We Are the Void

While clearly not as deficient or meager as the album that directly followed it, We Are the Void shows various signs of decline and decay in the formula the band has utilized with reasonable success starting with Damage Done. At the same time, it exhibits a few areas of marked improvement that could have truly gone somewhere special if the band continued in this vein. This is essentially Fiction all over again, and while Construct can be viewed in a similar light, Dark Tranquillity was still mostly there at this point.

What doesn't work needs to be addressed immediately, and is mercifully shoved out of the way fairly early in the album's procession. The first two tracks, especially "Dream Oblivion" are totally out of character and inert attempts at adding a dissonant, dark edge to the atmosphere. On past albums like Damage Done the cybernetic, barren landscape painted by the melodies was endearing and came as an end, not a means, of the quality songwriting. The band tries breaching that point by force here, and the songs suffer as a result. In fact, We Are the Void's biggest fault may be centered around this aspect, because when it plays the familiar cards we have grown accustomed to it passes muster if not excels.

Snip off the first two songs alongside most of "Arkhangelsk" and you are left with a number of quality, if not redundant, tracks well worthy of the Dark Tranquillity name. As such, they still have the proclivity to sound a little samey and faceless if tackled in a single listening session. Regardless, "In My Absence" and "I am the Void" are both spectacular scorchers that run parallel with classics like "Dry Run" and "Blind at Heart". We Are the Void features the most crushing, bottom heavy guitar sound the band has ever committed to disc, with a tone as solid and tempered as the futuristic metropolises the band so proudly flaunts on many of their album covers. Jivarp likewise thunders by with a deep, cavernous thump to the bass drums and a balanced sheen to the top end of the kit that helps make up for a relatively understated percussive performance on the whole. The sterile, organic aesthetics of Fiction are also discarded for a roomier, more engrossing sonic palette that helps sell the opaque atmosphere evoked by the stabbing synths.

Some of the other songs are neither here nor there from a memorability standpoint, not necessarily falling through the cracks but getting hung up in the purgatory in between all the same. The band takes two more stabs at the "Misery's Crown" approach with "Her Silent Language" and closer "Iridium". The former is considerably less offensive thanks to Brändström's ever-poignant piano textures, but "Iridium" is overlong and far too meandering to be considered a success. The aforementioned "Arkhangelsk" sounds like the second coming of "Lost to Apathy" until the faceless stop-start riffing and Stanne's parched roars pull everything eternally downward. As with all Dark Tranquillity compositions, most of We Are the Void consists of short, accessible slabs of modern Gothenburg with a penchant for searingly memorable melodies and ambiance. While there are a boatload of bonus tracks amounting to nearly half of an album, I regret to say that the only one truly worth any time is "Out of Gravity". Track this one down if you can, as it features the greatest solo the band has executed since I can't even remember when.

I can't help but feel that We Are the Void's lackluster public opinion is the main reason the band took such a drastic stylistic turn on Construct and subsequently fell to the greatest depths since Haven. It wasn't warranted, as this sits quite nicely next to Fiction and Character on my shelf, rarely accruing any modicum of dust. A more than worthy final chapter to Dark Tranquillity's post-millennial dominance.