Search - Dark Tranquillity :: Skydancer & Of Chaos and Eternal Night

Yesteryear.

Lord Chimp | Monkey World | 11/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"On historical importance one should not overlook _Skydancer_, but the musical value of this exceptional debut is most noteworthy. Released in 1993, _Skydancer_ was a seminal melodic death metal album. But the early music of Dark Tranquillity has only broad technical attributes in common with the 'melodeath' with which most are familiar. For that matter, it barely resembles Dark Tranquillity's own music of late. Dark Tranquillity's early path was paved with Swedish death metal influences, progressive metal, and melodically driven riffing. The music is very high-speed and more "classically"-structured, and the band employs many acoustic guitar interludes, highly imaginative, snaky bass playing (Martin Hendricksson is one of my favorite metal bassists), with vocals consisting of harsh screaming as well as soprano and tenor vocals.



This is the only full-length release on which Anders Friden (now of In Flames) performs screaming vocals. Stanne is still in the band, but he plays guitar and sings the clean vocals. The lineup is different but the fundamental concept of the music is basically the primitive form of the subsequent masterpieces, _The Gallery_ and _The Mind's I_ (two of the greatest metal albums ever). The production is very low-budget and raw, and Friden's vocals are kind of substandard most of the time (I much prefer Stanne).



Most songs consist of brutally melodic, crunchy riffs racing along frantic tempos with moody key changes and rhythmic dynamics. Their musical language was always far broader than their contemporaries (even now this remains true). A few of the other songs are different: "Through Ebony Archways" is a Romanian-influenced ballad-like song with a mix of clean male and female vocals and screaming vox over the distorted middle part. Then there is "A Bolt of Blazing Gold", one of Dark Tranquillity's greatest moments. From its lamentful opening to the chorus that toggles between angelic soprano and Friden's anguished rasp with heartrending guitar melodies. The middle section has a lovely acoustic folk melody with which Anna-Kaisa Avehall is backed by a softly singing Mikael Stanne. Brilliant!



The EP _Of Chaos and Eternal Night_, thankfully included on this reissue, solidifies the lineup with Stanne moved to vocals and Johansson recruited for guitar. Three of the songs are Dark Tranquillity's metallic genius, the other is a remix of the _Skydancer_ song "Away", with Stanne singing.



Don't overlook the early Dark Tranquillity -- it offers as much, if not more, than anything else they have released."