A new horizon is opening up for Dark Tranquillity.
Pioneers of Melodic Death Metal in Sweden, the band comprises Mikael Stanne (vocals, Grand Cadaver, The Halo Effect, Cemetery Skyline… ), Martin Brändström (keyboards), Johan Reinholdz (guitar, Andromeda, Nonexist), Christian Jansson (bass, Grand Cadaver, Pagandom) and Joakim Strandberg-Nilsson (drums, Faithful Darkness, Nonexist, ex-In Mourning) announced in 2024 the release of their thirteenth album, Endtime Signals, on their label of 25 years, Century Media Records.
Although Shivers and Voids begins relatively calmly, the track quickly takes on a much heavier aspect, retaining its melodies to support the contrast under Mikael Stanne‘s howls. The band leaves as much room for gentleness as for quietude, then adopts a more Old School approach with Unforgivable, letting the blast lead the charge between two waves of gentleness to confirm its unquenchable fury while giving us a moment to breathe. Neuronal Fire offers us a more haunting introduction, but the solid rhythm soon intervenes in a very jerky way to complement the aerial elements, while it’s with clean vocals and vaporous touches that Not Nothing bewitches us, to better crush us with its saturation. There’s a hint of dissonance in the leads, perfectly linking the two opposites of the track, before we return to pure rage on Drowned Out Voices, barely contained by majestic choruses, but the final tends to offer a more complex approach, finally giving way to melancholy with One of Us Is Gone, the album’s most soaring composition, which leaves plenty of room for keyboards and clear vocals. Heaviness returns on The Last Imagination, as evidenced by the vocalist’s first scream and the imposing patterns, then the band accelerates when Enforced Perspective begins, returning to its wild roots that the leads naturally embellish. The atmosphere remains quite heavy, as on Our Disconnect, which is rooted in intriguing Prog influences while retaining that high dose of heady harmonics that will also be found on Wayward Eyes, where Melodic Death is very soaring and rests on its permanent duality. The final chorus reaches a real peak of intensity before moving on to A Bleaker Sun, where the musicians return to a steadier, heavier rhythm, reserving some passages where beauty reigns supreme, before relinquishing this splendor to False Reflection, the final composition that closes the album with a welcome touch of appeasement, like a kind of final breath.
Even if Dark Tranquillity‘s reputation is well established, I’m pleased to see that the band knows how to renew itself within its own recipe. Endtime Signals is a perfectly paced album that surprises while drawing on both the style’s roots and more modern approaches.
95/100
