Review- Dark Tranquility- Friction

[deathstrike from hell]

ok. so I know a lot of people have been looking forward to this disc, and since I have it I thought i'd share my thoughts on it.

with a european street date of april 23rd, its a ways off but here goes.

1. nothing to no one

keyboard drivin track similar to white noise black silence. full of riffs, but sounds like an insomnium b side.

2. the lesser faith

chugging riffs similar to earlier work, with a big chorus similiar to old inflames (clayman era) and a pretty cool acoustic interlude

3.terminus (where death is most alive)

weird keyboard intro similiar to an ayreon song, but the vocals sound grated. not a very big fan of this song. picture newer inflames material with better vocals.

4. blind at heart

love this track. total gothenburg sound with multiple layered guitar tracks. couple blast beat surprises. guitars sound much lower in this song than the previous 3. awesome chorus.

5. icipher

slowest track on the album. cool piano accompaniment to the guitar. AWESOME solo on this one. Almost opeth like (beneath the mire comes to mind) and a pretty nice instrumental break

6. inside the particle storm

starts off slow with clean guitar and builds momentum behind an interesting drum loop. sound like hypocrisy for awhile (catch 22) then completely stops into an acoustic part thats pretty amazing. bunch of flourishes. cool track

7. empty me

very nice track. fast, and probably the most straightforward track on the cd. sounds like dark tranquility doing what they do best. cool keyboard breakdown in the middle of the track. sounds almost symphony x ish.

8. miserys crown

LOVE this track. starts off fast but the vocals are grating again. then throws you for a loop with CLEAN vocals. Sounds weird. almost like amorphis!

9. focus shift

check out the bands myspace and judge this one yourself

10. the mundane and the magic

acoustic intro with slight delay and a bunch of parts. then a piano/keyboard part for a bit that sounds really really good, chugging guitar halfway through and awesome vocals. And clean vocals + female vocals come out of no where. hahaha

So all in all, I like this disc. If you like their old stuff, you'll probably want to pic this up. It's not their greatest work, but its definately a logical progression in the right direction. I guarantee this disc will either make or break them as far as exposure is concerned.

- Deathstrike

 

[MajestikMøøse]

Song by song reviews aren't really that informative

you might as well just post

"Elitism and phrase leads romantic tonality and nihilistic ideology, Rampantly foggy neo-classicism and drums. Atonal neo-classicism perfoms phrase in architectural performance: Darkly atonal order with elitism, Distortion and precision perfoms spiritual dissonance and abstract dissonance. Neo-classical expression concludes the obscurity on polyrhythmic progression. Conclusion divides fuzzy and dissonant senses with progressive, nihilistic architecture -- Obscenely romantic violence yet black metal. Elitistic album rages order on fuzzy death metal. Pleasantly epic precision and existence. Ideology distorts polyrhythmic and uniting dissolves with textural, melodic rhythm, Ideological spirit progresses interpretation from polyrhythmic power chords -- Atmospheric album rages themes upon open structure. classically atmospheric architecture rages romanticism."

or

"Dissonance distorts uniting and romantic denies and abstract, evolutionary distortion, Obscurity leads ideological and searing clashes with this searing, harmonic expression -- Structure orders nihilistic and conceptual addresses yet evolutionary, uniting riffs. Interestingly architectural extremism this neo-classicism, Melody progresses searing and atonal orders yet romantic, elitistic rhythm: Consciousness with timbre distorts epic ideology and spiritual phrase. Themes with structure clashes with harmonic nihilism and neo-classical phrase -- Cycle with harmonic builds evolutionary riffs and dissonant expression. Fuzzy conclusion builds conclusion on dissonant aesthetics, Nearly open ideology yet neo-classicism. Romantic drums perfoms death metal beneath neo-classical violence. Polyrhythmic phrase rages performance to conceptual album. Vastly nihilistic precision with drums -- Open melody clashes with architecture on harmonic harmony; classically textural riffs senses extremism."

or

"Power chords destroys fuzzy and epic senses and elitistic, searing structure. Power chords leads romantic and focused leads with melodic, epic phrase, Textural consciousness orders elitism in atonal precision; Focused nihilism concludes phrasing upon architectural obscurity, Melody and spirit orders polyrhythmic ideology and dissonant harmony; Gently melodic narration yet chaos, Rhythmically spiritual existence this aesthetics. Suspendedly neo-classical performance and phrasing, Cycle this architecture builds searing extremism and atonal harmonic. Phrase progresses atonal and foggy concludes with foggy, focused harmonic, Harmony orders atonal and atmospheric rages this foggy, open tonality -- Carefully fuzzy chaos with themes. Atmospheric death metal destroys timbre beneath nihilistic romanticism, Fully spiritual progression and phrase. darkly dissonant progression addresses harmonic."

 

[AsModEe]

^^ anus.com posters should burn

My real question is: does it sound a lot like Character?

 

[EricT]

Friction...

Freudian slip?

 

[Captain Beard]

I'll pick up a promo and give her a whirl.

 

[Enemy242]

yeah i got it today too. i've only given it one or 2 listens but so far i'm liking character a bit more, not to say its bad, just some of the riffs like in terminus seem like they weren't really trying that hard.

 

[Captain Beard]

It's like Character, but has older influences in it too. I think you'd like it ASSmode, if you went either way on their albums.

 

[Captain Beard]

More update: He's improved his clean vocals since Projector. I liked the raw sound of them on that album, but this was a good progression.

 

[neal]

The Gallery is fantastic. havent really bothered with the rest.

 

[Metal head87]

There are clean vocals? I need to check this out. I really love Projector.

 

[Captain Beard]

On 8 and 10.

 

[AsModEe]

It's like Character, but has older influences in it too. I think you'd like it ASSmode, if you went either way on their albums.

well the reason why I asked if it was like Character is because I didn't think it was that good. I got bored of that album very fast. The older influences might save it, cause I liked Projector better.

 

[Metal head87]

I remember hearing one of the songs on Century Media's website a couple of weeks ago. It really reminded me of The Gallery and The Mind's Eye, but I only listened to it once.

 

[Söy]

i like this one. not quite sure what else to say about it because honestly i dont know much about DT, but eh.

 

[84n44n]

I'm listening to it now. Sounds a lot like Character... and like Damage Done... and like Haven... etc.

It's very enjoyable, but formulaic as fuck.
Overall I prefer Character.

 

[BlueSky]

you could have just said it sounds like everything else they have done

 

[En Vind Av Sorg]

Song by song reviews aren't really that informative

you might as well just post

"Elitism and phrase leads romantic tonality and nihilistic ideology, Rampantly foggy neo-classicism and drums. Atonal neo-classicism perfoms phrase in architectural performance: Darkly atonal order with elitism, Distortion and precision perfoms spiritual dissonance and abstract dissonance. Neo-classical expression concludes the obscurity on polyrhythmic progression. Conclusion divides fuzzy and dissonant senses with progressive, nihilistic architecture -- Obscenely romantic violence yet black metal. Elitistic album rages order on fuzzy death metal. Pleasantly epic precision and existence. Ideology distorts polyrhythmic and uniting dissolves with textural, melodic rhythm, Ideological spirit progresses interpretation from polyrhythmic power chords -- Atmospheric album rages themes upon open structure. classically atmospheric architecture rages romanticism."

or

"Dissonance distorts uniting and romantic denies and abstract, evolutionary distortion, Obscurity leads ideological and searing clashes with this searing, harmonic expression -- Structure orders nihilistic and conceptual addresses yet evolutionary, uniting riffs. Interestingly architectural extremism this neo-classicism, Melody progresses searing and atonal orders yet romantic, elitistic rhythm: Consciousness with timbre distorts epic ideology and spiritual phrase. Themes with structure clashes with harmonic nihilism and neo-classical phrase -- Cycle with harmonic builds evolutionary riffs and dissonant expression. Fuzzy conclusion builds conclusion on dissonant aesthetics, Nearly open ideology yet neo-classicism. Romantic drums perfoms death metal beneath neo-classical violence. Polyrhythmic phrase rages performance to conceptual album. Vastly nihilistic precision with drums -- Open melody clashes with architecture on harmonic harmony; classically textural riffs senses extremism."

or

"Power chords destroys fuzzy and epic senses and elitistic, searing structure. Power chords leads romantic and focused leads with melodic, epic phrase, Textural consciousness orders elitism in atonal precision; Focused nihilism concludes phrasing upon architectural obscurity, Melody and spirit orders polyrhythmic ideology and dissonant harmony; Gently melodic narration yet chaos, Rhythmically spiritual existence this aesthetics. Suspendedly neo-classical performance and phrasing, Cycle this architecture builds searing extremism and atonal harmonic. Phrase progresses atonal and foggy concludes with foggy, focused harmonic, Harmony orders atonal and atmospheric rages this foggy, open tonality -- Carefully fuzzy chaos with themes. Atmospheric death metal destroys timbre beneath nihilistic romanticism, Fully spiritual progression and phrase. darkly dissonant progression addresses harmonic."

So thats why you asked for the autoanus program

 

[deathstrike from hell]

just trying to give you pertanent information on the cd.

 

[BlueSky]

I didn't listen to it but I can bet it goes

melodic riffing halftime beat melodic riffing halftime beat and so on

 

[RodneyXM]

Venturing into the dubious realms of emotional rock/metal, Dark Tranquility blend the epic romanticism of an Iron Maiden with the energetic lust for adventure of hard rock and the racing synchronous tremelo speeds of black metal like Dissection. Sometimes confusing is this mix of styles which breeds palm-muting strumming riding a stadium rock extravaganza of sentimental riffing in a ballad construction, as if later Sentenced got on stage with Def Leppard and Dismember for a jam.

Musically this effort falls into the same category as Dissection and "Slaughter of the Soul" from At the Gates; it is melodic heavy metal at high speed using death metal technique but not compositional ideas. Roughly from the Göthenberg school of metal, this release sustains high speeds and generates myriad simple riffs working over simple melodies in the primitive voices generated. Where At the Gates worked on single riffs and divisions of those, however, Dark Tranquility work more within the riff salad paradigm, piling fundamentally different entities within the same rhythmic paradigm.

This produces often disconnective music with room to expand within the bounds of otherwise stable mainstream songwriting. Percussion functions in a jazz-fusion method of keeping a rolling frame of rhythmic reference hanging around whatever figures might appear, abandoning more linear metal styles for more inclusive rock ones. Bass follows guitar instead of drums, and shadows what are at heart musical NWOBHM riffs with the heavy strumming or fast runs that characterize their death/black metal transition.

While this album is anti-innovative in its embrace of previous metal genres, and its heavy sentiment/absolutism makes it sometimes a difficult listen for experienced Hessians, its mastery of this hybrid form continues the emotive promise of dramatism in metal.