Atoma

Atoma is the eleventh album, on which Dark Tranquillity bound the sharp guitar harmonies of melodic death with the air of cold, beautiful keys at a high level. Alongside Mikael Stanne on vocals, Niklas Sundin on guitar, Martin Brändström on keyboards and Anders Jivarp on drums, Anders Iwers took part for the first time on bass. In racing passages riffs create tension, and in mid-tempo the melancholy of the melody remains deep. On the title track "Atoma" and "Forward Momentum," sharp riffs and lyrical melody intersect. Carefully moving back and forth across the boundary of intensity and lyricism, the whole album has a unified, night-like mood. The songs are complex yet the emotional line is easy to see, and the more one repeats them, the more the details of the arrangement open up. The album was highly regarded on Metal Storm as well — a record that conveys the maturity of Nordic melodic death.