“To say it is to know it, to hear it is to believe, is to believe” for some reason Mikael Stanne and Dar Tranquillity have never really been consider a band with deep lyrical concepts, and that is just outrageous to me! “I decline the sleight of hand that leads to rejection; an attempt to find closure with no sense of pride” come on this guy can really write good lyrics.

Fiction comes following a very tough act, as the great “Character” album was in 2005, so I actually expected an album with a bit more “fury” and speed as the Character one did helping Dark Tranquillity “revived” its importance on the melodic metal scene, but this Swedes don’t settle for formulas that have worked and they decided to mix it up a bit, so Fiction comes as many other reviewers have noted “a perfect mixed between Character and Damage Done” yes and that’s because the album is fast, angry but very melodic with beautiful guitar lines and that trade mark keyboard surrounding the songs with mysticisms and anticipation.

The biggest strength of this new album is the ability of the band to keep the entire album aggressive but understandable, furious but beautiful, a very difficult mix of feelings and riffs that really express the true reasons why melodic death metal has become so popular these days.

The guitars have improved, the drums and the way they layered them down is quite good, in some songs this percussion sounds sort of “undergrounish” (I’m just making words up at this point!) they sound raw and precise, giving some segments extra strength, off course this only happens in few segments because the entire production is solid, it does sound that they wanted to have a really natural drum sound next to the keyboard arrangements in order to create a more balance overall rhythm.

Stanne’s vocals remain solid, for some reason I’ve always seem this guy as a good mixed between death vocals and raw black metal, it could be the anger with a taint of evil in his tone. (I think I said that in a previous Dark Tranquillity review?)

Every single song is solid, at least in my mind they are so I cant really have a song I didn’t like, all I have is a least favorite track that been “Inside the Particle Storm” because it has this gloomy, depressive feeling to it, even though the guitar lines are beautiful right before it reaches the climax at the end.

Forgetting all those in love with the past Dark Tranquillity with their 3 last albums are creating a legendary discography that goes beyond what they did back in 93 and 95, lets just sit and watch how this band becomes a legend!