Dark Tranquillity - The Calm Before the Storm

The Gothenburg music scene was, and still is, a breeding ground for talent spanning the most disparate genres: electronic, dark, punk, metal… This last strand is particularly famous, having seen the city give birth to a successful subgenre (melodic death metal) as well as several influential bands who managed to reinvent themselves and move beyond their own conventions. Dark Tranquillity are among its founders, alongside At The Gates, Ceremonial Oath and In Flames, and deserve credit for having reshaped the genre's conventions to forge a personal style, with an ambitious and original outcome that revives the darkwave and synth suggestions of the '80s within extreme yet melodic music.

The band was formed as Sceptic Boiler in 1989 in Billdal, a small town in the Gothenburg municipality, offering on the demo Enfeebled Earth a thrash metal sound that echoed the German (Kreator) and British (Sabbat) scenes, tinged with early death metal. The initial proposal was still fairly unremarkable, but the band had big ambitions; shortly after, they changed their name to Dark Tranquillity the following year. The original lineup consisted of Mikael Stanne (rhythm guitar) and Niklas Sundin (lead guitar), later joined by Martin Henriksson (bass) and Anders Jivarp (drums), their schoolmates and neighbours. For vocals, they brought in Anders Fridén, Jivarp's neighbour: according to legend, he was called over just as he was walking out his front door, right as the others were discussing the lack of a singer. It's not so far-fetched, really, since the Gothenburg metal scene was literally made up of childhood friends and neighbours, who every morning took the city bus to gather in specific neighbourhoods and venues, share their passions, play together, swap members or session musicians between bands, and discuss their favourite albums (Swedish death metal or American thrash metal, Mercyful Fate or Iron Maiden, and quite often non-metal bands too).

Dark Tranquillity released two limited-edition 7" EPs in quick succession, Trail Of Life Decayed in 1991 and A Moonclad Reflection in 1992. At this early stage, the band settled into a fairly conventional death metal, occasionally tinged with doom metal in some slower, more measured riffs ("Yesterworld") and black metal in other faster, buzzing ones ("Unfurled By Dawn"), while also showing melodic openings of acoustic guitar and keyboard ("Midwinter").

Instrumentally, the band's music was still immature but showed potential, especially on the rhythmic side, despite the dreadful recording quality, while the most disappointing element was Fridén's growl, thin and weak.

It wasn't until 1993 that the band finally got into the studio to record their debut Skydancer, released in August on Spinefarm. It was preceded by a few months by Ceremonial Oath (with "The Book of Truth") and At The Gates (with "The Red In The Sky Is Ours"), but it's effectively one of the foundational records of Gothenburg metal, and Dark Tranquillity should be regarded as among the genre's founding fathers.

Skydancer shows a huge stylistic leap forward compared to the early demos, but Anders Fridén remains the album's weakest link, along with the production. The songs were written almost entirely by Niklas Sundin and Martin Henriksson. The record is influenced by At The Gates's 1992 debut, compared to which it shows less drama but surpasses it in intensity, translating into fast, intricate riffs (often more than 20 different ones per song with no single unifying motif), numerous tempo changes (not always well balanced), plenty of sonic counterpoints and dual guitar leads.

The approach also draws on the technical death metal of Atheist and Nocturnus, bands the group admired for their desire to play something beyond the genre's mere aggression. There's also a slight black metal influence in a few sporadic buzzing tremolo-picked riffs and in the atmospheres. The level of complexity in the songwriting is such that the tracks sometimes come across as a bit muddled sonically, partly due to the still-raw arrangements and, above all, the far-from-excellent recording, the result of a very tight budget.

Our needs are depending in images in life

and the more you agree in the far more they ask

Niklas Sundin, in a 2013 interview for Decibel Magazine, also recalls tensions with the sound engineers due to mutual misunderstandings about the direction the record should take, stemming from the band's lack of familiarity with production work and the engineers' own inexperience with extreme metal. Compared to At The Gates, the band most often compared to them, the overall feel is different: Dark Tranquillity aim for elegance and passion, favouring a bittersweet melancholy rather than the sense of tragedy and nihilism that pervades their peers' work. The acoustic passages influenced by Swedish folk, far more prominent here, follow the same path, whether as brief interludes or melancholic, romantic ballads featuring female duets with Anna-Kaisa Avehall, inspired by Celtic Frost (the captivating "A Bolt Of Blazing Gold" and "Through Ebony Archways", on the latter of which Stanne also sings in clean vocals).

Song lengths vary, dipping below 4 minutes only on "In Tears Bereaved" and "Through Ebony Archways", but exceeding 7 minutes on "A Bolt Of Blazing Gold" and "Shadow Duet", which edge toward progressive death metal and would go on to influence bands like Edge Of Sanity and Opeth. The lyrics, written mainly by Niklas Sundin and to a lesser extent by Mikael Stanne, don't touch on anti-Christian or despairing themes at all (as was standard fare for many bands in this scene at the time), but draw more on fantasy and share affinities with the lyrics of the early gothic metal bands emerging in those years.

Skydancer is an original and innovative work within death metal, yet precisely for that reason (as well as the poor production) it would paradoxically go on to influence few bands within the Gothenburg scene. Perhaps because it's too complex an album, as well as too far removed from the tastes of most of the underground deathster crowd, who preferred rawer, more violent sounds. On the other hand, it would go on to influence many melodic black metal bands, both Scandinavian and otherwise.

Over time, the band has developed an ambivalent relationship with the record, remaining fond of the sense of freedom and exploration they felt during the writing process, while still regarding it as an example of youthful immaturity and pretentiousness (as Stanne would say 25 years later in an interview for Invisible Oranges: "We wanted to include so many different elements and instruments just to make it sound unique and special. In the end we didn't do that much! We just recorded a metal album… […] 'Skydancer' was just… an experiment. We tried so many things and wanted to see if they worked. We were so ambitious and pretentious – we wanted to do this and that. [...] 'Skydancer' in the end was like… trying to try things out to see if they worked. […] We did what we thought was different and cool. You really start experimenting for real once you understand what you're capable of. 'Skydancer' was, at most, an attempt to find an original musical style and find our musical identity. It was our first step in that direction").

After the album's release, Fridén decided to join Ceremonial Oath, with whom he released an album in 1995, before being recruited by Jesper Strömblad to sing for his band In Flames. In the meantime, Mikael Stanne appeared as a guest vocalist on the latter's 1994 debut album ("Lunar Strain"), practically begged to take part in rushed recording sessions for lack of a singer, before deciding to take on full-time vocal duties with his own Dark Tranquillity.

In a certain sense, it could almost be seen as a swap of microphones between the two bands, and the first chapter of a kind of "cousin-hood" that would from then on see them constantly compared by fans and press alike as the standard-bearers of the Gothenburg metal scene (helped along by the breakup of At The Gates, which would occur in 1996).

In early 1995, the Swedes released the EP Of Chaos And Ethernal Night, which showed a noticeable improvement in production (handled by Fredrik Nordström, who with his Studio Fredman was becoming the mastermind behind the major Swedish melodic death metal releases), compositional maturity, technical/melodic solidity and more polished arrangements. Some heavy metal, thrash metal and black metal influences helped further personalize the EP's style. Stanne, now officially on vocals, proved more effective than Fridén, though rather than a true growl he unleashed a kind of powerful, phlegmy screaming. His role as second guitarist was handed over to new recruit Frederik Johansson. For chronological reasons, the EP can be compared to "Terminal Spirit Disease", a slightly longer LP released a few months earlier by At The Gates, whose same despairing, tragic atmospheres it doesn't replicate, favouring instead more driving sounds; and to "Subterranean", the In Flames EP released the same year, which is simpler and more direct.

Of Chaos and Ethernal Light is essentially a stylistic preview of the direction the band would take with their personal masterpiece, The Gallery, released a few months later on Osmose.

The Gallery turns out to be majestic and spectacular, making up for all the flaws of Skydancer without diminishing any of the standout elements that set the Swedish band apart from the rest of the scene: the intricate guitar interplay, the elegant melodies, the marriage of aggressive assaults and acoustic digressions. Part of this balance also stems from the fact that all the band members have grown and now contribute to the songwriting with real cohesion and a shared spirit. This time the lyrics are almost entirely Stanne's domain, with Sundin contributing to a lesser extent. The track structures rarely follow a conventional song form with hooks and choruses, instead leaning toward hard-progressive (the band draws inspiration above all from Rush, Dream Theater and Yes) in terms of tempo changes and semi-multifaceted structures, though without taking that extra step in complexity to fully embrace the genre. On this front, the album is also more compact than its predecessor, with no track exceeding 5 minutes (except for the closing "...Of Melancholy Burning", which runs 6) and a couple of tracks clocking in under 3 minutes (the brief outburst of "Silence And The Firmament Withdrew" and the acoustic interlude of "Mine Is the Grandeur...").

Throughout the album there are numerous fine touches of acoustic guitar and (less successfully) sparse keyboard, reflecting the influence of Swedish folk on the compositions. Also notable are a few tracks that feature buzzing riffs tinged with black metal, such as "Edenspring" (practically death/black/folk), "The Dividing Line" (which also includes a riff clearly indebted to Black Sabbath), "The One Brooding Warning" and "Midway Through Infinity"; part of the more melodic side and the refined harmonizations, on the other hand, draw on classic heavy metal, particularly the Danish band Mercyful Fate (a cover of whom also appears on the deluxe edition). A female voice returns once again, Eva-Marie Larsson, featured on the elegant title track, the melancholic "Lethe" and the searing "...Of Melancholy Burning".

The Gallery was recorded just before (though released shortly after) the landmark "Slaughter Of The Soul" by At The Gates, with which it vies for the title of pinnacle of the Gothenburg scene. The two albums are virtually opposite in terms of songwriting philosophy and approach: technical, intricate and epic in the case of Dark Tranquillity's work; direct, stripped-down and tormented in the case of At The Gates. They're two sides of the same coin, testifying to the creative fertility and interpretive richness of this scene. They would be joined in early 1996 by "The Jester Race" from In Flames, which would try to find its own path somewhere between the two (intricate and polished, but also very melodic and impactful). Unfortunately, the melodic death metal acolytes that followed drew little from The Gallery (the most complex and elaborate of the historic trio) and limited themselves to cloning "the Gothenburg sound", essentially rehashing the riffs of At The Gates and In Flames without adding much of anything. Few would truly have anything original or personal to say within the scene, compared to these three cornerstones.

In 1996 the EP Enter Suicidal Angels was released. The singles "Zodijackyl Light", "Razorfever" and "Shadowlift Facade" foreshadow the sound of the following album (recorded in the same period) and show a marked simplification of the band's melodic death metal, with riffing and drumming closer to thrash metal and a more linear song structure, broken up however by brief melodic refrains. "Archetype" is a bizarre techno/jungle experiment that seems to exist mainly as an excuse to tinker with a drum machine; it's not even particularly listenable and left no stylistic legacy within the band. Chronologically, it represents the Swedes' first foray into electronics, even though it has nothing to do with the kind of electronics they would explore in the future.

It's striking to note how The Mind's I, released in 1997, shows a substantial purging of all the more refined and progressive elements of the previous albums, as well as the black metal-leaning influences, in favor of conventional thrash/death riffing that doesn't say much more on its own than what German thrash bands (Destruction, Kreator) and the later At The Gates had already expressed (albeit stripped of their emotional charge). It's not entirely a step backward, though, because alongside this tendency there's another, more melodic one, featuring soft digressions and atmospheric openings that, among other things, foreshadow the direction the following record would take.

These melodic elements sometimes surface as simple touches (as early as the opener "Dreamlore Degenerate"), other times becoming the defining feature of the songs, as in "Hedon" (where Fridén returns as a guest for some backing vocals), "Constant" and especially "Tidal Tantrum" (another album highlight, a poignant heavy rock track driven by power chords and melodic arpeggios). The peak comes with the suite "Insanity's Crescendo", moving and emotional, weaving together acoustic guitars, distorted explosions and a male/female vocal duet (Sara Svensson).

There are also small keyboard touches scattered throughout the album, courtesy of Fredrik Nordström, but they remain very marginal. The closing instrumental "The Mind's Eye" is a rhythmic ostinato that begins with just acoustic guitar, gradually joined by the other instruments until it reaches emotional, emphatic heights. The lyrics are almost entirely Stanne's work, writing passionate, reflective lyrics that are intellectual in their own way, rejecting the clichés of much early-90s underground Scandinavian metal and inspiring many different bands on this thematic front.

In conclusion, the album shows its best side precisely when it moves away from death metal to focus on melody, which is telling of where the band's greater inspiration now lies, given the direction they've taken. Unfortunately, the subpar production robs the tracks of depth, marking a step backward in this respect too — Stanne suffers most from this, having in the meantime switched to a more guttural growl/scream that nonetheless doesn't sound powerful. Compared to their Gothenburg cousins In Flames, who released "Whoracle" the same year, Dark Tranquillity on The Mind's I sound less sharp and compelling, but more atmospheric and romantic.

The demand I get from excellence

The void I felt from answering

Not only an addition, it generated need

The anticipated change arrives in 1999 with the release of Projector, which also marks the beginning of their partnership with Century Media. The band's intent is to set themselves apart from the scene: "We no longer wanted to be seen as just another melodic death metal band", is Mikael Stanne's comment on the matter, "there are all these bands in Gothenburg trying to show how different they are from one another, but the press lumps us all together, which isn't fair!"

In the meantime, the band's core sound had evolved into a scorching, energetic metal enriched by numerous atmospheric digressions, melodic openings, keyboard parts (once again handled by Nordström with the collaboration of Martin Brändström, who would become a full member of the band after the album's release) and above all by Stanne's clean voice, often featured in choruses or even entire songs. His timbre is baritone and melancholic, aesthetically pleasing and in some ways reminiscent of Dave Gahan, though his range is more limited, never straying beyond a single octave. In absolute terms, he isn't the first in the Gothenburg scene to use clean vocals alongside extreme metal riffing: Fridén of In Flames had already used it very sporadically, but always as a brief, occasional accent, whereas Stanne makes it an integral, defining part of the songs. His growling, meanwhile, is aggressive and acidic, but once again not very powerful, especially due to the mix, as it tends to be overwhelmed by drums and guitar. For the first time, the lyrics are entirely his own work from start to finish, and they would continue to be so going forward.

The album's atmospheres are influenced by 80s darkwave and, in part, by the more melancholic strains of synth-pop, and overall show a decided shift toward a more introspective and reflective approach, with a gothic touch. Projector is usually considered the beginning of Dark Tranquillity's electronic period, but the electronics on this album are still very embryonic — the keyboards are mostly used for melodic parts with piano accompaniment, or for background atmospheric effects. This is also the first album without any folk/acoustic elements (except in one track), replaced by clean guitar arpeggios.

Overall, the songs are all quite schematic, with clearly defined and separated verses and refrains. Even more than the dark influences and the clean vocals, this is what most sets the album apart from the earlier works, which were more intricate and packed with numerous different riffs within a single song. This isn't necessarily a negative in itself, especially since Dark Tranquillity still know how to write great songs even when working in a more linear style — the band has simply changed. The excellent opener "FreeCard", introduced by a simple keyboard figure before being torn open by distorted riffs and electronic effects that are now playful, now gloomy, recalls At The Gates crossed with Paradise Lost (who a year earlier had released "One Second"). "UnDo Control", amid its melancholic notes, features a duet between a female voice (Johanna Andersson) and Stanne's growling. "Auctioned" is a piano-and-acoustic-guitar ballad, like The Cure meeting Metallica's "The Unforgiven". The dark, electronic pulse of "Day To End" closely resembles "The Things You Said" by Depeche Mode, but Stanne sings in a tone of affliction and abandonment.

The most aggressive, scorching moments are the frenetic "The Sun Fired Blanks", the Maiden-esque "Dobermann" and especially the thrilling closer "On Your Time", which boasts a memorable climax, with drums and guitar progressively building toward a fiery explosion over which Stanne's passionate clean voice soars before giving way to the growl. The more bittersweet moments, which best combine the band's different souls, are exemplified by the gorgeous "To A Bitter Halt" or "Nether Novas", close in atmosphere to Anathema, or "ThereIn", which boasts one of the album's most captivating choruses.

Production-wise, the sounds are dry and distorted, heightening the dark atmospheres but shortchanging the vocals and instruments, which don't sound as powerful as they should (at least compared to In Flames' "Colony", released the same year, which is instead a concentrated burst of aggression and impact).

Projector was initially underrated by the specialist press, but beyond that it's a thoroughgoing transitional album, one in which the band experiments with new sounds to fold into their own signature style. The new ideas bring a freshness and originality that set it apart from most Swedish metal, but taken as a whole the record still feels a touch unripe, as shown by phrasing that stays sharply delineated rather than coalescing into songs that sound tight and fully polished. Still, the intent to vary the formula and step outside their comfort zone is commendable, and many of these songs have since become band classics. Unfortunately, the response from longtime fans was negative: the metal audience proved, as ever, very conservative, feeling "betrayed" by the adoption of softer, more melodic textures. On the flip side, a new generation of listeners took notice and discovered the band, and were indirectly encouraged to explore the Swedes' Eighties influences too, rather than fixating on the same old coordinates.

Before the album's release, but after the recording sessions, Dark Tranquillity parted ways with Johansson, who wanted to spend more time with his family and settle into stable work rather than writing songs and touring. His role was taken over by bassist Martin Henriksson (who was initially skeptical, not considering himself sufficiently skilled on guitar, but changed his mind after failing to find a new guitarist who matched the band's sound), while new recruit Michael Nicklasson, who had already played with the band live, stepped in on bass. In addition, Martin Brändström officially joined the lineup as full-time keyboardist, since the band intended to make electronics an integral part of their music.

In 2000 came Haven, and the shift seemed even more drastic, partly because Niklas Sundin, tied up with personal commitments, was unable to contribute to the songwriting and only took part in the recording. The result is catchy, streamlined riffing (no less intriguing for that), heavy on power-chords and hard & heavy attacks, courtesy of Henriksson, who preferred to steer clear of technical flourishes or fast, aggressive breaks in favor of melody. On top of that, Brändström's input in the songwriting meant the keyboards not only gained far greater prominence but actually drove the main melodies, or stood front and center alongside the bass while the guitars stepped back, with electronics permeating every arrangement and atmosphere. The result sounds tighter than on the previous record, less melancholic, more propulsive and engaging, while still carefully avoiding easy hooks or showy outbursts. There's probably more than a passing nod here to Paradise Lost, who in 1999 released "Host", an album entirely devoted to synth-pop and darkwave.

Instrumentally, this is nowhere close to a death-metal record. But vocally, Stanne sets aside his clean voice almost entirely (except on "Emptier Still") and focuses on the growl, now become very low and deep, and even almost catchy.

While Brändström's electronics are the most noticeable element, from this album onward one shouldn't overlook the too-often-neglected Nicklasson, who from Haven on takes an active part in the songwriting (he'll go on to co-write several great tracks) and makes his instrument heard and appreciated time and again.

Haven is a rare and admirable example of pursuing melody while still keeping it sophisticated. It's an album worth hearing at least once, if nothing else, as an example of a radical stylistic transition for a band that sounded very different just a few years earlier. Every track here is a potential metal hit, but with a psychological depth that's far from radio-friendly and much more introspective. Particularly worth noting is the opener "The Wonders At Your Feet", a band classic, catchy and fun; "Fabric", stirring and full-bodied, with riff interplay that's both elaborate and catchy at once; and finally the closer "At Loss For Words", elegant and dynamic, building to a striking atmospheric coda.

This too is a transitional album, but an anomalous one, because its guitar approach won't find much room in future productions (the riffing will return to its usual self once Sundin's contribution is back in the fold), the keyboards' prominence will be rebalanced against the rest of the instrumentation (except on individual songs where they'll still take the lead), while the more direct, accessible approach and Brändström's characteristic electronics will leave their mark going forward. Their cousins in In Flames, by contrast, took a faster, more scorching and heavy approach that same year with "Clayman", but Fridén (perhaps inspired by Stanne himself) in turn decided to bring out his clean voice often across many tracks, albeit with a different timbre.

Unfortunately, Haven would prove to be a rare exception on the metal landscape, misunderstood by fans and not followed up on by any kindred bands.

What can you tell me of the inside?

Is it as bright as all can see?

Damage Done (2002) finds the band recapping and reshuffling some of the ideas introduced in previous records, while still sounding different overall. The riffing, billed in press interviews beforehand as thrashier and heavier, is tangibly back in Sundin's hands and sits halfway between The Mind's I and Projector, with tight, very direct arrangements descended from Haven — though without picking up that album's same keyboard openness, which is once again pushed into the background. Stanne continues with his low, deep growl, proving himself one of the most compelling performers of this vocal style, managing to pursue melodic intent even within an aggressive roar — no easy feat, and even harder to sustain without damaging the vocal cords absent proper technical vocal training.

The atmospheres are dense and relatively dark, without sacrificing melody. On the surface it looks like a return to melodic death metal, but in reality the style is personalized and shaped by a radio-friendly approach that sets it apart from most other bands in the genre, with catchy, impactful choruses even in growled form, riffs that are lethal yet always melodic, meticulously polished arrangements, and an adherence to a song format that favors both the riff (the ones in the interlude of "The Treason Wall", in the central hook of the devastating "White Noise/Black Silence" and in the instrumental "Ex Nihilo" are spine-tingling) and the melodic chorus.

Thematically, the lyrics are among the best Stanne had written up to this point: intelligent and introspective, at times unsettling in sketching out very personal moods that the Swedish singer only lets us glimpse, with a degree of hermeticism. Yet he skillfully manages to make them anthemic through sweeping, engaging choruses (those of the opening anthem "Final Resistance" and the fiery "Monochromatic Stains" stand out above all).

The audience's response to the album was mixed: among longtime fans, some appreciated the greater guitar presence while others turned their noses up at the still-present catchy approach; among newer fans it found a warm welcome, and the specialist press praised it almost unanimously. Comparisons with In Flames are jarring, and could well end here: in 2002, the latter released "Reroute To Remain", marking a drastic departure from the Swedish sound in favor of American alternative-metal. Many longtime melodic-death-metal listeners saw Dark Tranquillity as an anchor to hold onto in order to stay connected with the sounds they loved, helped along by Damage Done, and with hindsight even came to reassess the two previous albums, judging them, after all, more personal and "honest" than In Flames' controversial change of direction. But the truth is that such rivalries have no real place in the Swedish scene, and nowhere do we find the kind of flagship-band feuds that the music press — especially the British press — has conditioned us to expect (think of the classic Beatles vs. Rolling Stones, or the more recent britpop battles). Both Dark Tranquillity and In Flames, along with most of their fellow musicians across Sweden, respect one another professionally and believe everyone should be free to play whatever they choose.

In 2004 came Exposures – In Retrospect And Denial, a collection of the band's early EPs along with almost all the bonus tracks and outtakes from their recent albums. Standouts include the refined, evocative and penetrating "Static", and the thoroughly stirring, moving "Cornered", both of which would later appear on reissues of the albums whose sessions they came from. The second disc is a live performance recorded in Poland.

Meanwhile, the legacy of the melodic-death-metal scene was branching out into various subcurrents. On one hand, European bands who instrumentally picked up directly where the later At The Gates, and partly In Flames, had left off, making the formula more accessible and adding occasional clean-voice choruses (though these didn't follow Stanne's dark, baritone tonalities, instead varying their approach from case to case). On the other hand, American and Canadian bands drawing in varying degrees on melodic death metal in general, as well as metalcore, emocore, post-hardcore and American thrash-metal, giving rise to the movement the press, with little imagination, dubbed melodic-metalcore. Dark Tranquillity stayed apart from these trends, developing a style all their own. Critics began to reassess the idea of blending metal with dark and electronic Eighties influences, and the band's more divisive records were increasingly rediscovered across magazines and listener communities. But the same idea didn't gain much traction in the underground, which more often tried to lazily recycle the sound of "Slaughter Of The Soul" or dilute its stylistic hallmarks. More rarely, some followers drew direct inspiration from Dark Tranquillity, but when they did it was clearly audible, given how distinctive their style is; this happened in particular in Finland and Australia, for instance with Insomnium and Be'Lakor.

Early 2005 brought Character, which represents an intensification of Damage Done: heavier, more aggressive, more violent, darker, with more scorching electronics, yet without sacrificing melody. Jivarp has never been so furious, Sundin and Henriksson have never been so fast, while Stanne sharpens his growling even further, which now becomes a powerful, overwhelming growl/scream, aided by a meticulous production that brings out every component. The tuning is dropped a further step to make the sound even darker. As for songwriting, there's a downside in that there are fewer riffs with a真 distinct identity of their own, with some background power-chords repeating themselves, and above all some hammering bridges that sound a bit too similar to one another; but setting that aside, Character is perhaps the band's most inspired album to date, yielding memorable songs such as the razor-sharp "The New Build" (which sounds like a "Final Resistance" pushed past the speed limit), the furious, visceral death metal of "Through Smudged Lenses", the industrial-tinged riffs of the harrowing "The Endless Feed", the stirring chorus and evocative keyboards of "One Thought", or the vibrant goth/death melodies of closer "My Negation". The single "Lost To Apathy" scores a big hit with its video and even ends up on a few soundtracks. The single's accompanying EP includes "Derivation TNB", a bleak, aching outtake between goth-rock, ambient-rock and industrial-rock that wouldn't have been out of place on the full album. Lyrically, Stanne outdoes himself, writing songs that read like genuine reckonings after moments of deep despair.

With this album the Swedish band reaches the peak of its critical and commercial success. Character is also the definitive endpoint of Dark Tranquillity's stylistic evolution: from here on, the band will no longer innovate its sound but will instead offer variations on it, reshuffling the various components explored throughout their career in different proportions. The group will also take the reins of production itself, with Fredrik Nordström limited to mixing duties.

Look at the shell that is you: empty, fragile, weak.

Soon the battle is over, lost to apathy

Fiction (2007) indeed doesn't stray at all from Character, and represents a reunion between the latter's ideas and the more melancholic, melodic atmospheres of Projector, so much so that after 8 years both Stanne's clean vocals and a female guest return on a few tracks (Nell Sigland of Norwegian goth-metal band Theatre Of Tragedy). The album shows meticulous care in its arrangements and production, the latter dense and elaborate, with numerous effects and sonic touches enriching the background of the songs. It's also a very mannerist work, to the point that some tracks veer into fan-service territory, and the female duet is itself emblematic of this approach (though it could also have been inspired, in its own way, by In Flames, who the previous year had recorded a duet with Swedish pop singer Lisa Miskovsky).

The method pays off, since the opening tracks are among the best the band has ever written, particularly the initial trio of "Nothing To No One" (halfway between "The New Build" and "Final Resistance"), "The Lesser Faith" (with highly creative riffs and bittersweet atmospheres underpinned by guitar effects and soft keyboard chimes) and "Terminus" (with overwhelming electronics and groovy, open-ended riffs). Also memorable are the effects-laden guitar work on "Blind At Heart" and the monumental, distorted explosions of "Empty Me", which pairs extremes worthy of Character (perhaps a touch generic in its drum avalanches) with an effects-drenched coda that quotes "At Loss For Words". The rest of the songs, however, sound less inspired and in some cases too (self-)derivative, particularly the single "Focus Shift", which hews too close to Soilwork.

Despite the overall dip in the second half of the record, Fiction is an appreciably engaging work, highly recommended for fans, and even in its weaker moments it shows a certain class and personality that many imitators of the Gothenburg sound fail to achieve. Dark Tranquillity's "worst", then, proves to be far better than many other bands' best. The album is the last one produced at the historic Studio Fredman, but Fredrik Nordström is absent from the credits: the modern, pristine production is achieved in collaboration with Danish producer Tue Madsen, another guru of the Scandinavian sound.

In 2008 Nicklasson leaves for unspecified personal reasons (rumours point to serious health problems, since the bassist had been hospitalized for diabetes the year before). His place is taken by Daniel Antonsson, former guitarist of Dimension Zero and Soilwork, who had already worked with the band in the past as a touring bassist.

2010 brings We Are The Void, the weakest record of the Swedes' career. Symbolically, it's also the first one made outside Studio Fredman, and you can hear it in the production: the sounds are thick and muddy, with washed-out guitars and flattened vocal lines. That's not the only problem, because compositionally the album feels like a watered-down, faded version of Fiction, or a stylistic halfway point between The Mind's I (for its thrashy, aggressive riffing) and Haven (for its electronic, melodic openings), but without pairing that with great songs. It feels like the band is coasting along a path already mapped out. What's especially disappointing, though, is the lack of strong songwriting, which is not only more predictable and formulaic than ever before, but also less impactful. With a less inventive production, many of the sonic counterpoints that enriched Fiction and the biting refrains of Character are missing too.

The best tracks, in any case, are remarkable and stand out well above the rest: "The Grandest Accusation" (low, dry riffs, grandiose keyboard work, understated but decisive guitar attacks that evolve into heavier onslaughts followed by melodic, atmospheric releases), "Arkhangelsk" (a dark, terrifying chorus, unsettling background keyboards, buzzing distortion and a furious growl) and closer "Iridium" (gothic arpeggios, mournful and mysterious clean vocals, an explosive climax in the chorus and a long atmospheric coda), the latter actually partly written back in 1998 and dusted off for the occasion.

The rest of the album is weaker, especially when it leans into thrash/death sounds, though the more markedly gothic moments don't show much freshness or richness of ideas either. All in all, an uninspired album.

After the album's release, Antonsson leaves to form the supergroup Akani, with members of Ill Niño, At The Gates, Dominion and Dead Reprise. The project will release one forgettable album and go no further. Henriksson will return to bass after nearly 15 years, splitting duties with his role as rhythm guitarist.

In 2013 the Swedes release Construct. The album essentially plays as a recap of the band's career. Perhaps as a response to the poverty of ideas on the previous record, and the tendency to settle into shared fundamentals over the last decade of full-lengths, the Swedes decide to dust off and reshuffle various attitudes explored across their career, looking to the past without wanting to simply retrace it. Many riffs were in fact written back in the '90s and revived for the occasion, refreshed and rearranged. The sounds that stand out most, though, are undoubtedly those harking back to the band's mid-career records, namely Projector and partly Haven, from which emerge gothic, electronic and melodic touches, as in the atmospheric soundscapes built with the instruments and in the gentler digressions. There isn't, however, the constant reliance on the former's clean vocals or the latter's electronics, which here are instead dosed in equal measure, while the usual guitar-bass-drums trio remains dominant. Brändström's touch is nonetheless evident in several arrangements, very oriented toward immediacy, especially in terms of structure.

The record also picks up something from the band's earliest albums, especially in its first half, where we find many fast, biting ideas reminiscent of their early style, though without reaching the grandeur of a The Gallery, favoring instead a darker, at times more measured approach. This reclaiming of certain traits from the past paradoxically sounds much fresher, more original and more creative than the previous album: the fusion of the different souls of the band's discography comes off perfectly, revitalizing the Swedes' style both in the darker, more biting tracks ("For Broken Words", "The Science Of Noise") and in the more melodic ones (the stirring "What Only You Know", the dark ballad "Uniformity") and in the tracks that fall somewhere in between ("State Of Trust" or the moving closer "None Becoming"). There are many influences simmering in the compositions, reinterpreted in novel ways, so much so that Niklas Sundin has said that for "Endtime Hearts" he wrote the chorus riff inspired by Einstürzende Neubauten (though delivering a catchy hook rather than a slow, repetitive drone) and the solo inspired by Kent (particularly in the use of the e-bow on guitar). The moods are fairly dark, aided also by the dry, icy sounds sought by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Pain Of Salvation, Paradise Lost), who produced the album in collaboration with the band. Credit also goes to him for the perfect balance between guitars and keyboards, with the latter layering the sound without diminishing the power of the other instruments. The Swedes lean into atmosphere and give their best precisely in the midtempo digressions and the numerous darkwave touches that permeate the album. While not reinventing melodic death metal in any absolute sense, Construct is a breath of fresh air for a genre that has long been saturated with clone bands.

After the album's release, Anders Iwers joins to handle bass duties, initially just for live shows and then as a full member of Dark Tranquillity. One of the founders of Ceremonial Oath as a guitarist and of the very first lineup of In Flames (where he was later succeeded by his younger brother Peter), he has also been the bassist of Tiamat since 1996.

The band's swan song to date arrives in 2016 with Atoma, preceded by the departure of Henriksson, who had lost his passion for working as a musician and no longer wanted to be a burden on the band, though he will stay on as manager. Despite this significant loss, Atoma fortunately sounds full of vitality and a genuine drive to express itself, never giving up on being pleasurable to listen to (with a catchiness and a guitar/keyboard balance not heard since the days of Haven) and with meticulously crafted arrangements, among the most detailed the band has ever produced.

The sounds are full-bodied and enveloping, and this time the production sees Jens Bogren collaborating with Martin Brändström, who also serves as sound engineer.

The Swedes' creative vein finds greater fulfillment in the more melodic tracks, influenced by 80s electronica and darkwave (the title track, "Forward Momentum", the stirring "Force Of Hand" featuring guest Bjorn Gelotte of In Flames, now musically distant but still friends, who provides the solo).

These are tracks that, unsurprisingly, revisit the band's most catchy side, with chunky, catchy riffs, melancholic atmospheres, pleasant electronic melodies backed by walls of guitar and atmospheric arpeggios in the background, while Stanne's clean voice trades off with his rough growl/scream. Even the more aggressive tracks develop quickly, making room for those melodic openings that are the Swedes' trademark, and delivering a few little gems ("Neutrality", "The Pitiless", "When The World Screams"). While Construct had a bit more of a dark character, stylistically speaking one could almost compare Atoma to the earlier We Are The Void for its electronic impact, though with far more colorful and convincing results. At other moments, it feels like hearing a particular, more aggressive version of Haven, since this time Sundin contributed to the songwriting. One last note: Stanne's lyrics are more intense and emotional than ever, lived-in reflections dealing with social alienation, loneliness, failure and redemption, and difficulties in communication. The recent Atoma and Construct thus show a band that has grown increasingly mature with age, confirming itself as one of the finest acts on the Gothenburg scene. From here on, the band enters a period of stasis, playing a few shows with session guests but gradually winding down, until they feel the need to return to the studio.

On December 31, 2018, Martin Brändström revived, together with fellow member Christer Lundberg, the teenage project Kennelklubben, which he had set aside to join Dark Tranquillity. The album is a simple, heartfelt synth-pop revival, light and quick listening.

In 2020, Niklas Sundin released the debut of his solo dark-ambient project, Mitochondrial Sun, which he followed up with a short album of atmospheric, instrumental black metal, while at the same time announcing his departure from Dark Tranquillity.

The rest of the band, following this amicable farewell, decided to bring in as permanent members the touring support guitarists, namely Johan Reinholdz (previously of Andromeda, Nonexist and Skyfire) and Christopher Amott (younger brother of the more famous Michael, with whom he co-founded Arch Enemy). The two entered the studio during the recording of the new album Moment (2020), but their contribution was limited to recording riffs that were already written and adding solos to their own taste. 

As expected, there's no real change in the band's approach, and what remains of the Swedes simply does a safe job with the ingredients most congenial to them and most familiar to their audience. The more electronic, gothic side is fairly prominent, as is the album's more emotional side. From this standpoint, the peak comes with the conventional yet moving "The Dark Unbroken" and, above all, the melancholic and intriguing "Remain In The Unknown", an introspective look at apophenia driven by stirring melodies, which also boasts one of the album's most engaging solos (alongside that of "Eyes Of The World", which is otherwise fairly unremarkable). There are ups and downs: the following "Standstill" is catchy but rather bland, and passes by without much charisma. The only fully soft track is the closer "In Truth Divided", which stands apart, shedding the metallic core to focus solely on keyboards, bass and baritone vocals.

The more traditional side is less effective and, at times, even feels repetitive. The buzzing guitars of "Identical To None" recall the distant days of "Skydancer", but the band shows greater expressiveness when it leans into dark melodies rather than driving riffs. Far more visceral is "A Drawn Out Exit", dark and biting, featuring one of the sharpest growls Stanne delivers on the whole record. In truth, though—age being a factor—his vocal performance overall isn't particularly gripping, and he sounds more at ease on the clean-sung parts (when will we get an album entirely like that?). 

It's a work that never drops below a certain level, but at times feels a bit flat and somewhat repetitive, and even its best songs aren't the best the band has offered over the course of its history. Sundin's absence affects the songwriting insofar as it lacks those thrilling, memorable flashes that made the previous two albums so engaging, making them feel fresh and vital even when the nods to the past and to established, well-worn tropes—variations on the same recipe—were obvious. Moment is a pleasant enough listen, but it doesn't mark a pivotal chapter in the band's history.

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