Dark Tranquillity - New Album "Endtime Signals" out 2024-08-16

[mindd]

Here's some info on the new album:

"Welcome to the world of DARK TRANQUILLITY once again," the band says. "It's been a while since 'Moment' and we've gone through quite a lot in order to end up where we find ourselves today. But as we can reveal the first single from the upcoming 'Endtime Signals', the feeling is that of pride, accomplishment, and a fair bit of relief. 'The Last Imagination' showcases one of many facets of what we feel is our most diverse album to date."

The band continues: "Going back to what we fundamentally feel is the core of DARK TRANQUILLITY, with a partly new lineup, has been a tremendous experience. It gave us the opportunity to re-evaluate and view what we have built from a new and exciting perspective. This resulted in a focused and intense writing period where we have discovered aspects of our music anew and taken certain elements of it further than before. Joakim Strandberg Nilson has delivered above and beyond in terms of drumming, with Christian Jansson following through in fierce and precise fashion. This has driven the writing and recording process to feel challenging, different and inspiring in the best way possible."

Discussing the album as a whole, the band offers: "Thematically. the album deals with where we are heading, what has truly and fundamentally changed in us and how we find ways to cope with it. It has been hard finding that spark of positivity lately and there is a sense of grief running through the course of the album. Not only in the sense of mourning what we have lost on a personal level, but also where our sacrifices have taken us. 'The Last Imagination' in particular takes this to its logical conclusion and talks of what we leave behind and how hard it is for us to grasp that our significance might not be what we imagined.

"The breadth of the album is something we have worked hard at and we believe that this first song gives an indication if not a full picture of what is in store. There is ferocious speed, grinding brutality and haunting melodies of devastating loss to come. This is us making good on our promise to ourselves and our continuing mission."

And the album cover art:

 

[drawntoblack]

Maybe their weakest album cover since WaTV but I really don't care that much about these things.

 

[DE4life]

Yeah, I don't really know what to say about that album cover other than... OK. You do you. If the music is good then it doesn't really matter.

 

[galvanized]

One of the best DT songs I’ve heard in a long time. I like the groove and energy. Recalls Damage Done vibes. Johan’s Andromeda - Extension of the Wish is one of my favorite albums ever. If this is the result of him assuming majority creative control then I would be very happy. I like this better than THE.

The last few DT albums have had a couple good moments here and there (mood wise) but were lacking in energy, power… metal.

I hope the rest of the album is in this vein.

 

[galvanized]

I enjoyed the intro vibes, but when the fast-paced verse riff kicked in with a death metal grunt at 0:27 I was legit surprised. Let’s go!

 

[ThePhobiac]

One of the best DT songs I’ve heard in a long time. I like the groove and energy. Recalls Damage Done vibes. Johan’s Andromeda - Extension of the Wish is one of my favorite albums ever. If this is the result of him assuming majority creative control then I would be very happy. I like this better than THE.

The last few DT albums have had a couple good moments here and there (mood wise) but were lacking in energy, power… metal.

I hope the rest of the album is in this vein.

I thought I heard some Andromeda in it, too, and not just in the solo. I haven't listened to a ton of their stuff, but "Crescendo of Thoughts" is an excellent track.

 

[DE4life]

Whilst I do think the production is more reminicent of DD, I don't find TLI to be particularly in the style of that album. Damage Done had keys on it, but they weren't a major part of the album in terms of setting the tone of a song. That gothic tinge that is associated with a lot of DT stuff is scaled back a lot on DD, which is driven primarily by the guitars. It's probably the most straightforward metal album DT have ever done. TLI's riffing is similar in a lot of ways, but the keys mark it very much as modern DT.

 

[ThePhobiac]

inb4 tomorrow's big announcement is them saying Endtime Signals is their final album.

 

[The Grayfox]

I certainly wouldn't be surprised if that's where this is headed. Could also be a past member returning to the band. It'll definitely suck if it's the end, but at the same time they've had a hell of a run.

 

[mindd]

I think it's probably just a tour announcement. Or maybe a new second guitarist, who knows (I'd be certainly glad if Sundin came back)

 

[mindd]

Yeah, a European tour in November.

 

[The Grayfox]

Would've much rather it been Niklas or Martin returning. Oh well.

 

[Xpyro125]

Haven’s guitars are generally completely fucking boring and have little to no technicality to them (Same with the drums, for the most part)— I actually quite like the album, but not because it’s a good melodeath album. It’s very keyboard-focused, and the bass is seriously high up in the mix, which is a quality I like. The production and mixing are overall incredibly odd for a melodeath album, but I think it works because it isn’t really one. I’ve seen a ton of people claim it was the band going back from the experimentation on Projector to their melodeath sound (Even as a correction to some), but that just isn’t the case at all.

I’d say Feast of Burden and Rundown are two highlights, and Fabric is just one of their very best songs period imo.

I haven’t listened to much of Projector— I got sidetracked when I was trying to, but I do distinctly remember liking the first couple tracks from it.

Love Construct, there’s only two songs off it that I don’t love, being the opener and closer (Which is admittedly criminal in my books). I love a couple songs from WATV, but it’s fucking boring otherwise. Atoma’s good, and I have to listen to Moment again to remember the songs besides The Dark Unbroken and Eyes of the World, which are admittedly two of their best songs to me— Though then again, most of their songs I love are some of their best to me, so I don’t think I can really judge that side of their discography too well.

Damage Done is still easily my favorite album by them though. Absolutely fucking phenomenal album through and through.

 

[Xpyro125]

(Don’t know how to put a quote in a quote as a quote here, just know I was trying to quote mindd’s quoting of this)

"Welcome to the world of DARK TRANQUILLITY once again," the band says. "It's been a while since 'Moment' and we've gone through quite a lot in order to end up where we find ourselves today. But as we can reveal the first single from the upcoming 'Endtime Signals', the feeling is that of pride, accomplishment, and a fair bit of relief. 'The Last Imagination' showcases one of many facets of what we feel is our most diverse album to date."

Man, that’s the same shit they said about Moment.

 

[DE4life]

I like how, even though there's praise for Projector and Construct, there is general agreement that WATV and Haven kinda suck come on, there's gotta be someone out there willing to give an impassioned defence of those albums. I would say Slave but I don't think he's a fan of DT or Stanne's vocals, so that rules him out.

 

[Xpyro125]

I like how, even though there's praise for Projector and Construct, there is general agreement that WATV and Haven kinda suck come on, there's gotta be someone out there willing to give an impassioned defence of those albums. I would say Slave but I don't think he's a fan of DT or Stanne's vocals, so that rules him out.

I think I gave the biggest defense of Haven here, and that was with an equal amount of criticism at that. I don’t think it sucks, but it is undeniably horribly flawed.

I’m not gonna go on a ramble defending WATV. Iridium is my favorite DT song, yeah, but that was cut from Fiction, which really shows the quality disparity when stacked up to even the other couple great songs (Dream Oblivion and The Fatalist, though I could see an argument for Surface the Infinite too) from Void. Far and away my least favorite album from the band from what I’ve heard.

 

[mindd]

Love Construct, there’s only two songs off it that I don’t love, being the opener and closer (Which is admittedly criminal in my books).

Finally someone here who loves Construct almost as much as I do (I also like For Broken Words a lot so not as much but still). Bonus tracks and A Memory Construct EP are kinda weak in comparison, but the base album is just so damn good. I could randomly stumble upon a song from that record and I'd just go and relisten to the whole album haha.

Atoma is a good record with some really great songs, but for me it was a bit of a step back after Construct. I still love Encircled, Atoma, Forward Momentum, Force of Hand, and, most of all, The Absolute and Time Out of Place (so much that I bought the fucking 7" single from Amazon for 10 euro lol)

I’ve seen a ton of people claim it was the band going back from the experimentation on Projector to their melodeath sound (Even as a correction to some), but that just isn’t the case at all.

I’d say Feast of Burden and Rundown are two highlights, and Fabric is just one of their very best songs period imo.

I'd say it wasn't a correction as in "return to da melodeath rootz" correction, but just a safer and more ...bland? record than Projector, which was a big departure from The Gallery/TMI. Always felt like Haven lacked something to be great. Very much agree on Fabric though!

 

[DE4life]

I think I gave the biggest defense of Haven here, and that was with an equal amount of criticism at that. I don’t think it sucks, but it is undeniably horribly flawed.

I’m not gonna go on a ramble defending WATV. Iridium is my favorite DT song, yeah, but that was cut from Fiction, which really shows the quality disparity when stacked up to even the other couple great songs (Dream Oblivion and The Fatalist, though I could see an argument for Surface the Infinite too) from Void. Far and away my least favorite album from the band from what I’ve heard.

I get what they were doing with WATV, I just don't understand why they were doing it. It feels like they decided to become extremely technical at the expense of the music actually being enjoyable to listen to. That was never what DT were about in the past, so why such a drastic pivot and what was the point? Doesn't appeal to a fairly significant portion of your fanbase and won't help live performances either. Do that kind of stuff as a side project if you want to experiment. I can remember being hugely, hugely let down when WATV came out. I started listening to DT a little while after Haven came out, so during my time listening they'd never released an album that I'd anticipated only for it to disappoint me. DD, Character and Fiction had all been 100% worthy of the wait and the hype. WATV was the first one that I didn't like at all, with Construct being the second and only other. Admittedly by the time Atoma and Moment came around I had much lower expectations, so that probably plays a part in those albums not disappointing me. I'm long past hoping DT will produce an album on the same level as DD/Character/Fiction, much like I long ago lost expectation of IF ever producing anything remotely on the level of Colony or Clayman again.

Iridium (as you say, Fiction leftover) and Her Silent Language are the two songs from WATV I'm okay with, mainly because they both remind me of Fiction, but I don't listen to either regularly and would probably skip both if they came on random shuffle.

In regards to Construct, I did go back and listen to it in full some time ago. I wrote about it on one of the threads here, and basically it wasn't a case of me not giving it a chance or still being salty about WATV and being prejudice against Construct. I just don't find it to be particularly interesting. Very little of what got me into DT around the DD-Fiction era is present in Construct. Extremely limited speed or energy on any of the tracks, just WATV-style doom-tinged stuff with slightly more melody here and there. Cool for those who like that kind of thing, but I have barely any music like that. Funnily enough most people who love Construct hate Endtime Hearts, but that's my favourite track on the album by far. Actually has some decent groove, melody, memorable chorus, cool riffing. Sounds much more like the DT I remember, as opposed to WATV version of the band.

 

[ThePhobiac]

To me, WATV is to Fiction what Clayman is to Colony. A stylistically-similar follow-up album with more diversity, but a step down in overall quality.

Granted, I'm not as big a fan of Clayman as the average IF fan.

As far as Haven, Stanne once mentioned that it was going to be much more like Projector than ended up being the case. They went on tour around the time Haven was being recorded, and they became worried about how the new songs would be received live, so they stripped out many atmospheric parts and clean singing as a way to inject more "energy" into the songs. As a result, they lost what was special about what they were working on, and the end product was a sort of in-between sound that didn't please the band itself and got lukewarm reception from the fans.

 

[The Grayfox]

There are a few songs on Haven that I do enjoy. I think The Wonders At Your Feet is a good opener and obviously the band like it as it's been a staple in their setlists since Haven came out. Fabric is also good.