DARK TRANQUILLITY FICTION ALBUM CENTURY MEDIA, EMI RELEASE: APRIL 18, 2007 REVIEW: APRIL 24, 2007

What can I say? Dark Tranquillity, one of the founding bands of the melodic Gothenburg sound style of death metal has made yet another great album. The curve has pointed straight upwards ever since keyboard heavy "Haven" from 2000 (the last DT album that the alternative or gothic minded Release readers had a reason to check out) and it continues still.

This time, Dark Tranquillity has taken the intricate and aggressive guitar driven sound from the last two albums - "Character" and "Damage Done" - and added more piano and keyboards to the mix, in the process creating menacing and fast songs like "Nothing to No One" and darker, and somewhat calmer, ones like "Misery's Crown" and "Inside the Particle Storm".

Maybe not heavy on hooks, but with more than several artists' share of ambience and excellence in them - and superb growling song from Mikael Stanne, of course.

What can I say? Dark Tranquillity started in 1989 and still continues to make great records, evolving slowly, and this time has made a slight shift to the kind of extreme metal that can tease the appetite of the average Release metal head.

This is not fiction, It is cold, hard reality. And perhaps the best album by Dark Tranquillity yet.

KALLE MALMSTEDT