DARK TRANQUILITY - The Gallery CD

All undisputed classic albums will inevitably have one or two reviewers that will pick it apart in a stubborn desire to go against the norm. A few people said this album was overrated, but note how few truly poor reviews there are. Ignore the naysayers, this is Gothenburg's best, and Dark Tranquillity's best. From start to finish every riff is epic melodic perfection, to say that this is all technicality and no songwriting is incredibly inaccurate, and there is in fact not much soloing or extraordinary technical guitarwork, if at all. Niklas Sundin and Fredrik Johansson are not Yngwie Malmsteens (who I happen to actually love). The vocals are perfect. Mid-ranged and raspy, there is nothing annoying about them, and you can understand almost every word. Accessible? Hardly. Progressive rhythms are present and scattered throughout the songs, especially in tracks like The Dividing Line. The drumming is fast and aggressive, this is not The Jester Race. This is melodic DEATH metal, not power metal with raspy vocals. And it is far better than The Jester Race, or Slaughter of the Soul for that matter. You wouldn't ever see Dark Tranquillity at Ozzfest or in Hot Topic, or in some mallcore kid's walkman. They are not In Flames, they are not Soilwork. This is what Gothenburg should be.