The Swedish DARK TRANQUILLITY are one of the few bands which had been from the commercial point of view quite successful but despite this fact I still have the opinion that they never lost the contact to their underground roots. The underground credibility is still there mainly due to the fact that the band recorded one outstanding release after another during their over 20 years of existence, supported by impressing live shows with a audience raging from 15 up to 40 years. The first impression of their latest release “We Are The Void” are mixed feelings mainly due to the fact that the cover artwork seems so untypical for this band (any maybe their record label must be blamed for this mass compatible cover artwork). But every gold mine comes to an end one day and even if “We Are The Void” is offering a handful of strong songs is this album for sure the weakest DARK TRANQUILLITY release since at least fifteen years. The band has worked very intensively on their trademarks which are the impressive vocals by Mikael Stanner supported by the guitar front which is backed up by the slightly futuristic keys. But exactly this master plan is breaking the neck of “We Are The Void” because the music becomes to predictable. The 11 tracks are all on a high quality level but songs like ‘Dream Oblivion’ and / or ‘In My Absence’ (plus further tracks) can’t grab you at first instance and in some way they are nothing more than album filler to bring the playing time to an acceptable length. On the other hand there are killer songs like the opener ‘Shadow In Our Blood’ with the typical – and this time this is 100% positive – DARK TRANQUILLITY boiling blood drive and aggression. It’s really a sad moment because for years this act had been nothing more than a light bringer within a predictable scene, so hopefully the band will realize (again) their potential and return to the golden shores of Melodic Death Metal with their next album. www.darktranquillity.com, www.myspace.com/dtofficial, www.centurymedia.com