What The Hell Happened To... 05.19.08: Dark Tranquillity - Projector

Posted by Dan Marsicano on 05.19.2008

This week, Dan Marsicano introduces an upcoming addition to his column and looks at melodic death metal band Dark Tranquillity and their 1999 release. Is a more melodic sound beneficial to the band?

The Introduction

Hello again and welcome to another edition of What The Hell Happened To. I'm your host, the guy who wrongly thought it was a smart idea to do four music reviews in three days, Dan Marsicano.

This week, I got an album by Dark Tranquillity, one of the innovators of the melodic death metal movement that swept the metal world during the late 1990's. 1999's Projector is their Damnation; an album that showed the band in a different light.

With clean vocals, less emphasis on aggression, and an ear for melody, the band would divide fans in half with Projector. However, even with an unusual approach, Dark Tranquillity released an album that is both emotional and deep. I'll explain myself further in the analysis section, but first, I have a big announcement. It's so big that it's going to get its own title…



The Big Announcement



Next week, I'm going to put a new section into my column. I've always believed that the Internet is a great place for a band to promote themselves and I'm going to do my part to help those bands out. So, next week, I'm debuting the newest innovation to What The Hell Happened To…





Who The Hell Is…

Simply, this will be a section where up and coming bands can get publicity. I will be showcasing a band a week and will be giving my opinion on them and if they bring anything to the table. I'll provide links to the band's website, myspace page, etc. You can judge for yourselves if the band is worthy of having a future in the music industry.

I need your help though. Are you in a band? Know a band who wants to get noticed? Send me an e-mail using the option on the bottom or at [e-mail]. I will take any band, any demos (only over the internet), and any websites that have audio on them. This is your chance to make a name for yourself. My column gets thousands of hits and I think this will help garnish some attention for up and coming bands.








The Band

Mikael Stanne - Vocals
Niklas Sundin - Guitar
Fredrik Johansson - Guitar
Martin Henriksson - Bass
Anders Jivarp – Drums
Martin Brändström-Keyboard, Programming


The Track Listing

1. FreeCard-4:32
2. ThereIn-5:55
3. UnDo Control-5:11
4. Auctioned-6:07
5. To A Bitter Halt-4:48
6. The Sun Fired Blanks-4:17
7. Nether Novas-6:14
8. Day To End-3:08
9. Dobermann-4:39
10. On Your Time-5:38


The History

Dark Tranquillity was formed in 1991 with Anders Fridén on vocals, Mikael Stanne on rhythm guitar, Martin Henriksson on bass, Niklas Sundin on guitar, and Anders Jivarp on drums. This lineup was part of a band originally called Septic Broiler, which formed in 1989, and would change their name to Dark Tranquillity two years later.

The band released a few demos and EP's before being signed by Spinefarm Records. Dark Tranquillity's debut album, 1993's Skydancer, would be the only album with vocalist Anders Fridén. After the album was released, Fridén left the band to join In Flames, Stanne moved from guitar to vocals, and Fredrik Johansson came in to replace Stanne on the guitar. 1995's The Gallery would be a huge stepping stone for the band and would place them alongside bands like In Flames as one of the pioneers of the melodic death metal movement.

1997's The Mind's I had the band keeping their trademark sound while incorporating more gothic and progressive metal influences into their music. Before the release of 1999's Projector, the band's lineup changed yet again. Stanne's replacement Fredrik Johansson left, Martin Henriksson moved up to the guitar, Michael Nicklasson became the band's new bassist, and Martin Brändström was added on keyboard/programming. This lineup has been consistent to this day.


The Analysis

The great thing about music is that there is a personal freedom to create something that people may find unusual. Some artists have forged their career behind this freedom (Mike Patton, Frank Zappa) and others have been criticized for their changes (Metallica, Pain of Salvation). Dark Tranquillity was a melodic death metal band that constantly evolved their sound. Each album, up to Projector, saw the band getting darker and darker, with progressive elements slowly working their way in. With the addition of Martin Brändström on keyboards, the band took the next big step and released Projector, their most melodic album to date.

The great thing about this album is that the band didn't sacrifice their core sound; Projector is definitely a metal album that will pound your skull into the ground. There's just more melody and clean vocals behind the pounding.

Of course, fans didn't know what to think at first of Projector. Was it an experiment gone awry? Was this the new sound of Dark Tranquillity? Where did all the metal go? Fans didn't shit on it, but they didn't flock to it either. Maybe that's why Stanne's clean vocals disappeared entirely from Dark Tranquillity sound until last year's Fiction. No matter the case, we got an interesting album on our hands this week.

Brändström makes his presence immediately known with the classical piano intro to "FreeCard." The growls are still evident and the guitars are down tuned, but the clean vocals make their appearance in the chorus. Stanne's clean vocals are very gothic sounding, but have a subtle emotional beauty behind them. "FreeCard" is a great introduction to what lies ahead for Dark Tranquillity fans.

"ThereIn" was the only song off the album that was made into a video. I don't know if it was a single, as there was never an official single released to the general public, but I'll assume that this video was played on MTV Sweden or here in the states at 3 in the morning.









"UnDo Control" continued the tradition that has been going strong since the band's first album, the use of a female vocalist, and enlisted Johanna Andersson. Her soothing vocals clash with Stanne's throaty growls and they both interplay off each other well.

The biggest change in the band's sound was the use of the ballad. I should say, ballads, as there were multiple ones that showed off Stanne's great vocal range. "Auctioned" is the longest ballad on the album with mostly clean instruments, except in the chorus. The bass guitar is right in the front of the mix, providing a wonderful mini solo about halfway through. "Day To End" is heavily programmed and has Stanne crooning about longing pain and lost. You can feel the pain along with him and Stanne helps to keep "Day To End" away from the cheesiness most metal ballads have a tendency to be.

Dark Tranquillity doesn't disappoint their longtime fans, as some of the material on display in Projector is as heavy as the band had gotten, at that point in their career. "The Sun Fired Blanks" is the only song on the album with full on harsh vocals and the use of fast double bass. It's a great song that would not have been out of place on The Gallery and shows fans that they haven't lost their metal touch. You may think that the band would take the easy way out with the closing track, but "On Your Time" proves everybody wrong with a monster of a track, featuring all the basic ideas that had been on display during the course of Projector. It's fast, melodic, heavy, and has an awesome breakdown at the end that can only be described in two words: KICK ASS.

We have five talented musicians on display throughout Projector, but two of them really stood out to me. First of all, obviously, vocalist Mikael Stanne impressed me with his vocal range. Nobody knew he could sing like he could before Projector and it's a shame that, for whatever reason, decided to abandon the clean vocals for eight years. The other musician that surprised me the first time I heard the album was bassist Martin Henriksson. While he would move to guitar after Projector, his performance on this album was incredible. He is clearly heard in the mix and adds a nice, organic feel to the sound and even gets several chances to really show off ("Auctioned" being a prime example). This is really the last album where the presence of bass guitar is strongly felt.

Projector is a unique album from the earlier years of Dark Tranquillity. The album was really the only one that garnished any media attention for the band. Not over in America, mind you, but in their home country of Sweden. The band was nominated for a Swedish Grammy Award, which was a big deal…over in Sweden. In America, not so much, but still, it means that the album was received better than expected. I would have liked to have heard the band continue along this direction, or at least keep the clean vocals around a bit. Projector was like a one-off experiment, like Opeth's Damnation, that showed metal fans that Dark Tranquillity was able to make a softer sounding album that could still appeal to their core fans.


The Conclusion

Well, that's all I got this week for What The Hell Happened To. Remember that next week I'm starting a new feature in my column:




Who The Hell Is…

You want your band to get noticed? This is the place. Just send an e-mail to me by clicking at the bottom or at [e-mail] with some music, a myspace page, or whatever you have. I'll take a look at it, see if it is any good, and post my opinion for the whole world to see.




Next week, I'm sticking with the metal genre by looking at a release from the Bay Area thrash band that should be named alongside Anthrax, Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth. I'm talking about Exodus and I'm going to be looking at one of their later releases. It's going to be a great one, so I'll see you all next week. Don't forget to leave me a comment at the bottom if you got any questions, suggestions, think I'm an asshole, etc.