Dark Tranquillity - Character
Century Media Records – CM8303-2- January 25, 2005
By Rodrigo Escandon
With other melodic death metal bands like
In Flames and
Soilwork straying further and further away from their roots and into a more marketable sound, it is refreshing to know that
Dark Tranquillity still manages to put out aggressive and melodic albums while staying true to their roots. Their previous album,
Damage Done, might have been their best effort ever and expectations were high to hear what the Swedes would have in store with their newest effort,
Character.
Character has many great things going for it. First, would be the fact that it’s the heaviest sounding
Dark Tranquillity album to date. Second, Mikael Stanne sings more with his higher pitch death metal style from
The Gallery-era. Finally, compared to the last 3 albums,
Dark Tranquillity uses a wider array of guitar riffs and melodies which is also reminiscent to their pre-
Projector days. “The New Build” works perfectly as an album opener by setting an aggressive tone and blast beats are actually played by Anders Jivarp. The aggressive pace continues with “Through Smudged Lenses” and “Out of Nothing” but all these songs pale into comparison to what could be the band’s finest song “Lost in Apathy”. This is the perfect combination of aggression, melody and catchiness. The interplay between the guitars and the great keyboard melodies are awesome and this simply will be a great live song.
In the past albums, I have enjoyed the use of Martin Brändstörm’s keyboards but one of the biggest downfalls that
Character has is how the keyboards sound really bad at times almost like they belong in a game from the NES Nintendo-era. Songs like “The Endless Feed”, “One Thought” and “Senses Tied” are not as enjoyable because of the way the keyboards sound. Another aspect that I did not enjoy in
Character was the transitions from a fast tempo to a slow one like in “Mind Matters” and “Am I I?” These transitions or changes sound really forced at times and the flow of the song is clearly disrupted. Finally, the closing song “My Negation” is extremely underwhelming as it is very slow and does not really carry your attention. It is a shame that
Character closes like this especially with the strong songs that are found in the beginning.
In the final analysis,
Character had the chance to be an excellent album. Some of the bands best moments are present in this album but the negative aspects I found really weight the album down. The last time I played
Character I actually played
Damage Done right after and it became very obvious that the latter one is the stronger and better album so I can’t help but to say that
Character is a disappointment.
7/10
Dark Tranquillity Official Website
Century Media Records Official Website
