Lyrics and musical style

The album deals with various aspects of religion, society, and spirituality, from the somewhat positive light of Embody the Invisible and The New Word, to the more negative Zombie Inc. and Scorn. Colony features a faster, tighter, and more energetic approach to the music than displayed on the previous album, Whoracle, though the song-writing approach is similar.

Songs

The title of the song The New Word is subject to debate. According to the track list on the back cover of the original 1999 release, the official In Flames web site, and the lyrics printed in the original 1999 CD booklet, the correct title is The New Word; however, according to the heading of the lyrics printed for the song in the original booklet, the track list on the 2004 re-release, and the official Nuclear Blast Records web site, the song is called The New World. The 2009 re-release Colony: Reloaded did nothing to clear up this issue, with the insert and the booklet containing the same inconsistency as the original 1999 release. The song's lyrics themselves, meanwhile, suggest that The New Word is indeed the correct title.

"Pallar Anders Visa" is a cover of the Swedish folk song "Pallars-Anders visa" which can be roughly translated as "song of Anders the thief". It is also an instrumental, just like the bonus track, "Man Made God". The guitarist Bjorn Gelotte talked about it in an interview:

It's an old Swedish traditional song. Really old. "Pallar Anders" is a name, but it means "Anders, the guy who steals apples" and it's his song. I don't know how to translate it.

The song Embody the Invisible appears in the soundtrack for the video game Tony Hawk's Underground.

The tracks Behind Space '99 and Clad in Shadows '99 (which are only available on different issues of this album) are both remakes of the tracks first heard on Lunar Strain, although Behind Space '99 excludes the acoustic guitar outro present on the original version.

This would be the first time the band would down tune their guitars from C standard on previous album with Ordinary Story and Colony being tuned to drop A#, something they would continue on future albums.

Deluxe edition (2004)

Contains the following, in addition to the above tracks:

• Photo gallery
• Ordinary Story music video (directed by Tamara Jordan)
• Computer wallpapers
• A screensaver
• Winamp skins
• Song lyrics (contains numerous spelling errors)

Colony: Reloaded (2009)

The enhanced re-release contains the same bonus content as the 2004 deluxe edition. The original 1999 cover is brought back, and the back insert is custom-shaped to fit into the "Super Jewel Box" case that is used.