New Dark Tranquillity - We Are The Void

[Spitfire]

I know a few of you on here listen to DT. I've been following them pretty closely since I discovered them sometime after they released "Damage Done". Every CD they've been evolving further and further. I personally love it but fans of their pre-Damage Done CDs won't find anything to love here.

Anyways onto the CD I was able to listen to the whole thing and I gotta say I like it quite a bit. I've heard it about 9 or 10 times by now so I have the songs down pretty well. It took a few listens to get into it but I've always had that with them. I really like "Fiction" and was looking forward to this release. I heard "Dream Oblivion" on their Myspace and lost some of that excitement. It sounded like "Focus Shift" or "Lost To Apathy" they seem to remake that song on every album now. After hearing the whole album though I can say they have done a great job.

I always liked Mikel's vocals and on this album he tires doing clean vocals again. He actually does a good job and I like it more then when he tried them on "Fiction". I personally don't like clean vocals in metal because 90% of the time it doesn't match or work with the music. DT doesn't have this problem and only uses them when it works. I have to give credit to the mix as well. It sounds pretty good for a home brew recording. "Character" was in house as well and it sounded terrible. "Fiction"'s production blew me away so it's nice to see no quality shift. A lot of metal bands jump around the map in that department for some reason, Arch Enemy comes to mind.

Anyways I recommend it to fans. It has some great songs on it. If your not a fan already this won't change your mind but it's a good addition. It's nice to see a metal band do what they're passionate about and not change their style for profit. I too often see that and it's saddening. I also too often see great bands like this run out of ideas. These guys have been going for 16+ years and are still keeping it fresh.