Dark Tranquillity - Damage Done

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Free Music Notes for Damage Done

Free Music Review: 10/10 - The album of 2002 from these melodic death masters!
Hit: 5 Stars

Sweden's famed DARK TRANQUILLITY returns with Damage Done, their 6th full-length album, and do a strong enough job baring their fangs to assure fans they're still an extreme metal band. Staccato tremolo picking and searing leads abound, rapid-fire drumming is the story of the day, and the keys have never been so essential. Add growler-extraordinaire Mikael Stanne to the mix, and you have Damage Done, the perfect album.

The album begins memorably, with "Final Resistance" paving the way for the next 50 or so minutes of extremely melodic brutality. Similar to the way DT has often sought to begin their records ("Punish My Heaven" off The Gallery and "The Wonders At Your Feet" off Haven), "Final..." is an ode to all things metal. The thrashariffic guitar frenzy should come as no surprise to DT fans, except those who thought the band had lost their desire to write seriously aggressive chops. One thing that the band has made clear is their desire to not be confined to a particular sound. Sure, with Projector and Haven, they chose to branch out and expand upon the classic Gothenburg sound they helped pioneer, but they certainly didn't just take the easy way out with Damage Done and `return to form' or go stagnant. If anything, Damage Done is an album that sees DARK TRANQUILLITY bring their sound full circle. They've taken the best elements of their first five studio efforts, tossed them all in a blender, pushed puree and voila! The result is an album that not only brings back the sheer aggressiveness and melody of their early days, but remains viable in today's metal underground, leading the market by pushing the envelope of their own defined sound.

Damage Done is a unique album in that each of the 11 songs stands strongly by itself yet still manages to maintain an incredible song-to-song consistency. However, the true genius of the record isn't heard until the album is pieced together as a unit and one can marvel at the diversity that fosters this overall experience. Take songs like "Monochromatic Stains" or "Cathode Ray Sunshine" for example. While not traditional by any stretch, these are nuggets of pure Swedish metallic fury through and through. But then a song like "The Treason Wall" comes along and interrupts your perfectly happy neck-snapping goodness by dropping into a metallic trance dub break before resuming the ferocious riffing. Or the EUROPE-meets-thrash intro to "Single Part Of Two." Or the Unforgettable Fire-era U2 melancholy guitar work of "The Enemy." Shall I go on? Stagnant, thy name shall not be DARK TRANQUILLITY.

If there is anything negative (at all) to say about the album, it's that the brilliant lead guitars and solos of their earlier days have been shortened and taken out of the spotlight a bit. They're definitely still there - listen to Niklas Sundin and Martin Henriksson get down and dirty on "Monochromatic Stains," "Single Part Of Two" or "The Treason Wall" if you think there's no shredding on this album - but the dual guitars are simply not the most important aspect of the DARK TRANQUILLITY sound any longer. However, DARK TRANQUILLITY has grown and matured beyond solely relying on the lead guitar sound and have created new ways to incorporate melody, namely through strong rhythm structures and keyboards, which are certainly present, just not overpowering, as was the complaint in the past. Finally, Stanne's vocals represent some of Damage Done's strongest moments. He was always one of the most well-known vocalists of the Swedish metal scene, but now he's pushed himself to the forefront of the extreme metal scene period with his raw, passionate, intense performance here. While many of their peers from the scene have gone the route of clean vocals and attempts to broaden their fanbase through more accessible music, DT proves there is more than 1 highway leading to the bank, so to speak. The choruses on Damage Done are pristine examples of how a band can maintain a stellar sense of melody and catchiness. They can create songs that stick in your head all day long, whether you're in the shower, driving your car, walking your dog, it doesn't matter, and yet they don't sacrifice one iota of aggression or thrashy death metal stylings. Whatever your perception of DARK TRANQUILLITY was in the past, whatever your opinions on the current state of the Swedish melodic death metal scene, Damage Done is a superb album. The album of 2002, in fact. Get it now.

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