Colony
Artist: In
Flames
Label: Nuclear Blast
Time: 11 tracks/41:31 minutes
You may not realize it, but the next wave of Scandinavian death metal (nwosdm) is starting to reach critical mass. While bands such as Amorphis have consistently topped sales charts in their native countries, the melodic strains of such bands as Dark Tranquility, Opeth, and Extol have been largely overlooked by music afficionados outside of the Arctic Circle. Colony, In Flames's latest opus, might just be the album to change all that. The trappings of any nwosdm album (i.e., the death growl, melodic guitar riffs, and random mellow interludes) are all present, but while tuneful, Colony isn't as complex and progressive as, say, Amorphis's Elegy or Opeth's My Arms, Your Hearse .
The album starts out at breakneck speed with "Embody the Invisible," which acts musically as a bridge between the band's previous album and this one. Fast, catchy, and featuring guitars playing in harmony, the song also sets the tone lyrically for the rest of the album by darkly proclaiming:
species
come and go,
but the earth stands forever fast.
Almost as a continuation of the first track, the second piece, "Ordinary Story," fades in with another catchy guitar line. Alternating between mellow, whispered vocals on the verses and a loud gravelly yowl on the chorus, Anders Friden morosely growls, "forced to be someone I don't want to be, I'm losing myself, sinking even lower."
Like most album art, the cover of Colony
sets the album's tone by showing a corrupted, futuristic Colossus of Rhodes
that has been hideously mangled into a cyborg-like figure. Although the
album's cover suggests some dark age in the distant future when genetic
alterations threaten mankind's innate humanness, an immediacy suffuses
the album, much like Fear Factory's
admonition that "this coming vision is
reality."
Other notable songs include the title track, which starts out with a Kansas-like, organ-tinged intro before launching into a driving, double bass fueled section. The song itself begins:
In
your world, the day is no threat;
In my world, there is an absence of light and continues, surmising that:
Where we can no longer cry and reality is torn
It's easy to forget that the responsibility lies on us all.
Also worthy of mention is "Zombie, Inc.," a scathing critique of the church that states:
As
a platform for divine foundations,
You want to make them suck.
The song contains one of the better blues interludes to grace a metal record. The band seamlessly interweaves this disparate style into the piece through transitions that would be the pride of any respectable progressive rock group. This kind of genre-bending jam belies the thought that went into the writing of this album. Where Whoracle suffered from repetitive riffing, Colony excels at making each track sound both distinct and cohesive within the CD as a whole. The production is also a strong point, embodying the clear, crisp dynamics that are so refreshingly typical of nwosdm albums.
The album's main weakness is the lyrical subject matter. While a futuristic concept album envisioning a hybrid machine race might have been ground-breaking in the 70s, in today's metal scene, the sci-fi premise has become cliche. Though not weak in any sense of the word, the lyrics do suffer when compared with other bands like Amorphis and Opeth.
Overall, this album is pretty much a must-have for any metal fans. Melodic death metal is rapidly turning into classic metal for the 90s, and In Flames has added to the cannon in impressive fashion by combining the melodies of a progressive metal band with the head smashing brute force of a death metal outfit. Fans of Korn and Limp Bizkit should take heed: bands come and go, but the riff stands forever fast.
Glenn Harper 9/19/99
