Dark Tranquillity – We Are The Void (2010)

Dark Tranquillity in it’s almost 20 years lifespan has managed to create some of the most iconic Melodic Death Metal albums of all times. The band has also paved the way to the hundreds of clones that try to play Melodic DM with the famed Gothenburg sound but fail miserably at. With “We Are The Void” they present us their latest offering in their career and it’s a solid but somewhat empty album.

The band has always been pushing the boundaries of the genre in every release they have produced. Since the early days they have been bending musical boundaries, and in the last decade they have been probably the only true Gothenburg Melodic DM band left.

“We Are The Void” features 11 tracks of solid Dark Tranquillity music. The album features some experimentation like all of the band’s previous releases. But this is not taking it too far; it seems that DT has finally settled with a particular sound. The most drastic change ion the band’s sound is probably the harsh vocals. The vocals sound kind of weird compared to the band’s previous releases, however the clean vocals are intact.

The reason we say this release sounds a bit empty is because there is nothing new here, it’s just good old DT. Probably we got used to the band sounding a bit different every album, but now they just stayed put. This does not mean that “We Are The Void” is a bad album. All the opposite, we love the band’s sound from the last 2 albums and this is a fine example of why they are the best Melodic DM band out there.

The guitar riffs are as good as always, and the structure of the songs is in the classic DT style. The keyboards sound as futuristic as always and are never abused to the point that they take away from the main core of the band’s sound.

Besides the weird change in the vocals, we don’t see anything else wrong with this album. While some might be disappointed that it sounds to similar to older releases, just give it a few more spins and you will start enjoying it. For us, fans of the band, this is another brilliant release to add to their already impressive discography.

Release: March 9th, 2010

Country: Sweden