DARK TRANQUILLITY Guitarist Talks About Upcoming CD

December 27, 2006

Metal Israel recently conducted an interview with DARK TRANQUILLITY guitarist Niklas Sundin. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Metal Israel: What direction have you taken with the new album? From the YouTube preview it seems awesome. What are we in for?

Niklas Sundin: As a whole, it's more diverse and features bigger variation between the songs than, for example, "Character", but there's no point in elaborating too much as you all can hear it pretty soon. Also, it's hard be objective about our own work; once a recording is finished you're usually so fed up with the songs that you don't want to think of them, let alone try to describe how they sound. I'm not sure if all the songs you can hear on the YouTube preview will actually be featured on the album or if they'll be saved for B-sides.

Metal Israel: Why don't you use Mikael's [Stanne] clean vocals again? At least in some of the songs.

Niklas Sundin: When we started having clear male vocals, on the "Skydancer" album in 1993, it was something drastically new that no band in our genre had tried before. Same thing with "Projector". One-two years after it was released, tons of other Swedish bands — and eventually American bands as well — began using clear vocals in choruses, albeit in a more streamlined and catchy manner. There's no point in doing what everyone else is doing, and the music of the last few albums haven't really been suited to normal singing either. If we were to include clear vocals just to please the fans, we'd be total sellouts. I'm sure we'll have Mikael's singing voice again in the future, but then it really has to suit the music and feel right.

Metal Israel: Is a European or North American tour on the immediate horizon?

Niklas Sundin: I'm sure that there will be a lot of touring for the new album, but it's a bit early to have any confirmed plans right now. The CD will most likely be out in April, so I'm guessing that we'll do a U.S. tour shortly after that, play the summer festivals and then make a European trek in the autumn. But it's just speculation at this point. Within a couple of weeks, the schedule for the next year will be much clearer.

Metal Israel: I would ask you what you think of what's going on in the world on a political level right now, especially in Israel, but it's a complicated question. If you have some thought that you do want to share, please feel free.

Niklas Sundin: I'm sorry, but I have the policy of not discussing these issues in band interviews. Whatever I would say wouldn't be representative for the band, since we're all individuals with different opinions on things. DARK TRANQUILLITY is about the musical experience, everything else is irrelevant. Most of us don't even care enough about politics to even have an opinion.

Read the entire interview at www.metalisrael.com.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).