Dark Tranquillity Album: “Projector (Reissue)”

This CD is absolutely phenomenal.

If you are unfamiliar with Dark Tranquillity, they could be described as a cross between Queensryche (Rage for Order era) and At The Gates.

Intertwining top-notch musicianship, poetic lyrics, touches of progressive metal, and the infamous "Gothenburg Sound", Dark Tranquillity's sixth CD Projector is amazing.

Mikael Stanne moves seamlessly between a traditional death metal growl, and low, melodic, somber vocals. Using untraditional phrasing, and a stream of consciousness style, Stanne's lyrics are incredible.

Johansson and Sundin create a beautiful dual-guitar sound, that changes effortlessly between the frantically paced riffs that drive this disc, to the slow, haunting melodies that make this CD unforgettable.

Anders Jivarp's drums are first-rate, and Martin Henriksson's bass playing is very solid.

All in all, this is one phenomenal CD. There are no weak tracks to be found on this offering. So far, my favorite tracks on this CD are Freecard, Therein, Undo Control (on which Johanna Andersson lends her beautiful vocals), and Day to End.

Buy this disc.

Dark Tranquility have done nothing but outdo themselves on their new album. It's easily one of the best releases of 1999, ranking with the likes of Amorphis' "Tuonela" and In Flames' "Colony." But what really sets this apart from everything else in modern metal is the band's diversity. Picture In Flames being influenced by Sentenced and throw in a hint of recent Paradise Lost and you've got "Projector," Dark Tranquility's most awesome album ever. Songs like "FreeCard," "Undo Control," and the experimental yet still amazing "Auctioned" open new doors in the world in progressive/black/death metal. I'm sure some new bands out there are gonna listen to this and be completely amazed, just as I was, and use this as a major influence for their own work. If that's the case, I look forward to hearing that too, because "Projector" is one incredible CD and shouldn't be absent from any metal fan's collection.

Projector is an odd album, the singers growls are not the best, but not terribly agravating(like some metal bands have been to me at least). His clean vocals are what I can't decide on, at times they are twistedly/beatifully haunting, but at times they just get on my nerves, but overall they come off on the good side more often than the bad.

As for the musicianship its much less heavy than other Dark Tranquillity. At times they completely slow down for extended periods(a whole song at one point!) something I have not heard Dark Tranquillity do before on their other more vicious releases like Character and Damage Done.

Overall a great album that pulls out the melodic side of Gothenburg without turning out too cheesy and will keep growin on you the more you listen to it.

I decided to give Projector the perfect rating just because there are so many great parts on this album, like the guitars of "Doberman" for example, and I just keep coming back to listen to it over and over again.

It seems that a number of the reviews here don't care for the extensive use of clean vocals on this cd, but honestly I love them. Dark Tranquillity has never been a band to follow trends and personally I think it's great that they expanded their sound beyond the typical death growls being used by most black/death metal bands at the time. I only wish they had continued it on their next album, "Haven" (which is also a masterpiece in its own right, but thats another review). Anyway, every song on here is simply pure melodic perfection. I also have to point out the acoustic guitars, which are actually used more frequently than other D.T. albums, the piano, and of course the female vocals on the fourth track. My favorite tracks would have to be "Auctioned", "Undo Control", "Therein", and "On Your Time".

Originally released in 1999, Projector was the fourth full-length studio album from Swedish melodic death metal innovators Dark Tranquillity. Picking up where At the Gates left off, Dark Tranquillity, alongside In Flames, Soilwork and Hypocrisy, took death metal in a bold new direction, adding melody as a major element and experimenting with traditional metal elements, clean vocals, and in Dark Tranquillity's case, keyboards. Lots and lots of keyboards.

Projector was a highly experimental album. You can tell Dark Tranquillity was looking to expand the boundaries of the melodic death metal genre, and they did so with varying success. With the emphasis on keyboards, gothic elements, female vocals, and lots of clean vocals from Michael Stanne, Projector was worlds removed from what In Flames and Soilwork were doing at the time. The experimentation doesn't always pay off, and there are definitely moments on Projector where you wish the band would be a little less gothic and just bring the death metal. Still, there are a lot of very strong songs on the album, "Freecard" and "The Sun Fired Blanks" being my favorites.

Projector falls short in comparison to later Dark Tranquillity releases Haven and Damage Done, but neither of those albums would have been possible without the experimental work done here. Beyond that, it's a completely awesome melodic death metal album in its own right, and one that's essential for Dark Tranquillity fans as well as fans of Swedish melodic death metal in general.

Edition Notes: Century Media reissued Projector (along with

and

) in 2009. The deluxe reissue features digitally remastered sound, a nice slipcase, expanded liner notes, and four bonus tracks. The first bonus track - "Asleep in the Bandaged Light" - is previously unreleased, but "No One" and "Exposure" were b-sides from the Projector sessions that also appeared on the

rarities collection a few years back. The final bonus track is a live version of "Therein". While I wouldn't recommend re-buying Projector just for the bonus tracks, I'd definitely recommend the reissue on the basis of the improved sound quality. Between the remastered audio and deluxe packaging, I didn't think twice about replacing my old copy of Projector.