Swedish melodic death metallers Dark Tranquillity have been together for nearly 30 years, with three-fifths of the band coming together in 1989 under the name Septic Broiler. Then rhythm guitarist/now lead vocalist Mikael Stanne was 15 when he joined up with guitarist Niklas Sundin and drummer Anders Jivarp in the fertile metal proving grounds of Gothenburg, Sweden, changing the band’s name two years later. Along with newish bassist Anders Iwers and longtime keyboardist and electronic programmer Martin Brändström, Dark Tranquillity is currently enjoying a career high based on the strength of 2016 album Atoma and a well-received appearance at extreme music festival Rock al Parque in August.
Atoma was three years in the making. Stanne and company have followed their own musical muse since establishing Dark Tranquillity, an evolution in development that led to Jivarp contributing most of the musical ideas for the latest album and collaborating with Brändström on material the rest of the band would carefully hone. The finished work encapsulates everything fans have come to love about the band, with alternating soft and hard vocals, muscular rapid-fire rhythms and wicked guitar work that indicate Gothenburg’s godfathers of death metal are very much a creatively inspired band.
