Review by Ben for Dark Tranquillity - The Gallery (1995)
Right up there with the best melodic death metal albums and Dark Tranquillity's finest.
Dark Tranquillity were one of the first bands to produce melodic death metal and they’ve been going strong ever since. They were certainly pioneering, not to mention brave, when they decided that what the normally brooding death metal genre really needed was some sweet melodies. But it proved a huge success almost immediately and has inspired some of the most commercially successful bands in extreme metal. Their style has twisted and turned over the years, but it has never ventured too far away from the subgenre they helped create. They don’t try to be overly brutal or morbid. They don’t try to be overly technical or experimental. They simply try to create entertaining, good music and rarely have they failed to do so in over 15 years. It could be said that they’re a safe band these days, but then it’s nice to have an outfit that can always be relied upon to produce the goods.
The Gallery was the first great Dark Tranquillity album. Their debut Skydancer wasn’t bad by any means, but it displayed a band still finding their feet. It was certainly a good effort considering how different it was to all death metal preceding it, but The Gallery was where they really hit their straps. This album has numerous classic tracks that will have you grinning madly in no time. The sound is big and clear which is perfect for their style and gives each musician plenty of room to show their wares. There is a stack of variety contained within the 11 tracks with the velocity ranging from almost ballad like tunes through to ripping death metal. Dark Tranquillity are just as likely to inject a piano interlude or female vocals as they are to launch into a shredding riff complete with blast beats. It makes for an always interesting and at times surprising experience that rewards multiple listens.
If the album has a flaw, it’s that the second half falls away after a near perfect start. By the time Punish My Heaven, Edenspring, The Dividing Line and The Gallery have blessed my eardrums I’m feeling like this album deserves nothing short of full marks. But then the last few tracks don’t manage to keep this high quality going in my opinion. There aren’t really any particularly bad moments, but The Emptiness From Which I Fed and …of Melancholy Burning are just not quite there on the brilliance level. But even with this downside, The Gallery is a damn fine album that should sit very snugly within any melodic death metal fans collection. I know the genre receives a lot of flak these days due to an infinite number of crappy clones, but I’d like to think that bands like Dark Tranquillity should be exempt from such criticism. The lack of quality in other bands can hardly be their fault now, can it?!