Written: 5th August 2024
Thirty-five years into their career, Dark Tranquillity dwell within the realms of the most influential bands in melodic death metal alongside At The Gates and In Flames. Having established themselves with albums such as The Gallery and Damage Done, Dark Tranquillity gained a loyal following. Operating as a five piece once again following the recent departure of both drummer Anders Jivarp and bassist Anders Iwers and after the untimely passing of former guitarist Fredrik Johannson in 2022, the band prepare to begin a new chapter. Now joined by Joakim Strandberg Nilsson (drums) and Christian Jansson (bass), keyboardist Martin Brändström is looking forward to the release of new album Endtime Signals. "It's an inspiration to have new musicians in Dark Tranquillity. There's new flavours with new musicians. Joakim is a very technical drummer. He opened up new avenues of composing music. With that energy, we thought it would be cool to revisit faster songs.”
Shivers and Voids begins with plaintive guitar until twenty seconds in, drummer Joakin Strandberg Nilsson – appearing on his first studio album with the band - announces his arrival with intent. Mikeal Stanne has long been one of the most respected vocalists in melodic death metal and on this opening track, he snarls with incessant passion borne from the experience of making the album. “The last time I wrote was before the pandemic,” Stanne says, who describes Endtime Signals as absolutely cathartic. “It was time to deal with some of that. Many things happened when we started writing for this album a year and a half ago. We lost a lot of friends like Fredrik [Johansson]. The world seemed like a more hostile place overall.” Lyrically dissecting the necessity for resilience in times of turmoil, Dark Tranquillity opens the door to their inner emotions from the outset. As we suffer through shivers and voids / Another lapse will come / What is latent in our mind forever / Made to tremble / Made to fear. With both energy and melody, Shivers and Voids is a powerful opener that is a fitting introduction to the new members. As an interesting curio, one guitar motif is highly reminiscent of the theme from The Terminator.
Making good on Brändström’s promise for faster songs, the verses of Unforgiveable are charged with a furious intensity, the newly installed rhythm section determined to show just how much they have to offer. Beyond all sense is this / The march goes ever on / Inside what’s left behind / The wasted years of scorn. Stanne steps up his raw grit and Johan Reinholdz’s guitar threatens to ignite during a truly blistering solo. On the cinematic Neuronal Fire, a track that allows for more expansive keyboards, Dark Tranquillity still manage to inject a certain amount of pace at different points. While the quintet are well within their comfort zone with a track such as this, it points to the variety that inhabits the album.
Not Nothing is more evidence of that variety and the first track on the album to feature both clean and growling vocals. Carefully picked guitars, portentous keyboards and a brooding vocal combine to create an introduction full of apprehension. We are without / We are just passing by / No guiding hand for finding our way / We’re equal to the dust in our eyes / The mindless noise we are. Exploring our sense of purpose and the inherent fears we face, Not Nothing finds Dark Tranquillity weaving – both lyrically and musically - between the anguished clean vocals and the belligerent strength of the growling vocals. Drowned Out Voices steps up the momentum and vigour during its initial minutes and closing section. These segments bookend a poignant central verse with Stanne accompanied by gentle guitar and distantly pulsating synths. It is amongst his most accomplished moments on the entire album. We are too easy to manipulate / A simple mind for simple thoughts / The value of our words reside / Inside the space between us. Both Not Nothing and Drowned Out Voices encapsulate how the band thread both sentiment and force throughout their music.
Desolate piano and elegiac strings announce the arrival of One Of Us Is Gone, a song with solely clean vocals. An exceptionally touching tribute to Fredrik Johannson, it swells with dark majesty, bringing further multiplicity to the album. There is something of Depeche Mode about Stanne’s delivery on such tracks, a band he has made no secret of his respect for. Later in the album, Wayward Eyes, although containing some growling vocals and slightly faster paced, is in a similar vein, Martin Brändström’s inventive keyboards adding stimulating layers of texture. The Last Imagination - containing further exemplary guitar work from Reinholdz - changes tempo during different sections of the track and Dark Tranquillity play with flow and dynamism throughout.
Our Disconnect, Enforced Perspective (another high tempo rampage) and A Bleaker Sun (which opens with a rapid-fire almost thrash like riff) continue the sombre themes with their examinations of perception, insignificance, human ambition and introspection. “We felt like we had to make an album that needed to be taken very seriously,” reveals Mikeal Stanne. “So, it's everything I've been thinking about for the last two years. We're destroying our lives, world, atmosphere and reality systems. It's so hard to get along and agree on things now. There's a lot of doomsday feeling in this album. I asked myself, how do we get ourselves out of this? I felt helpless and insignificant. All this spiralled into what I'd call a 'light depression'. Writing was my only way out of it.” While Endtime Signals very much feels like a team effort, Johan Reinholdz – now the only guitarist in the band - is all over the album, whether playing at lightning speed on Enforced Perspective or conjuring a beautifully melodic solo on A Bleaker Sun.
False Reflection, the final track from the album proper, brings more Martin Gore vibes to the fore. With clean vocals, it is a heartfelt song which questions our sense of disconnection, the authenticity of relationships, our self-awareness and the human tendency for feigned understanding, leaving the listener contemplating its musical and lyrical gravitas. What we crave for ourselves / From anyone who will listen / Is not enough to maintain that image in the mirror you see for yourself / What are we if not a false reflection? Bonus tracks Zero Sum and In Failure, while both solid enough, are probably correctly positioned based on the quality of the overall album.
With Endtime Signals, Dark Tranquillity have regained their momentum, appearing revitalised following a mixed reception to Moment. Johan Reinholdz reflects, “There’s a lot of nuances in our work, especially with the riffs, where the solos fit in and how the keyboards sound against it all. That took a lot of time. I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out.”
Cleverly varied with hostility, vulnerability, passion and cinematic elements, Endtime Signals is superbly mixed and produced, each instrument shining with power and clarity. Fans expecting an album completely full of higher tempo, combative material may be disappointed; however, there was always inherent melody in the albums of Dark Tranquillity and Endtime Signals showcases this in a range of interesting ways. Finessed, innovative, wonderfully played and crafted and lyrically relevant to modern times, it is an album that works on several levels and will leave fans that fully embrace the array of material on offer both thrilled and entertained. Explore the endtimes here….
Endtime Signals is released on 9th August 2024.
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