Dark Tranquillity - We Are The Void

Another Great Album By A Classic Band.

Dark Tranquillity is that band you love from Sweden. You know the one, they came out with At The Gates and In Flames. Their the ones that didn't break up and the one's that didn't "sell out." Dark Tranquillity is the band that is truly a classic and just never really stops being good.

"We Are The Void" is an album that is really a continuation of what was done on "Fiction" and "Character" but a little bit more refined. Everything on this album is great sounding and boasts the usual, catchy and pounding DT riffs. It's an overall great sounding record. But nothing on this record will really floor you like it did on the previous records.

But just because it doesn't floor you doesn't mean it won't get you banging your head or screaming along with the vocals. The songs on this album really have the most keyboards and sound effects since "Haven." This adds a bit of gothic feel to songs like Dream Oblivion or The Fatalist. So this feel kind of breaks up a little bit of the monotony. Not that a DT record was really ever monotonous.

The guitars on this album are as heavy and melodic as ever. Creating those riffs that will get stuck in your head. Niklas and Martin create those hooks that DT has always had in their sound. It is one thing you always have in a new album from this band, the riffs are always good and heavy sounding.

Mikael's vocals are another thing you always know will be a constant. His vocals never get too low or too high to turn the band into something fans know their not. He keeps the song moving with a style that no one else does but him. Mikael's clean vocals are also present on "We Are The Void" just like they were on the previous. They're never the focus of the whole song, and they never make song feel cheesy when they're there, but they make that song a little bit cooler with his baratone vocals.

Both these things are constants in the sound of Dark Tranquillity, but that's not to say that everything on "We Are The Void" is something you've heard before, because it's not. As already stated, the keys have a more gothic feel to them and have a bigger presence on this album then previous albums. The overall presence of the gothic makes this album sound just a little bit darker than "Fiction" did.

The drumming on this record is a little bit more fluid sounding than previous ones. Anders has a more room for fills and breaks up some of the straightforward nature of some songs with this. With a more openness of fluid drumming patterns, this allows the keys more presence to create atmospheres.

One of the darkest songs on this album is Arkhangelsk. This song begins with a very melancholic piano melody and guitar riff, but once Mikael's vocals come in, a darker mood is brought. The sound of the song is very dark and big sounding, but also has a kind of controlled chaos in it. The overall composition of the song is one of the best on the album.

Iridium takes a different approach. This track is more atmospheric than any other track on this album, but takes a giant turn into melancholic/doom metal with it's chorus. This is another very interesting track because of how separated the chorus seems from the verses in styles.

Overall, this is another good record from DT. Consistent as always, this album does not disappoint. Any fan of good melodic death metal or gothic metal will find a great listen in this album, nothing to turn off a fan who's listened to previous DT records.

Overall Score: 8.5

Highlights: Dream Oblivion, In My Absense, The Grandest Accusation, Her Silent Language, Arkhangelsk, Iridium