Damage Done
| Damage Done | ||||
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| Studio album by Dark Tranquility | ||||
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Publication |
August 20, 2002 |
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| Label (s) | Century Media | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
12 |
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running time |
47 min 25 s |
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Frederik Nordström, Dark Tranquility |
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Studio (s) |
Studio Fredman, Gothenburg |
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Damage Done ( Engl . For inflicted damage ) is the sixth album by the Swedish melodic death metal band Dark Tranquility . The album was released on August 20, 2002 via Century Media . Damage Done brought the band their first chart entries in Sweden and Germany.
History of origin
Already at an early stage of the songwriting it turned out that the new songs go back to the older albums like The Gallery or The Mind's I in terms of intensity and aggressiveness . That is why singer Mikael Stanne did without clear vocals. The electronic elements that were still in the foreground on the previous album Haven were mixed back into the background. The guitars are more dominant on this album. Curiously, keyboardist Martin Brändström was in charge of this decision.
The album was recorded between February and March 2002 in the Fredman studio in Gothenburg . The album was produced by Frederik Nordström and Dark Tranquility. Nordström only played a minor role in the recordings. The band recorded the songs in his absence. It was only later that Nordström returned to the studio and mixed the album. The mastering was done by Göran Finnberg in "The Mastering Room".
For the song “Monochromatic Stains” a video clip was shot in black and white format. The video shows both visual and content-related connections to the film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari . The director was the Greek Achilleas Gatsopoulos, who made the short film as part of a seminar paper during his studies in London .
Versions
The album was released on CD and LP. A limited version in digipak contained the song "I, Deception" as a bonus track and the video clip for "Monochromatic Stains". Today the album with the bonus track and the video clip is sold. The Japanese version contains the song "The Poison Well" as a bonus track. The LP version has a different cover artwork. Both pictures were designed by Niklas Sundin and his company Cabin Fever Media. The cover of the regular CD features an obscure live photo of the singer.
background
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According to Mikael Stanne, there are two reasons for the album title. For one, it's about final decisions that people sometimes have to make in life.
“Very often in life it's about which path you want to take. Once you've made a decision at one of these intersections, you usually can't go back - damage done! "
The second reason came from the songwriting process. The band wanted to make good songs so they were quite tense when the songs were written. When the songs stood the tension was gone. "The damage was done, on to new deeds," explained Stanne.
The text of the song "Monochromatic Stains" tells a criminal story. According to Stanne, the title of the song provides an indication of who the culprit in this story is. "Format C: for Cortex" is about the question of how people influence other people. There was long debate and anger within the band about the title of the song. "Cathode Ray Sunshine" addresses the obsession of some people with electronic devices such as televisions and computers . "White Noise / Black Silence" is about complete detachment from the flood of information in modern mass media.
“Just to go your own way, not let yourself be influenced and speak for yourself. Man should be a thinking individual and not just a consumer and unwilling recipient of the ideas and opinions of the outside world. "
The final instrumental "Ex Nihilo" was created shortly before the end of the recordings and contains riffs and melodies that did not fit into the other songs. In an interview, Stanne explained that he had the feeling that he could not enhance the song with lyrics, so it was left with an instrumental.
reception
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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The German magazine Metal Hammer named Damage Done “Album of the Month”. Gunnar Sauermann described the album as "a flawless, multi-faceted and fiery diamond" and awarded the highest score with seven points. "Metalgreg" from the online magazine Metal.de described Damage Done as a "reference album for melodic Death Metal in 2002" and awarded the highest number of points with ten points.
Damage Done reached number 29 in the Swedish and number 83 in the German album charts. It was the first chart placement in the band's history.
Individual evidence
- ↑ metal.de: Interview with Mikael Stanne
- ↑ metal.de: Dark Tranquility: The big discography check!
- ↑ a b Robert Pöpperl-Berenda: "Handcuffs for the keyboard player". In: Rock Hard , September 2002 issue, pages 62–63
- ↑ a b Gunnar Sauermann: Old hardness does not rust . In: Metal Hammer , July 2002, p. 28
- ↑ a b c legacy.de: Page no longer available , search in web archives: Format D: For Damage Done
- ↑ swedishcharts.com: Chart tracking Dark Tranquility
- ↑ officialcharts.de: Chart tracking albums
- ^ Metal Hammer, August 2002 issue, page 88
- ^ Metal.de: Review of Damage Done