Instigators of the Gothenburg melodic death metal movement alongside bands such as At The Gates and In Flames you have to say one thing about Dark Tranquility… they’re consistent. Maintaining their blueprint but yet opening new doors along the way, and in over two decades the band haven’t strayed far from the path, but rather, encompassed new ground pulling in new ideas, flair and at times genius.
For the best part of 2013 we’ve been teased with snippets of information about Construct, the band’s tenth full length but finally we, or I at least, can say the final product is here and in this writers grubby mits. So how does it fare you ask? Does it reaffirm my earlier statement or have Dark Tranquility shot it to pieces? Initial feeling after seeing the artwork was a little worry that the band’s logo had changed… was this a reflection on the music that was about to be unveiled? Was this writer reading to far into it? Probably… worry might not be the best word but it did prompt a little inquietude.
Construct in a lot of ways picks up where 2010’s We Are The Void left off and as pointed out earlier Dark Tranquility are consistent. They haven’t strayed with Construct and everything that makes up the Dark Tranquility legacy is in tact. New areas have been explored and old tendencies have been rehashed. Most notably, the keys appear to take a more center stage role and guitars have taken on new depth cloaking Contruct in a myriad of atmosphere. Guitars rather than standing alone marry the keys and it works so damn well.
There is something lacking though and it does take a while to realise. Aggression. Construct is definitely a lot easier on the ear than previous outputs but that doesn’t mean it lacks substance. It’s not as choppy as expected of death metal but rather smoother, sleeker, more polished and you could say more refined. Flashing moments of quick harmony driven guitar and blueprint melodeath to slower more epic moody passages Dark Tranquility sure do cover a lot of ground. That is where aggression is diluted, marrying the diversity is a tough cookie to crumble but they do it well with the help of Jens Bogren.
Put history where it is and take Construct for what it is and you’ll see the grand spectacle that it is. If another The Gallery is what you are looking for then Construct isn’t for you and after reading some negative scribbles this writer has a feeling a few will be going back on their words. I on the other hand doubt I will. Dark Tranquility has yet again delivered a stunning album.
8/10
Andrew Pennington