Endtime Signals

Endtime Signals is an album on which DARK TRANQUILLITY dug more richly into the shadow of the melodic-death-metal aesthetic it has long cultivated. Within the heat of sharp riffs and blasts, the color of cold keyboards and sunken melody slip in, so that a sense of the end and a sorrow rise at once. Rather than stringing together only ferocity, it carefully varies the air of each song, giving the whole album an undulating drama. On “Shivers and Voids,” “Unforgivable,” “Neuronal Fire” and “One of Us Is Gone,” surging low end, densely layered guitars and shadowed vocal melodies set one another off, creating a distinctive feel that is heavy yet somehow floating. On “Drowned Out Voices,” “Enforced Perspective,” “Our Disconnect” and “Wayward Eyes” too, cold melody and weight interlock tightly, keeping the tension alive. On “The Last Imagination” and “A Bleaker Sun,” gloomy lyricism and melodic beauty leave a deep afterglow. Centered on Mikael Stanne’s voice, a stance of still deeply updating the Gothenburg style breathes throughout, vividly showing where a band that has not stopped evolving stands even after a long career.