Customer Reviews

Mind's I

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Mind's I" is my favourite album from Dark Tranquillity. I'm not intending to go into all the painful details of my "Projector" review, rather just simply to say that this album; having heard "Damage Done", remains my outright favourite.
It's fast, complex, aggressive and most importantly very pure. Songs average just below 4 minutes, with one lengthy epic "Insanity's Crescendo" a brilliant song placed in the middle of the album, featuring impressive female vocals.
Superb dual guitars, outstanding lively basswork, faultless drumming and Stanne's typical throaty onslaught make for the best album by Dark Tranquillity.
My favourite songs on here would be "Zodijackyl Light", "Insanity's Crescendo", "Atom Heart 243.5" and "Still Moving Sinews".
One of my favourite albums of all time.

This is an album from the Gothenburg scene, and all great bands from there, they each bring something a little different to the table. This album is one of those albums.

Though this album clearly has an At The Gates influence, this album also takes many other passages to get the points across. The fast parts somewhat reminds me of At The Gates (not in a cliche kinda way), but this album has many slower, softer parts. There is something about this album that is difficult to describe, an underlying melancholy that doesn't obscure the beauty of the music, and doesn't contradict the faster and heavier parts.

Spanning fast, technical thrash, to slower, melodic acoustic parts, with piercng screams, harsh growls, and beautiful female vocals, this album is in no way "just another Gothenburg album". A very good band, with all members being very talented, and amazing songs that have creative structure and great variation, and using other metal cliches like solos and blast beats sparingly.

I think I've said enough.

If you call yourself a fan of melodic death metal, you absolutly need this album. I know it's pretty hard to find, but look around a bit cause your collection isn't complete without it. (actually I hear their re-releasing this and Gallery later this year)Never has Dark Tranquility sounded better. Imagine Skydancer better produced/recorded mixed with a less spread-too-thin Gallery. Mikeal Stanne is at his peak on this album and truly rips with the pissed off yet peaceful vocals only he can do. The guitars are awesome and sound a bit like In Flames only darker. The bass kinda stays in the background but it usually does in harder albums like this. The drums are well done in the traditional Swedish Death Metal style. Everything Dark Tranquility has done is worth getting, but if you get only one thing from them make it this. I recommend checking out Edge of Sanity, Amorphis, Dan Swano, Cynic, and At the Gates in addition to this. Good luck in finding it.

First off, a few people are a bit confused as to the genre Dark Tranquillity fall in. They are NOT, I repeat NOT black metal. They utilize a black metal vocal style, but this does not make them a black metal band. For real, true black metal, the listener should consult Emperor (ItNE), Burzum, Darkthrone, Graveland, and Abigor as good representatives of the genre. DT play Gothenburg death metal, which is a melodic and often technical style created by them and a few other bands such as At the Gates, and possible In Flames (debatable.) Anyway, this is another fine release by the master's of the melodic death genre, but the melodic episodes of The Gallery have been reduced a bit, in favor of a more agressive and slightly linear style. Not that the album is simple; it is extremely complex and requires several listens in order to interpret what is going on. The musicianship is stellar as usual; never short on talent, Dark Tranquillity always delivers quality metal. This is a mandatory album for fans of the Gothenburg style.

"The Mind's I" is a stunning work of Swedish melodic death metal. It is a marked improvement from their last cd "The Gallery". The songs here are more focused. While "The Gallery" was a good disc in its' own right, it tried to pack way too many ideas in each song, and the result was a heavy handed cd. Here, the songs are shorter and more concise. The technical element of their songs, while still evident, is less forward and takes a back seat to the point at hand: some plain old butt kicking death thrash. This cd is much faster than "The Gallery". The vocals still sound suitably morose and deathly and the production offers density and clarity. Tracks to hone in on here include "Zodijackyl Light", "Scythe, Rage and Roses" and the somber, melancholic "Insanity's Cresendo", a very atypical track that might not be the average metalhead's idea of of a good time, but is a great, atmospheric track that uses those female operatic vocals that appeared on "The Gallery". The track is very dynamic and is a strong, powerful song. I await,with baited breath, for their next opus.

This is probably Dark Tranquillity's best work to date-- I would rate it above the brilliant "The Gallery" album which preceded it. The crux of the album lies in its subtleties; the nuances make the album what it is. I was disappointed when I found out exactly how long (short, rather) the songs tend to be-- I heard the album first when a friend dubbed it for me-- but they truly are the perfect length for what the individual songs are trying to accomplish. DT seems to have learned a lot since its inception. They have borrowed from the best in their arena and elsewhere. One can easily hear some near-Schuldinerian stylings here, as well as some possible influence from the monumentally underrated Nocturnus. The requisite metal influences are also abundant-- one can pick out with somewhat startling regularity Maiden and Priest and King Diamond influences in the music. The lyrics also deserve consideration. Stanne and Sundin, the lyricists, seem to be defying the listener to interpret their words-- searches for "meaning" will prove largely fruitless-- it is much more interesting (not to mention easier) to try and discern what Stanne and Sundin are *saying* rather than what they mean. Again, the listener can pick out poetic influences, not the least of which seem to be Shelley, Coleridge, Swinburne, Tennyson, with a dash of Wordsworth thrown in for good measure. "The Mind's I" is less an album than a search for self-- both musically, lyrically, and, one can assume, personally. This disc hits at full force on all levels at once and, rather like Emperor's latest "Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk," it takes a while for the listener to fully appreciate what is going on, to say nothing of apprecating the whole album for what it is-- a journey into the self which produces some of the best metallic art this world has ever been graced with. And I can't help but be blown away by the guitar-tradeoff at the 54 second mark of "Dissolution Factor Red"-- simply breathtaking.

For people who think that Limp Bizkit, Korn, and even today's Metallica is heavy metal do yourselves a favor and buy this to find out what real musicianship, songwriting talent, and allout METAL really is...

This album is fascinating from the first track. There is much to be unraveled in the words of every song, be it of a mystical or more agressive inclination. Most of the songs are quite technical in their style, opting many times for a melodic riff with many integrated variations, instead of the lately all-too-common "three riffs make a song" style in metal. Dark Tranquillity is more of a Death Metal band, or as they call themselves, a Melodic Death Metal style, not so much Black metal since they do not inquire in any affairs involving satanic worshipping, a trademark of the Black style.

This album would have gotten 5 stars if not for tracks number 8["Still Moving Sinews"] and 9 ["Atom Heart 243.5"], which are alltogether too similar for my taste, even using (seems to me) the exact same intro. Also, I found the album to be rather short, only 46 minutes with 12 songs, although it is refreshing to see that most songs have the adequate length, unlike some of the more recent metal bands that make the song much longer than it should be.

Excellent album! If you're a black metal fan every Dark Tranquillity album is a must; The Mind's I, DT's best release to date becomes an absolute must. The lyrics all around the album are excellent, with deep philosophical meaning (HEDON, TONGUES), and the music per-se is outstanding. Powerful riffs, great drums, excellent acoustics, powerful vocals and excellent lyrics make the MIND'S I, a great album. HEDON, INSANITY'S CRESCENDO, THE MIND'S EYE are excellent songs.

It's taken me a long, long time to go anywhere near this band, because of the "M" word- "melodic".

Melodic death metal, as this band are often called, conjurs up images of puffy-sleeved white frilly short wearing musicians, and music comparable to latter day Helloween. Boy, was I wrong!

The "melodic" thing has been over emphasised in much which has been said about this band. This is brutal! Yes, there's an element of melody, but it's really an inappropriate word to be applied to this. Unfortunately, there is no word in the English language more appropriate.

So what's on offer here? The classic Scandinavian dual guitar attack. It's less oppressively crushing than the likes of Entombed or Dismember in their heyday, but is more technical than the earlier death metal leaders. The death grunt is more of a deep breathy rasp. Double kick drums underscore most songs, in classic death style.

While mostly mid-paced metal, blast beats are used sparingly, but effectively, like in the closing seconds of "Scythe, Rage and Roses". There are gentler moments too, like the melancholic acoustic guitar and female vocal introduction to Insanity's Crescendo.

I wish I'd checked this band out several years ago.