Dark Tranquility - Haven
Century Media Records - 2000
/images/covers/darktranquillity_haven.jpg
Haven is the latest album by the Swedish band Dark Tranquillity. Along with In Flames and the now-defunct At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity helped to establish the Gothenburg scene. These bands play melodic and technical metal but with death style vocals. However, with each new album they come out with, Dark Tranquillity continues to challenge themselves and explore new musical directions. This album is no exception, while it contains many of the elements of the last album Projector; Haven is definitely a much better album.
Once again, the presence of keyboards and electronics are heavily integrated into the songs. But this time around the weaker elements of Projector are eliminated and we are left with better songs. Also, mostly gone are the "clean" vocals that singer Mikael Stanne used in their last album, only one song "Emptier Still" features this style of singing and along with the tedious slow pace of this song it makes it the weakest track. However, this is really the only negative in this album. Most of the music on the album is mid-tempo but it is heavy and brutal and the keyboard usage is fantastically played especially in "The Wonders At Your Feet", the blistering fast opening track. "Indifferent Suns" is very cool and has a very heavy and catchy chorus. "Not Built to Last" is another head banging mid-tempo track that is mixed with slow interludes to really make it rather interesting. "Fabric" has a very remarkable intro with the keyboards starting it off and then the guitars come shredding into the mix. "Rundown" is another speedy crushing song and it is my favorite of the album. It has really speedy parts and has a nice change of pace during the verses. The catchy chorus is easily the best one of the entire album.
Haven is a definite improvement over Projector and it is obvious that they want to go in a more heavy direction with their music. They should try to speed up their songs a bit more because I feel that is where they are at their best. They have the elements, the talent, and the drive to come out with a real crushing effort. It is quite clear that Dark Tranquillity is not interested in making the music found in the albums like The Gallery and Skydancer. Some people might find this unfortunate but the direction they are taking right now leads me to believe that better things are still to come.
Century Media Records - 2000
/images/covers/darktranquillity_haven.jpg
Haven is the latest album by the Swedish band Dark Tranquillity. Along with In Flames and the now-defunct At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity helped to establish the Gothenburg scene. These bands play melodic and technical metal but with death style vocals. However, with each new album they come out with, Dark Tranquillity continues to challenge themselves and explore new musical directions. This album is no exception, while it contains many of the elements of the last album Projector; Haven is definitely a much better album.
Once again, the presence of keyboards and electronics are heavily integrated into the songs. But this time around the weaker elements of Projector are eliminated and we are left with better songs. Also, mostly gone are the "clean" vocals that singer Mikael Stanne used in their last album, only one song "Emptier Still" features this style of singing and along with the tedious slow pace of this song it makes it the weakest track. However, this is really the only negative in this album. Most of the music on the album is mid-tempo but it is heavy and brutal and the keyboard usage is fantastically played especially in "The Wonders At Your Feet", the blistering fast opening track. "Indifferent Suns" is very cool and has a very heavy and catchy chorus. "Not Built to Last" is another head banging mid-tempo track that is mixed with slow interludes to really make it rather interesting. "Fabric" has a very remarkable intro with the keyboards starting it off and then the guitars come shredding into the mix. "Rundown" is another speedy crushing song and it is my favorite of the album. It has really speedy parts and has a nice change of pace during the verses. The catchy chorus is easily the best one of the entire album.
Haven is a definite improvement over Projector and it is obvious that they want to go in a more heavy direction with their music. They should try to speed up their songs a bit more because I feel that is where they are at their best. They have the elements, the talent, and the drive to come out with a real crushing effort. It is quite clear that Dark Tranquillity is not interested in making the music found in the albums like The Gallery and Skydancer. Some people might find this unfortunate but the direction they are taking right now leads me to believe that better things are still to come.
