Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Dark Tranquillity
Label: Century Media
Release: 2009
Running time: 01:43:09
Rating: 4.5/5
These days, Sweden’s melodic death metal old guard Dark Tranquillity can pretty much be counted as the last real representatives of the Gothenburg death metal sound. In the early nineties, DT, together with At the Gates and In Flames, shaped a new strain of extreme metal that found its beat in a blend of death metal aggression and heavy metal melody. At the Gates fell apart after a few albums, and In Flames forgot their roots long ago and dove headfirst into commercial waters… But Dark Tranquillity proudly and honorably remain the standard-bearers of Gothenburg, aka melodic, death metal!
Still, even for the guys in Dark Tranquillity, the road through a twenty-year career wasn’t exactly strewn with roses. They had to wait a whole fifteen years for their very first real headline tour. But the wait paid off, because since the release of Fiction, Dark Tranquillity have been like a band reborn, and they’re probably hitting the peak of their long career right now. The tour behind Fiction also gave us this double live album, which is also the band’s first live record in twenty years (if we don’t count the pretty average Live Damage DVD from 2003)! Where Death is Most Alive catches Dark Tranquillity in the middle of the bombastic atmosphere of Milan’s Rolling Stone hall on October 31, 2008, with the Fiction tour in full swing. Dark Tranquillity made it clear that the first headline tour was long awaited, as much by them as by the fans, and the guys went all out, reaching deep into the treasury of their discography. Even a quick look at the setlist shows that not a single album was skipped or overlooked, except for the debut Skydancer, where Anders Friden (now of In Flames) still handled vocals and current vocalist Mikael Stanne played guitar. The superbly recorded show, given a fantastic mix by Tue Madsen, drops us from the first second to the last right in the middle of a hot Italian crowd that was eating out of the band’s hand that night. The audience roars back at Mikael’s every call, clearly goes nuts during the thank-yous in Italian, and gives the band the attention it truly deserves. There’s hardly a moment when the crowd isn’t singing along at the top of their lungs, with only a slight lull during the newer tracks from Fiction, which hadn’t quite sunk in yet back then. Still, the band rightly gave the promotion of the new record the lion’s share of the show, playing as many as seven songs from the then-current album, and the crowd took them in almost as feverishly as the unforgettable classics. And Where Death is Most Alive is full of those too! Dark Tranquillity didn’t forget even the experimental and controversial Projector, which nearly cost them their career in the mid-nineties. But the core of the album is certainly the unforgettable classics like the crushing The Treason Wall, plus Wonders At Your Feet, Punish My Haven and the hauntingly beautiful Lethe. Despite the vocal cord injury he picked up in the mid-nineties, Stanne sounds incredibly convincing, with both an aggressive, raw growl and a well-studied, well-trained clean voice, which comes through really well in Therein, for example. There’s an unforgettable moment when Nell Sigland (Theatre of Tragedy) joins Mikael in a gorgeous duet for the classic Insanity’s Crescendo, and she lends her angelic voice again in The Mundane and the Magic. The band sounds tight and confident, every line is played with surgical precision, the guitars of Niklas Sundin and Martin Henriksson weave guitar melodies beautifully with Martin Branstrom’s melancholic keyboards, and the rhythm section is just the right amount of deep and crushing. But Dark Tranquillity wouldn’t be what they are without the supremely lively Stanne, who’s very much on the crowd’s side and shines as a stage host.
With Where Death is Most Alive, Dark Tranquillity prove they’re stronger than ever after twenty years. Their first live album is an indelible testament to the magic Dark Tranquillity can conjure live with their unique blend of melancholic, sensual and at the same time aggressive, merciless death metal.
Lineup
Mikael Stanne – vocals
Niklas Sundin – guitar
Martin Henriksson – guitar
Daniel Antonsson – bass
Martin Brändström – keyboards
Anders Jivarp – drums
Production
Tue Madsen
Track list
CD 1
1. Intro
2. The Treason Wall
3. The New Build
4. Focus Shift
5. The Lesser Faith
6. The Wonders At Your Feet
7. Lost To Apathy
8. FreeCard
9. Inside The Particle Storm
10. Nothing To No One
11. Edenspring
CD 2
1. Insanity’s Crescendo
2. Lethe
3. Dreamlore Degenerate
4. Misery’s Crown
5. ThereIn
6. My Negation
7. Yesterworld / Punish My Heaven
8. The Mundane And The Magic
9. Final Resistance
10. Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)
