We are the void

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We are the void
Studio album by Dark Tranquility

Publication
(s)

February 26, 2010

Label (s) Century Media

Genre (s)

Melodic Death Metal

running time

47 min 46 s (regular version)
53 min 41 s (Digipak)

occupation

Studio (s)

Rogue Music, Göteborg
Gothenburg Rock Studio, Mölndal

chronology
Fiction
(2007)
We are the void Construct
(2013)

We Are the Void is the ninth studio album by the Swedish melodic death metal band Dark Tranquility . It was released on February 26, 2010 via Century Media . It is the only studio album with bassist Daniel Antonsson , who replaced his predecessor Michael Nicklasson , who had diabetes .

Emergence

After the end of the tour of the previous album Fiction , the band felt "a lot of creative energy" according to singer Mikael Stanne , so that the band immediately began working on new songs. The two guitarists and main songwriters Niklas Sundin and Martin Henriksson fell into a creative hole after a short time. Out of necessity, the band worked together on new ideas in the rehearsal room for the first time in many years.

Immediately before the recordings for the new album, the keyboardist Martin Brändström completely rebuilt his “Rogue Music” studio in Gothenburg . A special feature of the converted studio is the recording booth, which floats freely in the room so that the sound waves are not transmitted to the adjacent apartments. In the summer of 2009, 15 songs were created within seven weeks, eleven of which were used for the new album.

The drums were recorded in the "Gothenburg Rock Studios" in Mölndal , the studio of the new bass player Daniel Antonsson. The rest of the instruments and vocals were recorded in the Rogue Music studio. The recording began on August 28, 2009. While working in the studio, Anders Björler (guitarist for the bands At the Gates and The Haunted ) shot a making-of video.

Mixed and mastered was We Are the Void by Danish producer Tue Madsen. In contrast to previous albums, the cover was not designed by Niklas Sundin . There was little time between the end of the recordings and the deadline, so Sundin handed in the assignment.

A music video was shot for the song "Shadow in Our Blood" . The video was produced by the Finnish company Vasara Films, which also produced the DVD Where Death Is Most Alive , which was released last year . The video was shot in a Finnish forest within 15 hours.

background

Track list
  1. Shadow in Our Blood - 3:46
    (Music: Sundin / Text: Stanne )
  2. Dream Oblivion - 3:48
    ( Antonsson , Henriksson / Stanne)
  3. The Fatalist - 4:32
    (Henriksson, Jivarp / Stanne)
  4. In My Absence - 4:46
    (Brändström, Henriksson, Sundin / Stanne)
  5. The Grandest Accusation - 4:55
    (Sundin, Henriksson, Brändström, Jivarp / Stanne)
  6. At the Point of Ignition - 3:52
    (Sundin, Henriksson / Stanne)
  7. Her Silent Language - 3:33
    (Sundin, Jivarp, Henriksson / Stanne)
  8. Arkhangelsk - 3:56
    (Sundin / Sundin, Stanne)
  9. I Am the Void - 3:59
    (Sundin, Henriksson, Jivarp / Stanne)
  10. Surface the Infinite - 3:50
    (Henriksson, Jivarp, Brändström / Stanne)
  11. Iridium - 6:43
    (Sundin, Brändström / Sundin, Stanne)

In an interview with the German magazine Rock Hard , singer Mikael Stanne explained that the basic theme of the album was the abysses and the "emptiness in us all". Stanne explained that people often try, because they don't know better, to fill this void with countless stupid things.

In the lyrics, Stanne dealt with the subjects of life and death for the first time in Dark Tranquility's career. After more than 20 years of band history, Stanne wanted to take up serious topics in his lyrics for the first time. As inspiration, Stanne read numerous poems by Scandinavian poets.

“I wanted to find out what poets do with gruesome, painful subjects with really beautiful words. I prefer to deal with these issues instead of simply dismissing them as fate. Or to say "He's in a better place now etc." "

- Mikael Stanne

“The Fatalist” is about the Scandinavian habit of giving up on oneself. According to Mikael Stanne, there are many people in Northern Europe who “wallow in self-pity” instead of getting their lives straight.

The text of "Arkhangelsk" was inspired by the history of the Russian city of the same name . In ancient times, the city was often cut off from the outside world by the cold in winter, resulting in a large number of suicide cases. For Stanne, the text is the description of the absolute low point at which a person loses the meaning of life and becomes depressed.

The final song "Iridium" was originally written in the mid-1990s and was not used in the following years because the song never matched the other songs on the previous albums. For We Are the Void , the song was slightly rearranged and eventually recorded.

reception

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
We are the void
  DE 59 03/12/2010 (1 week)
  CH 70 03/05/2010 (4 weeks)
  SE 9 03/05/2010 (4 weeks)

We Are the Void received excellent reviews from the trade press. The German magazine Metal Hammer named We Are the Void “Album of the Month”. According to Petra Schurer, "the album proves that even after two decades the band is able to develop within its own stylistic framework". She rated the album six out of seven. For Powermetal.de editor Alex Straka, We Are the Void is "a damn strong chunk that nibbles on pretty much everything in the melo-death sector with a cold smile". Straka awarded 9.5 out of ten points.

Katharina Beck from the online magazine Metal.de had slight criticism. Although she admitted to the band that they have “a strong album with a few catchy tunes” to hand, she criticized that “it is not enough just to be better than the rest”. Beck gave the album 8.5 out of ten points. Boris Kaiser from the German magazine Rock Hard criticized the "over long stretches of the uncomfortably superficial keyboards " and gave the album 7.5 out of ten points.

We Are the Void debuted at number ninth on the Swedish album charts. After Character , this is the second entry into the top 10 of the Swedish album charts. In Finland and Greece the album reached number 16, in Germany number 59 and in Switzerland number 70.

Versions

The album is available on a regular CD, as a download and in a limited digipak . The digipak version contains the songs “Stars of Nothingness” and “To Where Fires Cannot Feed” as well as a DVD as a bonus. The DVD contains the complete studio report on video, a making-of of the “Shadow in Our Blood” video and, in addition to the songs “ThereIn” and “Final Resistance”, the trailer for the DVD Where Death Is Most Alive .

Individual evidence

  1. Robert Müller: The beginning of the end . In: Metal Hammer , March 2010, page 58
  2. Sebastian Kessler: The insulating tape . In: Metal Hammer, January 2010, page 21
  3. blabbermouth.net: DARK TRANQUILITY To Enter Studio Tomorrow
  4. metal.de: Perfection is utopia
  5. blabbermouth.net: DARK TRANQUILITY: 'Shadow In Our Blood' Video Released
  6. Ronny Bittner: Those who drink faster are full sooner . In: Rock Hard , January 2010, page 53
  7. a b terrorverlag.de: Dark Tranquility (Mikael Stanne) Interview from January 26, 2010
  8. Jan Jaedike: Death suits us well . In: Rock Hard, April 2010, page 44
  9. metalunderground.com: Mikael Stanne Talks New Album "We Are The Void"
  10. swedishcharts.com: Chart tracking Dark Tranquility
  11. musicline.de: Chart tracking albums ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musicline.de
  12. hitparade.ch: Dark Tranquility in the Swiss Charts
  13. metal-hammer.de: Dark Tranquility - We Are the Void ( Memento from June 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  14. powermetal.de: Dark Tranquility / We Are the Void - Review
  15. metal.de: Dark Tranquility - We Are The Void - CD Review
  16. blabbermouth.net: DARK TRANQUILITY: Entire New Album Available For Streaming