Dark Tranquillity - Character

Character is the newest CD by the famed Gothenburg band Dark Tranquillity. To me, recently famed, as I had previously never even heard of the band. After researching them, I found out they were one of the first melodic death metal bands, having been around since the early 90's. In a realm of music which is known for it's overly similar bands, Dark Tranquillity have carved out their distinct niche. They have yet to sell themselves out or to seriously change their basic sound, yet they have matured their sound and outlook a great deal. They have not mellowed out a single bit either in the past ten years. Every song on the CD burns with intensity and fast technical playing. The songs are also very good, with good progressions and a tight (though not mechanical) sound.

The CD starts off strong with opener "The New Build," which features black metal-type guitar picking, a melodic sound and integrated use of keyboards. Dark Tranquillity make good use of keyboards and electronic elements, they are a nice part of the music and sound, yet the basic song is very strong as well. The vocalist uses a combination of a primarily black metal sound and a deep growl. Most often it comes out as a combination of the two, which reminds me of the mid-range sound of Dissection. Every song is driven by the guitar riffs and the drums. The bass is a kind of distant sound, but to be honest, if the bass plays an essential part it's impossible to tell. Every song is played very very fast, not a second is wasted for the most part, as they blaze through their songs. They put a lot of great riffs and twists and turns into very small amounts of time.

To be quite honest, I didn't like the CD at first. It wasn't until the fourth song, "The Endless Feed," that I started to warm up to it. This is mainly because it's the first time on the CD where it lays back and is a little more atmospheric and melodic, with moments I would even call beautiful and very emotional. The band shows that they don't have to blaze by with a million riffs every song (which starts to give me a headache) and instead can give a good groove. "Lost to Apathy" is another one I liked a lot, though it reminds me a bit of Children of Bodom. It's beautiful and melodic (with really nice riffs) and also fast. It shows off the best elements of the band, their melodic parts and their heavy thrashy parts.

Each song on Character creates a different mood, yet sometimes it's very hard to tell where one song ends and another begins except for the quiet between tracks. If anything, that would be my complaint, that they don't change up enough, though others may find this to be a strength rather than a weakness. At least all the songs are pretty strong.

There are many uses of electronic elements, and many attempts to fit electronic bleeps and burbles into the melodic death metal sound. Overall, I think they would have been better served by making these elements even more a part of the songs. As it is, the electronic parts sound a bit tacked on, though when they are used they are pretty effective. I am unhappy that when they do use these elements they always sound like the same electronic samples we had heard on other songs. On all songs, however, the keyboards do improve the sound of the songs. Without the keyboards, the songs would sound even more similar than they would otherwise.

Ultimately, do I like Character? Yes, to a certain extent, but it doesn't really excite me except for a few songs (about 4 or 5 of the 11). It's a good, very well played album, though just a bit too similar sounding. Sometimes it works very well and is quite good, other times it just feels like more of the same. So can I recommend it? Yes, to fans of melodic death metal and/or Dark Tranquillity. If you don't like either, this won't prove anything to you. It mainly succeded in giving me a headache every time I listened to it.