Dark Tranquillity - Fiction

The Swedish legends deliver an outstanding melodic death metal album.

Some bands catch lightning in a bottle on their first release and never reach those levels again, while others build and improve on their previous albums and continually deliver excellent releases. Melodic death metal pioneers Dark Tranquillity are one of those bands that have been around for a long time and have perfected and refined their sound and rarely disappoint.

Fiction is no exception. It has a lot of diversity and the perfect balance of melody and brutality. The songs are extremely well written with very catchy hooks and great riffs. The keyboards add extra atmosphere without being too obtrusive. Dark Tranquillity has infused a lot of variety into this album, with tracks ranging from fast thrash metal to medium tempo death metal to slower, almost gothic metal.

Mikael Stanne does an excellent job with the vocals. They are aggressive and varied and you can even understand his rasps. He also attempts some melodic singing, which is serviceable, and there are some female melodic vocals on one of the songs as well.

Dark Tranquillity are one of the originators of the Gothenburg sound and could easily rest on their laurels, but they've proven they are still one of the best bands in their genre and Fiction is a memorable and impressive album.