The In Flames album Colony is considered by many to be a masterpiece by the band, and their signature album next to Lunar Strain. There definitely some excellent songs here, including a rerecorded song specifically for this release. The album did see a single and music video spawn it, and, as time goes on, becomes known as one of the last great In Flames albums. But, the question is whether or not Colony really does live up to the "masterpiece" status that has been bestowed upon it.
First of all, there is no denying that the starting tracks "Embody The Invisible" and the album's single, "Ordinary Story" are great tracks, but it's when you first hear "Ordinary Story" that you really realize something is up. Yes, the vocals are being harmonized through the rough shouts that are on the release, but there is a lot of computer altering going on with the vocals. While this does work for the song "Scorn" due to the intensity of the guitar riffs, the computerized alterations to the clean singing vocals that appear at the start, as well as later on in "Ordinary Story" are actually absolutely pointless and only make the song have less of an impact. Aside that, the instrumental track "Pallar Anders Visa" is actually pretty pointless, as it doesn't segway into anything, it's just an acoustic track that's there and can easily be skipped as it brings nothing really to the table.
The rest of the album is actually really good, and keep a consistant pace going of heavy tracks that also have a somewhat mellow feel to them, such as "Ordinary Story" , "Resin" and "Coerced Coexistence", the latter being one of the most stand out tracks on the release due to it being a straight forward melodic death metal track with a catchy, simple chorus. "Resin", on the other hand, is not the most impressive track on this release either, sounding rather bland to be on a masterpiece, as well as just begins to feel drawn out after around the two minute ten second mark.
So, while it's true Colony isn't really a one hundred percent masterpiece, it does boast some excellent songs, and really is a vital piece of metal history. In Flames had a lot of musically sound tracks on here, with the exception of "Resin", and some great vocal work aside the apparently experimentation with computerized sound effects during the recording process, which sadly cause "Ordinary Story" to sound good one first listen, but after repeat listens it'll get stale quick.
| Submit to Social Networks |
Donater/Ethic Info |
|
Physical review copy of this release provided by:
Personal funds. |
|
