1997's Whoracle
vs
1999's Colony
Why? These albums are both really important to me. They are what really pushed me passed Powerman 5000 and Mudvayne into heavier metal. I really like both of them for different reasons, but I only wanted to give one of them a 5 goat rating, for some reason. Also, this is sort of the end of fun, right here. I remember liking Bullet Ride and Strong and Smart, but for real - what more do I have to look forward to? Not shit, that's what.
But first - The Colony "official video" had to come along sometime way after, because it's after Anders god dreads. It's not terrible as shitty live videos go.
One to the Review!
I listened to Whoracle, first. Classic!
I think this is the most In Flamesy they get, or at least this is where they have the most of what I like. These tracks, even the slow ones, are very metal, very dynamic and very melodically smart. They sound like they were written by a band that loved what they were doing.
High points are the Hive and Morphing Into Primal, both of which I think I learned to play on every instrument - I can definitely play on guitar and bass, the Hive being one of the first solos I ever learned, and there was definitely a time when I could play them on drums. The first four hits of Morphing Into Primal are very satisfying, as are the two big hits before the main riff restarts. Brings back memories of when I played drums all the time.
Speaking of memories, one the last times I saw In Flames, they played the middle of Episode 666 as a breakdown - I know it's sort of a chuggy rhythm part anyway, but they made it really crucial. I remember being really disappointed, even though I was into mosh pits at the time. I remember wondering that was the beginning of In Flames selling out or changing or whatever.
Anyway - I loved Whoracle. I think it's like 30% nostalgia, 70% good music. As an observer, this isn't nearly as aggressive as I like metal now. There are limited really heavy or really fast parts, and certainly no blast beats, which are a staple in any new band I pick up nowadays, so I'll say, maybe it's not as good as I think it is, but certainly, Whoracle hits all the right spots for me.
Plus, that one part after the solo in World Within Margins - the real epic, triumphant sounding drive. Great!
On to Colony!
Listening to them back-to-back, Colon and Whoracle are very different albums. I think even if you listen to all of their albums, condensed as they are, in this challenge, you hear a sort of downward trend of heaviness and an upward trend of overt catchiness. That said, I think Colony marks the tipping point of heavy metal and pop-sensibility. I think, on Colony, they pushed it as far as they could for me.
Colony is a much more rock and roll record. More driving bad ass parts, a great balance of rock and and roll shredding and Swedish melody-making in the solos. Groovy tom-heavy drum beats abound, and the fast parts maintain alot of forward momentum without actually going that fast. I have a real deeply-ingrained love of rock and roll sensibility (i.e. The Crown's Deathrace King, Exhumed's Slaughtercult, alot Gorerotted's middle catalog) and I've never attributed to Colony, but I think it's prevalent enough that on here, that maybe it was a contributing factor (although the Deathrace King is probably much more at fault.).
Embody the Invisible gets stuck in my head often and Coerced Coexistence has been a favorite by the band for a long time - the solo is maybe my favorite by In Flames (starting the challenge, I thought there was another solo I liked more, but it turned out to be the solo in the Penetrations from the Lost World version of Through the Version Sky by Dimension Zero).
The New Word is fantastic (imagine 20 year old me, and a friend in a record store circa 2004, stopping and air guitaring the solo tap part together, which we at one point, could actually play together). Reminds me of a better time when...
Reminds me of that same time I saw In Flames that I mentioned before. They played Scorn, a great song all by itself, but for the bridge/lead in the middle, they played the opening riff to Raining Blood by Slayer. The place when nuts - people yelling "SLAYER" and suddenly pitting. It was nuts, but gave me the same "beginning of the end" vibe. I've seen In Flames once since then - the played the Hive and Only for the Weak, and added singing to both of them. I didn't recognize any other songs.
THE VERDICT:
This was tough - the marker for these album is that they don't feel dated at all to me. Old Hypocrisy, old Meshuggah, old Opeth even, sound old. Must music I loved when I was 15 sounds old. Have you listened to Mudvayne or Nothingface or Skinlab or Fear Factory recently? Nostalgia blinds you to the temporality of a thing. I don't get that with these. Both Colony and Whoracle sound current and awesome to me. I don't think they'll ever not be in rotation.
BUT
All in all, I think Whoracle takes the prize here. Colony is amazing, and it's in a class with precious few other albums that young, budding, heavy-metal-hungry Josh Dawson loved, and still loves, but Whoracle was there first, and I think it's there best.
Plus, I should have known from Ordinary Story, that they were going to turn sing songy. I think they even said in an interview that they were experimenting with that song...
WHORALCE - 5 GOATS
COLONY - 4.5 GOATS
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