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Strangely enough, I don't really know anything about Dark Tranquility to be honest.. I am Swedish and I like bands such as At the gates and In flames but dark tranquility has slipped past me for some reason. Aside from this album, what other album would be the best one to start off with? The review said that they are a constant 85/100 band so maybe it doesnt matter?

Get Damage Done. Great fucking album.

Excellent review. I've listened to this a few times and it keeps growing. It's not anything really new, but excellent none the less. Scoring seems to be spot on.

I can't wait to get this

I'd suggest The Mind's I or Haven to start with, but really all of them are great

Everything they've ever made is an 86/100.

Good thing?

I'd say everything they've made is a minimum of 86/100, so yes of course. And you said 85 last time, heh.

Miles ahead of In Flames... Yeah right.

Though Damage Done is one hell of an album.

Agreed. You said it yourself Zad, Dark Tranquillity can unfortunately be too predictable. That's probably why I found Fiction (and Character to a lesser extent) to be a good album, but also somewhat boring even after multiple listens. I'm hoping this one is better, but after reading your review I don't have high hopes. I think the days of DT writing truly masterful albums were over after Damage Done. On the subject of In Flames, yeah their songwriting has gone downhill since Colony/Clayman era, but at the same time at least I'm going to be surprised when I hear a new release, and for the last couple I've been pleasantly surprised.

I like In Flames, but DT>IF.

Yeah. I mean, come on, you prefer some hodgepodge of nu-metal influences and Friden's mawkish wailing to the solid slab of awesomeness that you're virtually guaranteed with on each DT album? If you're pleasantly surprised with a new In Flames album, it's because they've not made another album as poor as Soundtrack To Your Escape, and by the same reckoning you should be pleasantly surprised each time you hear a DT album, no? The last In Flames was nowhere near as good as We Are The Void.

Haha, I guess they've gone up since then. But yeah, I'll stand by my original comment...consistent but just a little boring after a while. Kind of like everyone else is saying.

Still baffled that In Flames gets tagged with all the nu-metal references when Dark Tranquillity have been utilizing the same kind of riffs—because that's generally the biggest supposed "nu-metal" signifier—since Projector. Very odd.

Or not, given that In Flames is far more popular.

But who cares. I dig both bands and this album is excellent. Not sure I'd say Dark Tranquillity are predictable, though. They've always done things a little differently. Maybe not every album, but usually every two albums they change it up. And this latest kind of brings back a lot of the experimentation of Projector, something they really haven't done since then.

You really think Projector was as nu-metally as Soundtrack To Your Escape? I woudn't say so at all, Projector's experimental side was due to the clean singing and usage of keyboards rather than sounding like Korn, no?

You say "hodgepodge", I say "innovation." Seriously though, it is true that Friden's vocals are nowhere near what they used to be. And yes the band has made some shitty albums over the past decade, but I can't blame them for trying new things. The reason I'm NOT pleasantly surprised when I hear new DT is because I don't EXPECT them to get worse. That would be a little pessimistic would it not? The problem is I've heard everything DT has to offer in the vein of music they continue to pursue...in my opinion Haven and Damage Done incorporated at least as much, if not more, talent in songwriting than both Character and Fiction did. If they can't differentiate from that sound then it just gets boring for me.

I personally hear a lot more variety in an In Flames album than in a Dark Tranquillity album- especially their later stuff.

I think what he meant was that DT has been recycling the same style of riffs since Projector, in a way that nu-metal bands tend to recycle their riffs.

But I may be mistaken.

So, Slayer are nu-metal, then? Odd way of looking at it.

No, they're LIKE nu-metal, because they're, like, repetitive and shit. Don't you know anything?