Search - Dark Tranquillity :: Damage Done

Essential album - reissued!

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 09/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Originally released in 2002, Damage Done was the sixth full-length studio album from Swedish melodic death metal innovators Dark Tranquillity. Picking up where At the Gates left off, Dark Tranquillity, alongside In Flames, Soilwork and Hypocrisy, took death metal in a bold new direction, adding melody as a major element and experimenting with traditional metal elements, clean vocals, and in Dark Tranquillity's case, keyboards. Lots and lots of keyboards.



Damage Done is, well, perfect. I loved their 2000 release Haven, but this is the album where Dark Tranquillity finally perfected their unique brand of melodic death metal. The band matched furious At the Gates influenced death with gothic and progressive elements, and in the process became the only band from the Gothenburg scene to actually get better in the 21st century. It's so easy to just drown in the swirling mix of thrashing riffs, atmospheric keys, riveting melodies and dark, cerebral lyrics. If you were putting together a Dark Tranquillity "best of" collection, fully half this album would need to be included. "Final Resistance", "The Treason Wall", "Cathode Ray Sunshine" and above all "Monochromatic Stains" are among the album's best songs. Even the closing instrumental "Ex Nihilo" is extremely haunting.



If you were looking for the one album that completely captured the true Dark Tranquillity sound, that album is without a doubt Damage Done. Dark Tranquillity has released some incredible albums before and since, but Damage Done is their crowning achievement. It's an absolutely essential album for Dark Tranquillity fans as well as fans of Swedish melodic death metal in general.



Edition Notes: Century Media reissued Damage Done (along with Projector and Haven) in 2009. The deluxe reissue features digitally remastered sound, a nice slipcase, expanded liner notes, and four bonus tracks. The first bonus track is the song "I, Deception" that originally appeared on the Japanese version of Damage Done. The other two Damage Done b-sides on this reissue are "Static" and "The Poison Well", which were also collected on the Exposures: In Retrospect & Denial rarities collection a few years back. The final bonus track is a live version of "The Treason Wall". As far as the sound quality goes, this version of Damage Done is definitely a lot louder, especially Michael Stanne's vocals, which sound almost like he's roaring directly into your ears. I think it's an improvement, but it does take some getting used to."