Dark Tranquillity - Fiction (2007)

This is one of those few albums that manage to sneak up on you, draw you in, and get stuck in your car's CD player for months on end. The first track, "Nothing To No One", starts innocently enough but about half a minute into it the track changes direction and from that point on your stuck. Not until the last note of "The Mundane and the Magic" do you even consider lowering your volume to pick up the kids from school, driving by a funeral at a church, or even passing a cop at three in the morning.

Dark Tranquillity have always released very, very good albums but not until Fiction have they hit their mark. Their past two efforts, Character (2005) and Damage Done (2002), added more of their original death metal roots to their music but each album never had much punch to it. There were definitely some good tracks on them but also a good amount of filler songs. Fiction (2007) fixes this. Whether it be "The Lesser Faith", "Blind Heart", or "Icipher" with their explosive choruses, or even "Nothing To No One", "Empty Me", or "Focus Shift" with it's heavy punch, this album doesn't stop. Where this album really shines though are it's four more oddball songs. "Inside The Particle Storm" is one of those tracks where the title explains the exact feeling of it. With a couple simple guitar chords that seeminglessly blend right into an huge sound and amplified into your ears, it does the trick. "Misery Crown" and "The Mundane And The Magic" highlight Mikael Stanne's clean vocals, the former even being complimented by with Threate Of Tragedy's female vocalist, Nell Sigland.

Now, "Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)"? That track has everything a melodic death metal fan will want from a band. Honestly, if someone made top 15 list of melodeath songs, and this wasn't on there I'd be pissed. An awe inspiring keyboard intro, to some heavy guitar chords, to an explosive chorus... ugh, just go listen to it already.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10] (if I could merge the mundane and the magic)

www.darktranquillity.com