UMUR "Colony" is the 4th full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act In Flames. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in May 1999. It´s the successor to "Whoracle" from 1997 and it features a couple of lineup changes since the predecessor. Björn Gelotte solely focuses on playing guitar on the album (he also played drums on the predecessor) and Daniel Svensson has been recruited as the band´s new drummer. Bassist Johan Larsson has been replaced by Peter Iwers. Guitarist Glenn Ljungström has also jumped ship and the guitars are therefore now handled by the above mentioned Björn Gelotte and by Jesper Strömblad. Vocals are handled by Anders Fridén.

Fans of In Flames usually mention the first five albums as mark 1 In Flames, where the band could be identified as a melodic death metal act, and from album number six ("Reroute to Remain (2002)") and onwards as a more alternative oriented metal act, but listening to "Colony" it´s obvious the journey towards alternative territories started much earlier. Stylistically the material on the 11 track, 41:35 minutes long album is still rooted in melodic death metal, and the listener is exposed to plenty of soaring lead guitar melodies and harmonies, as well as powerful riffs and rhythms. The vocal part of the music is one part semi-growling/screaming vocals and one part harsh semi-melodic shouting. The latter vocal style is usually used in the chorus of the tracks and is the bridge to their alternative metal future.

"Colony" features several strong compositions and I´ll mention "Ordinary Story", "Zombie Inc.", and "Coerced Coexistence", as some of the highlights, but "Colony" is overall a very consistent release when it comes to the quality of the material but also when it comes to style and sound. The album reeks high class songwriting and paired with high level musicianship and a powerful and detailed sound production, "Colony" is a high quality release by In Flames. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Stooge Colony is the In Flames album that took them into their popular sound of melodic metal. Granted, they had made plenty of great melodic death metal releases prior to this album. This time around, death metal elements are beginning to be reduced in favour of overall catchiness and greater accessibility. Though they released questionable albums while tackling a similar style and stepping even further from their death metal roots, this definitely isn’t one of them.

This lineup is what many dub as their classic lineup, with Bjorn Gelotte shifting to guitar full-time to accompany Jesper Stromblad, and a stable rhythm section of drummer Daniel Svensson and bassist Peter Iwers.

Critics of this more modern In Flames point to Anders Friden’s vocal style shifting towards a sound similar to Jonathan Davis of the often-hated Korn. You definitely get hints of that in tracks like “Ordinary Story” and “Coerced Coexistence”, but the band at this stage could only be confused for one of Korn’s nu-metal contemporaries by those with a limited exposure to the music style.

The band’s style is built on sort of a modernized Iron Maiden approach with several of the compositions centered on memorable guitar harmonies, sometimes kept consistent throughout entire tracks. This is very much a guitarist’s metal album, with the instrument pretty much taking all of the album’s highlights and making for the prominent sound of the album’s instrumental pieces “Pallar Anders Visa” and bonus track “Mad Made God”.

The highlights on Colony are numerous, including popular favorites like “Ordinary Story”, “Colony”, and re-recording “Behind Space ‘99”, but lesser-discussed songs “Embody The Invisible”, “Zombie Inc.”, and “Insipid 2000” are equally deserving of attention.

If melody mixed with aggression is your thing, then you should definitely own this album.