Damage Done

Damage Done is a masterpiece on which DARK TRANQUILLITY tightly bound cold keyboard texture, keen-edged guitars and Mikael Stanne’s deep growl, balancing aggression and lyricism at an extremely high level. Fully integrating the electronic elements pursued on the previous two albums into racing melodic death, it established here the core sound that carries through to the present. The aggression is very high, yet a Nordic desolation hangs thickly over the songs, and the melody leaves a strong afterglow. On “Monochromatic Stains,” “Final Resistance,” “Cathode Ray Sunshine” and “The Treason Wall,” the synthesizer sounding beneath fierce riffs gives the whole album an urban, gloomy air. On “Hours Passed In Exile,” “Single Part of Two,” “The Enemy” and “I, Deception” too, dense passages where drive and lyricism act as one continue. From the tension of “Format C: For Cortex” and “White Noise / Black Silence” to the closing “Ex Nihilo,” a flawless construction runs throughout. Its accomplishment in fusing heaviness with sorrow keeps it highly regarded to this day as one of the band’s signature works and a landmark of melodic death metal.