Swedish metal acts Dark Tranquility and The Haunted will do a few gigs in Japan together:

01/16 - Big Cat, Osaka
01/17 - Club Quattro, Nagoya
01/18 - O-East, Tokyo

Swedish metal acts Dark Tranquility, Soilwork and Sonic Syndicate will be touring together on this year's Eastpak Antidote Tour along with Caliban, kicking off September 30 in Brighton. Full dates + details: http://www.antidotetour.com/

Festival report: Roskilde

Dark Tranquility's new all-Lego video for the track "Brick" is now on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZCjn1IHuvI

This week's playlist for my show on Sirius:

01. Kristofer Åström - The dark
02. TALK 1
03. Amandine - Better soil
04. Christel Alsos - What you gotta do
05. Tarantula - Two arrows
06. TALK 2
07. Kristin Asbjørnsen - I'm on my way
08. Thomas Denver Jonsson - Dreams at the film club
09. Tenderloud - Texas down
10. TALK 3
11. Hyacinth House - Ghost town
12. Strayfolk - I'll be a-goin'
13. The First Miles - Bottle, don't let me down
14. TALK 4
15. Hello Saferide - I was definitely made for these times
16. Hederos & Hellberg - I can't hold myself in line
17. Two Times the Trauma - I fell in love with an ocean
18. David Sandström Overdrive - The Fatville Treaty
19. HGH - Stupid song
20. TALK 5
21. Gorgoroth - Procreating Satan
22. Enslaved - The voices
23. Invocator - Breed of sin
24. TALK 6
25. Seance - Post mortem
26. Watain - Underneath the cenotaph
27. Dark Tranquility - Icipher
28. TALK 7
29. Eucharist - The Eucharist
30. At the Gates - Slaughter of the soul
31. Wolfbrigade - EU (European Union)
32. TALK 8
33. Katatonia - Had to (leave)
34. Bloodbath - Soul evisceration
35. Cult of Luna - The revelation embodied
36. TALK 9
37. Finntroll - Slaget vid blodsälv

MP3: Watain - Storm of the Antichrist

Watain's new record "Sworn to the dark" sounds like the comeback that many people hoped Dissection would accomplish. Swedish black metal hasn't sounded this good in... forever. Not only is the music 100% killer, so is the recording. The drums could still be a bit more dynamic and natural, but you can actually hear the bass! As I kind of alluded to in my Dark Tranquility post last Friday, I don't keep up with metal nearly as much as I used to and recording quality factors highly in our falling out. BM doesn't need to sound like a swarm of bees wrapped in a blanket. Haven't we moved past the point of where being "grim" and "necro" is all-important? What came off as otherworldly and inhuman 15-20 years ago doesn't work anymore and really, verges on Manowar-levels of self-parody. As for Watain, they may put off a bit of that vibe, but at least they've got the music to back it up.

Watain - Storm of the Antichrist

MP3: Dark Tranquility - Tongues

Dark Tranquility has a new album out, so I figured that it would be a great time to revisit one of their classic mid-90s records to see how well they hold up. As for the new record... it's okay, I guess. While I agree with Richard that it's somewhat of a return to form (the last few records have been pretty weak, to say the least), I have a hard time getting all that excited about it. I can handle the subtle keyboards and even the clean singing, but the modern metal recording style drives me crazy! It's so overcompressed and lacking dynamics. The guitars all have that horrible, overused Mesa dual-rectifier tone. No matter how the good the songs are, I still can't listen to it.
1997's "The mind's I" was my first exposure to Dark Tranquility. It came out at a time when I was purchasing anything and everything that came out the Gothenburg metal scene and for awhile, was one of my favorite new records. Of all the mid-90s melodic death metal from the era, it's certainly a top-10 contender. However, DT was always kind of an also-ran compared to the likes of At the Gates and In Flames. They were always a bit more pretentious and more likely to take risks, often alienating fans. I'm all for band evolution, but 1999's "Projector" was not good. What I like about "The mind's I" and this track in particular, is the clean, organic sound. Two guitars, drums, bass (which you can actually hear quite cleanly) and vocals - no useless overdubs, no excessive production tricks. The musicianship is impeccable, too. Put on headphones and check out the way the hard-panned guitars interact. The solo is killer as well - it leads perfectly into a powerful bridge in which singer Mikael Stanne sounds absolutely anguished, even if the lines he's singing are total gobbledygook. This is exactly what got me into Swedish/Scandinavian music in the first place. Every once in awhile, it's good to remind myself why.

Dark Tranquility - Tongues

This week's top 20 Swedish album chart:

01. The Ark - Prayer for the weekend
02. Sahara Hotnights - What if leaving is a loving thing
03. Sofia Karlsson - Visor från vinden
04. Vikingarna - Bästa kramgoa låtarna 2
05. Eldkvarn - Svart blogg
06. Jerry Williams - I can jive - Det bästa med Jerry Williams
07. Nanne - Jag måste kyssa dig
08. Dark Tranquility - Fiction
09. Markoolio - Värsta Plattan
10. Salem Al Fakir - This is who I am
11. Marie Lindberg - Trying to recall
12. Timbuktu - Oberoendeframkallande
14. Pain - Psalms of extinction
15. Emilia - Små ord av kärlek
16. Kristofer Åström - RainawayTown
17. Laakso - Mother, am I good looking?
18. Björn Rosenström - Ett Jubileum som är sådär....10 1/2 år
19. Laleh - Prinsessor
20. Andreas Johnson - The collector

Check out an e-card for the new Dark Tranquility album "Fiction": http://www.centurymedia.com/eCard/dark_tranquillity/

Dark Tranquility
Fiction
Century Media

Dark Tranquility can still deliver top notch melodic death metal after some 15 years in the business. Together with At the Gates and In Flames, they are the founders of the so called Gothenburg sound. Where most bands would long since peaked, Dark Tranqility at this point sound better than they've done in a long time. I dare say "Fiction" is their best album since the classic "The gallery" from 1995. They make smart use of keyboards and sometimes create a gothic mood, and the variation of really fast and aggressive songs alongside slower material makes this album a very versatile affair. And the fact that vocalist and growl-master Mikael Stanne once again uses his clean voice on two songs is a great move. Songs like "Blind at heart" and "Nothing to no one" is the ultimate proof that this band should achieve the same kind of breakthrough as other Swedish death metal bands like Arch Enemy or In Flames!
- Richard Wilson

Antenna interviews Dark Tranquility: http://www.antenna.nu/darktranquillity/interview3.php
The band's new album "Fiction" comes out April 23. I haven't kept up with them on a regular basis in a loooong while (probably since 1997's "The mind's I" - hello Friday post!), but I listened to the new one once and liked what I heard.

Dark Tranquility's new video for "Focus shift" is now on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCeRS3nhSKE

Century Media has posted a new Dark Tranquility track on their myspace profile: http://www.myspace.com/centurymediagermany

Swedish melodic metal acts In Flames and Dark Tranquility will be doing a co-headlining tour of North America in March:

03/19 - The Social, Orlando, FL
03/20 - State Theatre, St. Petersberg, FL
03/21 - Masquerade, Atlanta, GA
03/23 - Palladium, Worcester, MA
03/24 - Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA
03/25 - Jaxx, W. Springfield, VA
03/26 - Gramercy, New York, NY
03/28 - Club Soda, Montreal, QC
03/29 - Opera House, Toronto, ON
04/02 - Headliners, Louisville, KY
04/03 - Pop's, Sauget, IL
04/04 - Metro, Chicago, IL
04/06 - Cervantes, Denver, CO
04/07 - Avalon, Salt Lake City, UT
04/09 - Croatian Culture Centre, Vancouver, BC
04/10 - El Corazon, Seattle, WA
04/11 - Hawthorne Theatre, Portland, OR
04/12 - Slims, San Fransisco, CA
04/13 - House of Blues, Anaheim, CA

Dark Tranquility reports that their new album is done and being sent off for mixing: http://www.darktranquillity.com/realindex.html