Review Summary: We are Without - We are Just Passing By
To say that this record offers peak Dark Tranquillity would be a blatant lie, but it does offer a glimpse at a band that still has some worth left to offer. Given the storied history of virtuoso musicians producing some of the most widely praised melodic death metal on albums like “The Gallery”, “Projector” and “Character,” it’s no surprise that expectations are continuously high even if this group doesn’t necessarily have anything left to prove. With their last three records having been produced by Martin Branstrom, including “Endtime Signals,” it’s easy to hear his constant influence taking form on these records with a bit more focus on background ambience and less on discernable, hard riffs. Particularly on this new release, there’s a heavier focus on mood and spacious soundscapes rather than some of those epic melo-death riffs and solos that longtime fans are used to unless of course you’ve only been listening for the past few years; This offers a sort of continuation to their recent efforts for better or for worse.
Where “Endtime Signals” ultimately succeeds is in the sound department as it’s well produced, the guitar tone has a bit of bite whilst still feeling polished and clean. The drums pop well in the mix and bass riffs are discernable and add considerable punch to heavier moments that are prevalent on tracks like ‘Shivers and Voids’ and “Enforced Perspective.” As previously mentioned, there’s a bit more focus on spacious open sections where the production can shine a bit more and this is more excellently done on an album highlight “Neuronal Fire” which offers an extremely powerful chorus section where Stanne continues to employ his signature harsh vocals rather than opting for his clean, operatic style which I feel works well in this instance. That is not to say that esteemed vocalist Mikael Stanne does not use his gifted singing voice as he has since the days of “Construct”, but it seems that the moments he does choose to sing feel less impressive than in the past. On the teaser single ‘Not Nothing,’ Stanne’s quiet, restrained intro works fairly well and establishes one of the couple examples where I found his clean vocals put to good use. The song ‘Wayward Eyes’ starts off strong enough with a pretty epic intro followed by a fairly typical melo-death verse, but the clean chorus sort of feels shoehorned in with a rather simplistic song-structure that falls flat and offers little to nothing to this album’s runtime.
Where “Endtime Signals” ultimately doesn’t impress as much as it could have is the lack of original and discernable riffs and lead melodies. Their previous effort “Moment” featured the additional guitar work of Christopher Amott who does not appear on the new record unfortunately, who sort of breathed some life into that record with his talents. There were more highlights with better instrumentation whereas “Endtime Signals” sort of blends together at times with a lot of chugging and simple riffs to fill the runtime. That isn’t to say that there aren’t examples of excellent guitar work. Particularly on ‘Our Disconnect’ which weaves multiple melodic ideas and heavy riffs together and ultimately topped off by a great guitar solo, really livens up the middle section of this record. Additionally, the solo on ‘A Bleaker Sun’ is rather impressive even if the track itself screams “basic” for the most part.
While I feel like I’ve taken a lot of time to highlight some of the more negative aspects of listening to “Endtime Signals,” I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy the majority of this record. Accepting that Dark Tranquillity isn’t the same band they were twenty-five years ago helps in allowing me to truly delve into some of these tracks for what they are. As mentioned in previous critiques, ‘Wayward Eyes’ and ‘A Bleaker Sun’ are the main offenders in my eyes of being rather run-of-the-mill songs with little to offer. I could also nit-pick certain moments on other tracks as being shoulder-shrug, meh, unimpressive pieces to overall good songs but in reality, there are some clear examples of well thought out and crafted songwriting. ‘Not Nothing’ and ‘Our Disconnect’ are two of their best songs in my eyes, really leaning into what makes this era of DT distinguishable as well as weaving in elements of old-school DT seamlessly. I might not be the “biggest” fan of the closing track on here, but I respect the band’s willingness to commit to a completely clean-sung melodic ballad as the final piece of this record. It’s bold, I respect it.
Overall, this record won’t impress those who have already been unimpressed by the band’s most recent output but for those willing to give a bit of time to explore some of the nuances, there is a lot of great stuff present here. It’s not without its flaws but it does offer some pretty solid highlights worthy of throwing on a playlist and binging. As an album “experience,” it does feel a bit bumpy where the lesser tracks sort of break the flow but getting back into things isn’t a massive challenge.
