Dark Tranquillity is a Swedish melodic death metal band formed in 1989. They are together with In Flames and At The Gates the pioneers of what is called The Gothenburg metal scene. Fun fact: Anders Fridén was a part of Dark Tranquillity in the early beginning. He did the vocals for their debut album ‘Skydancer.’ In 1990 Mikael Stanne, then guitarist of Dark Tranquillity, did the vocals for the debut of In Flames, because they didn’t have a vocalist that time. After the release of debut ‘Skydancer’ Anders Fridén left the building for In Flames. Mikael Stanne took over the vocals for Dark Tranquillity. And now there is their 12th album called ‘Moment.’

We start with ‘Phantom Days’ that was released as a preview for the upcoming album. I lost sight of the band after their album ‘Fiction’, but with ‘Phantom Days’ they go back to the glory days of melodic death metal with awesome keyboard tunes, melodic riffs and don’t the forget the amazing voice of Mikael Stanne.

‘Transient’ gives us more insight into the melodic death sound of Dark Tranquillity. It’s very melancholic and has some Paradise Lost influences. Melodic doom to be exact. ‘Identical To None’ kicks ass from the start with a catchy chorus and takes me back to ‘Lost To Apathy’ from their album ‘Character’. ‘The Dark Unbroken’ is a beautiful slow song where we finally get to hear the beautiful clean vocals of Mikael Stanne with an important role for keyboardplayer Martin Brändström. For me personally, you have to hear this song when it’s dark outside. In the daylight it’s a normal melodic death song but when it’s dark it takes you away.

‘Remain In The Unknown’ stays in the slower section that we entered with ‘The Dark Unbroken.’ This song could be on an album of Paradise Lost. Melodic doom with a nice death metal twist. ‘Standstill’ is yet another beauty with the beautiful keyboard that follows the melodic riffs exactly to create that melancholic sound. On ‘Ego Deception’ and ‘A Drawn Out Exit’ we get back to reality with the sound that put Dark Tranquillity on the map: melodic death metal mixed with clean vocals.

‘Eyes Of The World’ gives us a taste of the melancholic side of Dark Tranquillity. ‘Failstate’ is my personal favorite of this album. I gonna say no more, just listen and enjoy. This album never runs out of good songs, not even near the end. Just listen to ‘Empires Lost To Time.’ We end in style with ‘In Truth Divided’. This song shows a new face that hopefully will be a part of Dark Tranquillity. A beautiful mix of Paradise Lost and Insomnium.

Release Date: November 20th, 2020
Label: Century Media Records
Tracklist:

1. Phantom Days
2. Transient
3. Identical To None
4. The Dark Unbroken
5. Remain In The Unknown
6. Standstill
7. Ego Deception
8. A Drawn Out Exit
9. Eyes Of The World
10. Failstate
11. Empires Lost To Time
12. In Truth Divided