Dark Tranquillity are one of the three original Swedish Death Metal bands to hail from Gothenburg, along with In Flames and At The Gates. Moment is their first new album since 2016’s excellent Atoma. They have been around for over 30 years, but have never reached the heights of their fellow countrymen.
At The Gates are revered as a pioneer of this scene, their album Slaughter of the Soul reaching legendary status. In Flames have changed their sound up and down throughout the years, but in doing so have become increasingly popular. They are also regulars on the European festival scene.
Dark Tranquillity however have remained firmly on the B team. Never really being common amongst discussion, and rarely a fixture of high profile tours and festivals. Maybe the gothic clean sections with the coarse melodeath, whilst relatively unique to them in this genre, just never gathered momentum. New bands on the scene such as The Haunted, Amon Amarth and Avatar have quickly overtaken them in popularity.
As a result, of all the Swedish Death Metal bands, Dark Tranquillity is the one I know least about. I am a huge fan of melodeath. Some of the aforementioned bands are high up on my most listened bands list. I do however know their previous album Atoma, and an excellent album it was.
So after over 30 years, do we have a second brilliant release in a row in Moment? To at long last bring Dark Tranquillity to the forefront of the heavy metal scene?
Pun fully intended, Moment has its moments, but ultimately as an all round release it’s rather disappointing. Like fried chicken from your local chippy, generally pleasing whilst you are experiencing it, but ultimately you’re just left to think how much more satisfying a KFC would have been.
The single releases Phantom Days and Identical to None remain the best songs on the album. In many other songs such as Ego Deception, the song picks up nicely, but the long slow sections seem to suck the life out of the song. A Drawn Out Exit is dark and broody, but lacks any variation. Failstate has some chuggy goodness, and the slower parts work much better. Empires Lost to Time works equally well. Closing track In Truth Divided tries the age old method of ending an album with an emotional balled. This one however, is largely unremarkable.
But unfortunately I don’t see this album growing on me. 2020 has treated us to some excellent releases so far. I doubt I’ll be revisiting this one.
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