Review Summary: Overall, some excellent tracks but not nearly enough quality and consistency to crack anybody’s top 10 list for the year.
It took newfound levels of self-control but, for what seemed liked ages, I'd successfully resisted the urge to tease myself with The Halo Effect singles. The lineup was too compelling, the dual-history so overwhelming and the potential for something special so captivating that it felt like a trivial and totally worthwhile sacrifice. Save the sizzle until the full release or something like that. Could I have possibly set myself up for disappointment any more effectively? Not a damn chance. So with admittedly impossible levels of anticipation, I pressed play and waited for the magic to wash over me like hallucinogenic mushrooms on Halloween...
And then reality hit like explosive diarrhea not two notes into the opening track. Could Shadowminds be any sadder reminder of how stale modern Dark Tranquility have truly become? Their Moment LP was a painfully average release on the heels of a promising Phantom Days single and this new track sounded like a continuation of that underwhelming, most recent iteration of DT’s ever changing sound. Was a track right off the cutting room floor really the designated tone-setter for such an anticipated release? Fortunately, those four minutes of mediocrity suddenly became almost worthwhile because the next track might just be the high-water mark of the entire release. Days of the Lost is vintage Colony/Clayman-era-In Flames but with Mikael Stanne on vocals. Truth be told, I was completely smitten once I heard Jesper’s opening riff. I'll leave it there because the nostalgia was slowly creeping back into my periphery. Then the next track, Needless End, kept the mojo flowing beautifully. It might just be the first taste of something truly original on this entire release too; DT’s creepy melodic atmosphere as a backdrop to classic IF guitars. Gothenburg metal, damnit. Probably as Gothenburg as Gothenburg gets in 2022. Unrealistic expectations be damned!
Unfortunately, euphoria is always fleeting and the next track, Conditional, is a great example of how combining two good things don't necessarily give you something great. The vocals and the instrumentals just don’t convincingly gel so, while I was hoping for more peanut butter and chocolate, it sounded the musical equivalent of Frankenstein. Things continued to gradually devolve over the next two tracks too. My innocent earholes were raped repeatedly with clean vocals and questionable levels of authenticity and originality. Didn't think I'd ordered a side of progressive rock but there I was. Maybe it would have been better if they'd just tweaked a few of these songs into instrumentals. Who am I to say though? Then comes a dilemma. Is A Truth Worth Lying For deserving of scorn for those crappy cleans or is the guitar-work amazing enough to justify forgiveness? Here’s another instrumental, I guess. That's three if anybody’s counting.
At that point I was starting to think Stanne’s vocal style just isn't a great fit on the majority of these tracks. Thank baby Jesus himself for For What I Believe introducing some much needed clarity. Like Days Of The Lost, it’s classic IF perfectly wrapped in a blacked DT tortilla. It’s a crime Jesper Strömblad isn’t still writing and recording with In Flames because he’s still got it. No doubt about it. He's still metal royalty and this track should get lots of love from fans of both camps. Next up was Last Of Our Kind, which was easily the most unique track on the album with that cool string quartet intro and the surprisingly well placed vocals from Trivium’s lead guy. The underpinnings are classic IF set to DT’s blackened atmosphere, so it all feels familiar quite quickly. But then, just as I was christening this album a real B-side banger, the final track cast an ominous cloud over proceedings. The Most Alone, at least to my ears, is a final gut-wrenching reminder that Dark Tranquility is so far removed from the Damage Done/Character/Fiction era we all know and love that it physically hurts to acknowledge and internalize. This is, for all intents and purposes, a Moment track that clearly didn’t make the final cut. It almost feels like Stanne emailed the MP3 to Jesper and said, “can you polish this turd” and that’s the end product we’re all hearing. Not necessarily a bad track but it certainly doesn’t feel co-written and co-produced like the half-dozen or so more pioneering pieces on this album.
A promising project ends like it begins with two seemingly uninspired bookends. Overall, some excellent tracks but not nearly enough quality and consistency to crack anybody’s top 10 list for the year.
