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Dark TranquillityMisery's Crown
Dark Tranquillity was formed in 1989 by vocalist and guitarist Mikael Stanne and guitarist Niklas Sundin, who looked at their influences and then decided to form their own band under the name Septic Broiler. Not long after, three additional members, Anders Fridén, Anders Jivarp and Martin Henriksson, joined the line-up. In 1990, the band recorded a demo cassette tape entitled Enfeebled
Earth before they would change their name to Dark Tranquillity and
change their musical style. It was followed by multiple demos, and
in 1993, Skydancer was released. Soon after, Fridén, Dark Tranquillity's
main vocalist at the time, left the band and later joined In Flames.
Stanne then became the lead vocalist, and Fredrik Johansson was
recruited to take over rhythm guitar duties. In 1995, the second full length album The Gallery was released, often referred to as the masterpiece of the era. The release saw a change in the band's style, but kept the characteristics essential in the band's melodic death metal sound, such as growled vocals, abstract riffing, acoustic passages, and a female guest vocalist. The third album, The Mind's I, was released in 1997. Projector was released in late 1998. It was the fourth album from the band, and was later nominated for a Swedish Grammy Award. The album saw a major change in songwriting: while retaining growled vocals and their signature death metal sound, pianos, baritone soft vocals, and verse-chorus fashion song structures were now integral parts of Dark Tranquillity's sound, reflecting the band's goal to strive for different musical expressions. After the recording of Projector, Johansson was asked to leave
as he started to lack devotion to the band, stemming from being
a parent and keeping a day job. A year later saw the release of Haven, which introduced the addition of electric keyboard sounds, but also saw the abandonment of the newly adopted clean vocals in favor of an overall heavier sound. By this time, Martin Brändström had joined for keyboard duties, and Michael Nicklasson had replaced Henriksson on bass, with Henriksson becoming the band's second guitarist. During their 2001 tour the band hired Robin Engström to play live
because Jivarp became a father. Dark Tranquillity released Damage Done in 2002, and was intended to be a step in a much heavier direction, adding thicker guitar distortion, deep atmospheric keyboards, and abandoning soft vocals altogether. They released the music video for the single "Monochromatic Stains", followed by their release of Live Damage, their first live DVD. Character was the seventh release from Dark Tranquillity, released
in 2005, and was held in much critical praise. It featured the third
music video released by Dark Tranquillity, with the successful single
"Lost to Apathy". In 2007, Fiction was released, which in turn, saw a return of Stanne's clean vocals, and the first female guest vocalist since Projector. The album also saw writing style that combined the stylings of Projector and Haven, with the more aggressive traits of Character and Damage Done. At this time, Dark Tranquillity toured with The Haunted, Into Eternity, and Scar Symmetry for the North America Metal for the Masses Tour.[2] They returned to the U.S. during Spring 2008 with Arch Enemy. They also toured the UK in early 2008 along with Omnium Gatherum. On October 26, 2009 they released a DVD titled Where Death Is Most Alive. On October 30, 2009 at the release party of the DVD 333 copies were given away for free of the rare live album The Dying Fragments. On the band's official website they announced that bass guitarist Niklasson left the band in August 2008 due to personal reasons with no hard feelings between him and the band. On September 19, 2008, the band found a new bassist in Dimension Zero guitarist Daniel Antonsson, who also was a guitarist for Soilwork. May 25, 2009, saw reissues of Projector, Haven, and Damage Done. In October 2009, Dark Tranquillity finished work on their ninth studio album, We Are the Void, which was released on March 1, 2010, in Europe, and March 2, 2010, in the USA.[3] On December 21, 2009, Dark Tranquillity released the song "Dream Oblivion"[citation needed] and on January 14, 2010, they released the song "At the Point of Ignition"[citation needed] from We Are the Void exclusively on their MySpace page. They were also the opening act for a US winter tour that was headlined by Killswitch Engage along with The Devil Wears Prada. In February 2011, they performed for the first time at a cultural fest of BITS campus in Hyderabad, India. This was their first performance in India. Dark Tranquillity announced a headline tour in summer 2010 with
Threat Signal, Mutiny Within and The Absence.[4] Throughout their 20 years active Dark Tranquillity have had only
three line-up changes, and four of the original members are still
in the band today: vocalist Mikael Stanne, guitarist Niklas Sundin,
guitarist-bassist Martin Henriksson, and drummer Anders Jivarp. Anders Fridén – vocals (1992–1993) Anders Fridén – vocals (1994–1998) Mikael Stanne – vocals (1998–1999) Mikael Stanne – vocals (1999–2008) Mikael Stanne – vocals Current Mikael Stanne – vocals [edit] Current members Robin Engström – drums (tour 2001) [edit] Discography Studio albums Skydancer (1993)
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