One of the founders of the Gothenburg Scene is back. DARK TRANQUILITY follows up their brilliant 2007 album ‘Fiction’, with their latest opus, ‘We Are The Void’. From the off, you can tell that ‘We Are The Void’ follows in the footsteps of the aforementioned ‘Fiction’ and 2005′s ‘Character’, it’s just a shame it doesn’t quite have the quality they have.

While this album doesn’t really push the evolution of their sound to a new level, it’s solidly written and produced and follows the traits of what you would expect from DARK TRANQUILITY. Crunching, heavy and melodic riffs, Stanne’s rough vocals that fit perfectly to the music, and those electronic styles courtesy of the keyboards. However, while the problem isn’t that this has been heard before, the problem is unlike with their previous efforts in recent times, there are only a handful of tracks on this album that make you think ‘Fuck me, that was awesome!’.

Don’t get me wrong, the material on the album is pretty good as I never turned it off or skipped a track once during multiple listens, but it just doesn’t engross the listener as much as it should do. Considering that bands that also came out of the scene like IN FLAMES and SOILWORK have gradually evolved over time to reshape their sound and the genre and make it more commercialised, the fact that DARK TRANQUILITY have resisted this so far is credit to their credo of not wanting to ‘sell out’, and fair play to them. They know what they are and what they stand for. And that’s probably why the fans have stuck by them for so long.

While album opener, ‘Shadow In Our Blood’ has good meaty riffs and is a decent song that could have been from ‘Fiction’, it isn’t nearly as emphatic as say, ‘Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)’ or ‘The Lesser Faith’. Electronic elements have always played a key part in DARK TRANQUILITY‘s sound, and it’s no different here. In fact they have used more of Brandstrom’s keyboards on this album than any other, giving it a more gothic and darker edge, and tracks like ‘The Fatalist’ and ‘Dream Oblivion’ are prime examples of this, while it completely overpowers the guitars on ‘In My Absence’.

‘The Grandest Accusation’ is the first real sign of promise that DARK TRANQUILITY have not lost their touch as this is the first noticeable track to grab your attention. The riffs here are not as rehashed as other tracks and while it’s a more melodic style of track, the guitars and keyboards actually work in harmony, while ‘Her Silent Language’ shows the first prominent appearance of Stanne’s clean vocals, which at first made me think I had crossed over to a H.I.M. track. Fortunately, it doesn’t stay that way for long and the usual traits kick in, while retaining that gothic feeling.

The latter half of the album is without a doubt the better and the closing three songs are the highlights here with the thrashier, fast paced tempo of ‘I Am The Void’ being a welcome addition where the guitars actually have relevance and continuing into ‘Surface The Infinite’, while final track ‘Iridium’ has slower tempo that changes between melody and brutality with ease, while at times feeling quite gloomy and has essences of doom about it.

While ‘We Are The Void’ is definitely a decent album, it does not aid their bid to stay at the forefront of the Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal Scene. For a pioneering band of the genre, some may have expected more and rightly so considering their last three albums at least. For a band of the calibre and what we have come to expect of DARK TRANQUILITY, to let so much, for want of a better word even though it’s decent, filler appear here is hopefully only a minor blip, and they will come back stronger and better.

Rating: 3.8/5.0

Review By Adam Fredericks