In a career spanning more than three decades, Dark Tranquillity have never released a truly duff album. They’ve split opinion a couple of times – particularly with the early stylistic shift of 1999’s Projector – but even that has become an essential part of the band’s back catalogue.
One of the originators of the Gothenburg sound that defined melodic death metal in the mid-90s, they’ve since embraced new textures and influences while still retaining their core identity. Endtime Signals maintains the musical continuity, despite more major line-up changes that leave frontman Mikael Stanne as the sole original member.
Newcomers Joakim Strandberg Nilsson (drums) and Christian Jansson (bass) are fully on point, though. The fresh blood may even have invigorated the band, with a few tracks thrashing out in a way they haven’t really done since their second peak in the mid-2000s circa Damage Done.
Unforgivable was the pre-release single that got fans salivating, but Enforced Perspective and A Bleaker Sun also feature whiplash segments that you can already picture fuelling future festival pits across Europe and beyond. It isn’t all about the speed these days, however, and there are still plenty of the mid-paced and more tangential moments that have defined the band’s latter-day material.
One Of Us Is Gone is a sombre, string-wrapped ballad dedicated to late former guitarist Fredrik Johansson. Not Nothing is a bleak slab of synth-led gothic metal that’s not too far from Mikael’s side-project, Cemetery Skyline, while Our Disconnect places driving drum fills and growled vocals against a more expansive movie score backdrop.
It’s not a classic by Dark Tranquillity’s own high standards, with a few fillers letting the side down slightly, but Endtime Signals has enough standout moments to maintain their remarkable levels of consistency. Thirteen albums in and still no duffer.
Endtime Signals is out August 16 via Century Media. Dark Tranquillity play Islington's O2 Academy on November 5 with Moonspell and Hiraes.
