While Gothenburg stalwarts DARK TRANQUILLITY were there at the start of the whole melodic death metal sound – and, in fact, had a hand in creating it – the band has never really “broke through” to mainstream consciousness on the level of IN FLAMES or AT THE GATES. Factor in that, post-1999’s Projector, DT fell victim to the ‘00s in a very real and recognizable way. While never quite going off the deep end into blatant courting of the Hot Topic set ala Jesper Stromblad & co., there’s no denying that founder Mikael Stanne has been playing it safe for a long while now. While DT has never released a “bad” album, per se, there just hasn’t been much in the way of challenging the band or the listener, something one could chalk up to the numerous lineup changes the band has suffered. And thus, four years after Moment, we begin to hear Endtime Signals.

‘Shivers And Voids’ opens the door, and is standard DARK TRANQUILLITY, sure. There’s something to the riffwork here that seems almost fresh, though, an encouraging sign. The following ‘Unforgiveable’ finds relative newcomer, guitarist Johan Reinholdz coming into his own on this, his second outing, able to conjure both shimmering backgrounds and striking leads, with a sense of urgency that DT so desperately needs. While ‘Neuronal Fire’ may tone down the speed, the keys of Martin Brändström wrap so deftly around the other instruments that the terms “cinematic” and “expansive” aren’t too far off the tongue when describing what’s happening within the track.

After the crushing (yes, I said it) ‘Not Nothing’, staccato riff and syncopated drum carry us through ‘Drowned Out Voices’, and, at almost the halfway mark, not a clunker thus far. Opinions were bandied about when word came that Endtime Signals would have not one but two ballads, yet ‘One Of Us Is Gone’ kneels, crestfallen in loss, managing to conjure SENTENCED in moments, GREEN CARNATION in others, fine bands to be compared to, which crafting something on the “softer” side. ‘Enforced Perspective’ dips a bit in quality, but ‘Our Disconnect’ picks up the slack nicely, Brändström’s work elevating an already “good” song to potentially “great”.

‘A Bleaker Sun’ fades into the second ballad and, – while I’m normally averse to using a ballad as the ending track, there are exceptions; SAVATAGE’s ‘Sleep’ from Edge Of Thorns comes to mind – ‘False Reflection’ suits the mood and the days in which we live nicely, leaving us and Endtime Signals with one of the most sonically pleasing, vibrant, and, yes, challenging DARK TRANQUILLITY releases in recent memory.
Review By: Lord Randall

DARK TRANQUILLITY
Endtime Signals
Century Media