Dark Tranquillity - Fiction

[Right as Rain]

I'm completely new to this genre, and completely new to DT as well. Fiction is my first DT cd ever, and I love it. It's one of those rare cd's where you actually have a hard time picking out your favourite song, because they're all great. Like someone else said, the cd has hardly left my cd-player since I bought it.

I wish I could join this discussion of their musical development, but since I haven't heard the other cd's yet, I can't. I do agree that a band has to evolve, but if they're talented enough, they don't necessarily have to go as far as reinventing themselves (at least not more than once every five years or so).

As a first acquaintance with the band, Fiction has definitely worked well for me (though seeing them live was what really sparked my interest in the first place).

 

[ShredHeadJHJ]

So far I've never seen what was so great about this band. The only full album I own by them is "The Gallery" & I've heard so much about how great it is now I dislike it more because of it. I think it's bland, very forgettable, & even boring at times. I find it impossible to actually get into & I've listened to it 100 times. I've heard some of their other stuff that was rather decent, but still far from killer... I always thought I was missing something huge from them, but then I just hear everyone go ape shit over "The Gallery" & I get to thinking I shouldn't waste my time with another one of their albums. I'm guessing from this debate that if I was going to get another Dark Tranquility album "Character" would be the one to get, right?

 

[Edias]

If you're more about pure brutality... Pick up Damage Done.
If you're into something of a gothic sound... Pick up Character.
If you're looking for something inbetween, with some clean vocals to mix things up, pick up Fiction.

That's my take on it, anyway. IMO, though, they're all good.

 

[BigBoss13666]

amazing CD Dark Tranquility does it again with another awesome album! i can't wait to see them back in montreal

 

[challenge_everything]

Listened to it some more after my earlier comments... it's still crap.

 

[bagdad]

Dark Traquility is the most band in melodic death

Read this quote back in July and I'm still laughing about it.

Fiction is a great album but it doesn't live up to Character or The Gallery

 

[Naglfar]

Yeah, I thought that was a great comment too. I usually wait a few months before commenting on albums, and I must say, Fiction is their best album since Haven, but between the four albums after Projector, you also have to say that the band stopped experimenting very much with their sound after Haven.

I think people underestimate how poorly received Projector was. It is, indeed, their worst album, but I think after that experience any band would start to shy away from tinkering with their sound too much. They found a formula that works on Haven (which is their most underrated album, imo, I love it and listen to it fairly often), and I sort of see Damage Done, Character, and Fiction as the continuation of that formula.

The fact is, they're never going to release something as comprehensibly mindblowing as the Gallery again. I agreed with someone who posted a couple of months ago that the Gallery may be one of the best three metal albums of all time... while I personally would put it more in the top 10 or 20, if you just looked at metal in the last 20 years... the Gallery would be one of the three best. As a whole, they're a good band. And they have a great discography (even Projector had some great songs, like Nether Novas, in spite of being a mediocre album overall). I think it's important not to judge them by what they're not anymore, and especially not by the Gallery. That was magic in a bottle right there. Most bands never achieve an album like that. At least DT was able to pull it off once, right? And they released a couple of good albums afterwards.

Maybe they have the next Gallery up their sleeves... we'll see!

 

[Edias]

Yeah, I thought that was a great comment too. I usually wait a few months before commenting on albums, and I must say, Fiction is their best album since Haven, but between the four albums after Projector, you also have to say that the band stopped experimenting very much with their sound after Haven.

I think people underestimate how poorly received Projector was. It is, indeed, their worst album, but I think after that experience any band would start to shy away from tinkering with their sound too much. They found a formula that works on Haven (which is their most underrated album, imo, I love it and listen to it fairly often), and I sort of see Damage Done, Character, and Fiction as the continuation of that formula.

The fact is, they're never going to release something as comprehensibly mindblowing as the Gallery again. I agreed with someone who posted a couple of months ago that the Gallery may be one of the best three metal albums of all time... while I personally would put it more in the top 10 or 20, if you just looked at metal in the last 20 years... the Gallery would be one of the three best. As a whole, they're a good band. And they have a great discography (even Projector had some great songs, like Nether Novas, in spite of being a mediocre album overall). I think it's important not to judge them by what they're not anymore, and especially not by the Gallery. That was magic in a bottle right there. Most bands never achieve an album like that. At least DT was able to pull it off once, right? And they released a couple of good albums afterwards.

Maybe they have the next Gallery up their sleeves... we'll see!

Yeah, it may not be mind-blowing but they're still great instrumentally, vocally, lyrically and in general. They may not have the creative luster at the moment, but they're hardly dull.