Do you know what is common between this Swedish melodic death metal band, Britney Spears, Pink, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake? Hard to believe, but it's a songwriter.

In 2000, several Swedish guys who hadn’t been noticed in the music until that moment founded the band Stigmata. After a couple of years band signed a contract with Italian label Scarlet to release an album. Soon, managers insisted on changing the name of team, explaining that by virtue of competition, the group with such a name would go unnoticed. So a gang Blinded Colony arose. Under this sign out their debut album "Divine".

When 2004 came, company terminated contract with musicians. They fell short of expectations, the record did not sell well, and the group did not gain the desired popularity. Vocalist is gone too.

Guys decided not to disintegrate, but to renew the lineup by inviting young singer Johan Schuster. Band subscribes to just-released US label Pivotal Rockordings.

https://lastfm-img2.akamaized.net/i/u/ar0/b14d25e350a747999a5d73ab79d20ae5.jpg

It was on this label in 2006 that the second Blinded Colony album entitled "Bedtime Prayers" was recorded.

Guys played Swedish melodic death with an abundance of keys, with modern influences, and their vocalist uses several types of vocals: scream, clear and harsh.

https://youtu.be/A-Folkw9lq8 

On "Bedtime Prayers", you could hear a very accurate copy of the In Flames from the time of « Clayman», as well as Soilwork from the same period. Music is not something "in the spirit or on the grounds". Music here is replete with direct quotations from the above groups. And even Johan sings here like Friden and Strid. Only not as a resultant between them, but in one song he copies more Friden, to another - Strid, and so on throughout the album.

https://youtu.be/YQUZMKTx57E 

Everything turned out quite sad. In music, zero new ideas, zero hits. Yes, recorded cleanly and smoothly. Compositions sound quite monotonous and are similar to what was previously heard in other groups. However, I would not call this work too bad. Some songs I really like. In addition, those who do not listen music of In Flames, may like this album.

![4014211b5e944b40b0d8112a09389999.jpg](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmTkyoZSBNCBmt7Eu3kTyijoXF2AKiobP2YrznhRqSi86P)


After release of album, group toured for a while, but in August 2007, Johan Shuster left band. Reason for this was apparently criticism of album, poor earnings or something else. Even while working with Blinded Colony, he worked partly with one producer. Johan slowly wrote pop songs "for sale" and the producer managed to sell one of his compositions. This song was "So What" and in Pink's performance, it appeared on the charts. By the way, this is not the first song written by Johan, which received various awards.

![1200px-Shellback2015.jpg](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmVXvGYntPHQEsqLnQBUGxS7gfx3F4V89uaqrszV1QkiCC)


Soon, Johan completely abandoned the idea of a metal career. Writing songs for pop artists brought good fees, and he decided to continue self-realization in this direction. He took nickname Shellback and began a new round in career, forgetting about the difficult times with Blinded Colony.


Team for some time existed. Constant changes of composition, few new material. In general, label refused to cooperate with group. In 2010, they returned, changing name to The Blinded. Recorded EP, which can be found exclusively on the Internet.

Soon everyone forgot about band. I'm not even sure that guys are still playing.

https://youtu.be/ZPAZsjTHFuI