Atoma is a Belgium brand of stationary, it’s also the name of Dark Tranquillity’s 11th album. At least one of these facts is important! What the concept behind the title is exactly I have been unable to divulge so far but I am sure it’s no doubt an interesting one. What we do know is that between it and last album ‘Construct’ in 2013 we have seen the surprise departure of founding member Martin Henriksson (otherwise known as him with the dreads) and a new bassist Anders Iwers of Tiamat has been drafted in. Also just as the group are about to head off to a massive American tour we discover that quite understandably Niklas Sundin is bowing out from it due to commitments with his young family. Luckily stand-ins have been found and no doubt it will be a triumphant march as Mikael Stanne leads his troops from city to city. He seems like the sort of guy who is pretty much hard to fluster having doggedly led the band over 27 years and never compromising their musical vision. He is not one of those vocalists who goes all namby-pamby on us and blubs about no longer wanting to do harsh vocals anymore and musically they have never delved into areas of commerciality like others in their peer group (I could name names but am sure you have them on the tip of your tongue already).
This is all admirable as the band ‘Encircle’ us with the bombastic tones of that tried and tested melodic Swedish death metal sound. The roars are venomous, the drums pounding, underlying synthesizers sparkle enforcing the melody and guitars and bass hack and slash. This is what can only be described as a banger and it’s an immediately infectious start to the album. Stanne certainly isn’t adverse to the clean vocals as was proved on the somewhat misunderstood ‘Projector’ and he conveys them with passion and a pure heartfelt finesse on the title track, certainly in a fashion that he is singing about something far more passionate than Belgium stationary. The contrast between the two elements is quite striking and it is a very good way of starting the album off. Atoma the song has plenty of gruff and angry roars about it too and with the thick melody proves another compulsive tune as it reels you in. After living with the album for a couple of weeks these are already firm favourites albeit new ones; fans of the band will easily find themselves falling headlong for this chapter. As ever Martin Brändström’s electronic embellishments add plenty of extra dimensions to the music and you really find yourself noticing them over the album’s 12 numbers. There’s plenty of room for the occasional solo to sprawl out from the midst of numbers such as ‘Forward Momentum’ and as the sudden galloping fury of ‘Neutrality’ which paradoxically sounds as if it is going to war shows there’s plenty of suitable neck-wreckers on display too.
I’ve always thought that there is a novel waiting to bust out of Dark Tranquillity and even without narrative descriptions the song titles do paint a picture and it’s a bleak and post- apocalyptic one to my mind ‘The Pitiless’, ‘When The World Screams’ and ‘Caves And Embers’ being particular cases in point. Keeping tracks to a compact average 4 minute mark works perfectly too as we have just the right time to get into a number before it moves on to the next, cutting anything in the way of self-indulgence and fat right off. Moods and emotions are also contrasted well with some slower and more dour numbers such as ‘Faithless By Default’ sitting well next to the urgency, speed and anger of ‘The Pitiless.’ There’s a lot to take in here especially if you plump for picking up the media book edition with a couple of bonus tracks on, both of which illustrate a bit more of a slower and reflective nature. I reckon this one is going to be a real grower to enjoy over time, the fact that it appears towards the end of the year with plenty of other really good albums all jostling for attention has meant it’s up against some tough competition. Atoma has gone straight on my must have shopping list and I’m hungry for the band to hopefully play London next year so I can witness some of these tracks live.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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