Dark Tranquillity Album: “Mind's I”

This is an album from the Gothenburg scene, and all great bands from there, they each bring something a little different to the table. This album is one of those albums.

Though this album clearly has an At The Gates influence, this album also takes many other passages to get the points across. The fast parts somewhat reminds me of At The Gates (not in a cliche kinda way), but this album has many slower, softer parts. There is something about this album that is difficult to describe, an underlying melancholy that doesn't obscure the beauty of the music, and doesn't contradict the faster and heavier parts.

Spanning fast, technical thrash, to slower, melodic acoustic parts, with piercng screams, harsh growls, and beautiful female vocals, this album is in no way "just another Gothenburg album". A very good band, with all members being very talented, and amazing songs that have creative structure and great variation, and using other metal cliches like solos and blast beats sparingly.

I think I've said enough.

First off, a few people are a bit confused as to the genre Dark Tranquillity fall in. They are NOT, I repeat NOT black metal. They utilize a black metal vocal style, but this does not make them a black metal band. For real, true black metal, the listener should consult Emperor (ItNE), Burzum, Darkthrone, Graveland, and Abigor as good representatives of the genre. DT play Gothenburg death metal, which is a melodic and often technical style created by them and a few other bands such as At the Gates, and possible In Flames (debatable.) Anyway, this is another fine release by the master's of the melodic death genre, but the melodic episodes of The Gallery have been reduced a bit, in favor of a more agressive and slightly linear style. Not that the album is simple; it is extremely complex and requires several listens in order to interpret what is going on. The musicianship is stellar as usual; never short on talent, Dark Tranquillity always delivers quality metal. This is a mandatory album for fans of the Gothenburg style.

This is probably Dark Tranquillity's best work to date-- I would rate it above the brilliant "The Gallery" album which preceded it. The crux of the album lies in its subtleties; the nuances make the album what it is. I was disappointed when I found out exactly how long (short, rather) the songs tend to be-- I heard the album first when a friend dubbed it for me-- but they truly are the perfect length for what the individual songs are trying to accomplish. DT seems to have learned a lot since its inception. They have borrowed from the best in their arena and elsewhere. One can easily hear some near-Schuldinerian stylings here, as well as some possible influence from the monumentally underrated Nocturnus. The requisite metal influences are also abundant-- one can pick out with somewhat startling regularity Maiden and Priest and King Diamond influences in the music. The lyrics also deserve consideration. Stanne and Sundin, the lyricists, seem to be defying the listener to interpret their words-- searches for "meaning" will prove largely fruitless-- it is much more interesting (not to mention easier) to try and discern what Stanne and Sundin are *saying* rather than what they mean. Again, the listener can pick out poetic influences, not the least of which seem to be Shelley, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, with a dash of Wordsworth thrown in for good measure. "The Mind's I" is less an album than a search for self-- both musically, lyrically, and, one can assume, personally. This disc hits at full force on all levels at once and, rather like Emperor's latest "Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk," it takes a while for the listener to fully appreciate what is going on, to say nothing of apprecating the whole album for what it is-- a journey into the self which produces some of the best metallic art this world has ever been graced with. And I can't help but be blown away by the guitar-tradeoff at the 54 second mark of "Dissolution Factor Red"-- simply breathtaking.

This album is fascinating from the first track. There is much to be unraveled in the words of every song, be it of a mystical or more agressive inclination. Most of the songs are quite technical in their style, opting many times for a melodic riff with many integrated variations, instead of the lately all-too-common "three riffs make a song" style in metal. Dark Tranquillity is more of a Death Metal band, or as they call themselves, a Melodic Death Metal style, not so much Black metal since they do not inquire in any affairs involving satanic worshipping, a trademark of the Black style.

This album would have gotten 5 stars if not for tracks number 8["Still Moving Sinews"] and 9 ["Atom Heart 243.5"], which are alltogether too similar for my taste, even using (seems to me) the exact same intro. Also, I found the album to be rather short, only 46 minutes with 12 songs, although it is refreshing to see that most songs have the adequate length, unlike some of the more recent metal bands that make the song much longer than it should be.

It's taken me a long, long time to go anywhere near this band, because of the "M" word- "melodic".

Melodic death metal, as this band are often called, conjurs up images of puffy-sleeved white frilly short wearing musicians, and music comparable to latter day Helloween. Boy, was I wrong!

The "melodic" thing has been over emphasised in much which has been said about this band. This is brutal! Yes, there's an element of melody, but it's really an inappropriate word to be applied to this. Unfortunately, there is no word in the English language more appropriate.

So what's on offer here? The classic Scandinavian dual guitar attack. It's less oppressively crushing than the likes of Entombed or Dismember in their heyday, but is more technical than the earlier death metal leaders. The death grunt is more of a deep breathy rasp. Double kick drums underscore most songs, in classic death style.

While mostly mid-paced metal, blast beats are used sparingly, but effectively, like in the closing seconds of "Scythe, Rage and Roses". There are gentler moments too, like the melancholic acoustic guitar and female vocal introduction to Insanity's Crescendo.

I wish I'd checked this band out several years ago.