dose of sweetness has been quite sensibly balanced in them - hence the spoiler why I like "Colony" more than its predecessor, when you look at the rating. Besides, "Colony" does not humanly overwhelm with indulgence melodies and listens to it without embarrassment, more so than the repeatedly mentioned "Whoracle". The remake of "Behind Space" from "Lunar Strain" (here with the note '99) is also good, in which the spirit of the original is well preserved, and at the same time it's nicely given a more "zoomer" feel.

Among those late In Flames albums that do not make your earache, "Colony" is one of the last quite passable albums from these Swedes. It's still hard to say that this longplay is amazing, although you have to admit that for a very mild melo-death "Colony" looks quite impressive. Especially if you don't listen to it very often.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2020/10/in-flames-colony-1999.html