Search - Dark Tranquillity :: Haven

Essential album - reissued!

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 09/03/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Originally released in 2000, Haven was the fifth 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.



Haven was the album where Dark Tranquillity finally seemed to figure out their definitive sound. You could hear them moving ever so slightly in this direction on The Gallery and The Mind's I, and they perhaps went too far on the experimental Projector album, but with Haven all the pieces fit together. They figured out how to use a lot of gothic keyboard sounds and still remain undeniably a death metal band. It helped that Michael Stanne abandoned the clean vocals he used so abundantly on Projector. Not that I minded them, but at the time they made people wonder if Dark Tranquillity was going the way of Amorphis and Samael. I doubt it took anyone more than one listen to blistering songs like "Rundown" and the stunning "The Wonders at Your Feet" to put that idea to rest!



Haven is a stunning melodic death metal album all around. Inescapable melodies and atmospheric keyboards merge seamlessly with a traditional death metal assault and intelligent lyrics, and the result is an album where Dark Tranquillity proved that a death metal album could also be a work of pure artistry.



Haven really is a landmark album in Swedish melodic death metal history, and is one of Dark Tranquillity's finest efforts (and that's saying something). 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 Haven (along with Projector and Damage Done) in 2009. The deluxe reissue features digitally remastered sound, a nice slipcase, expanded liner notes, and four bonus tracks. The first three bonus tracks - "In Sight", "Misery In Me" and "Cornered" were b-sides from the Haven sessions that also appeared on the Exposures: In Retrospect & Denial rarities collection a few years back. It's nice to have them added to the Haven album, but they're not really anything new. The final bonus track is a live version of "The Wonders at Your Feet". While I wouldn't recommend re-buying Haven just for the bonus tracks, I'd definitely recommend the reissue on the basis of the improved sound quality. Between the remastered audio and deluxe packaging, I didn't think twice about replacing my old copy of Haven."

Yet another godlike album from a godlike band

TheDarkPrince | Scotland | 06/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If there's one particularly easy way to distinguish really good musicians, it's by looking at their back catalogue. If a band can frequently change and develop their sound, while still maintaining high quality, you know you're on to a good thing. Dark Tranquillity are one such band, and with "Haven," they demonstrate once again why they are the best melodic death metal band out there.



With "Haven," Dark Tranquillity leave behind the subtle, organic themed melodies of their prior albums and opt instead for a more straightforward approach, characterised by groove, catchiness and anthemicism, while still remaining as melodic as ever. Overall, the music has a denser - you might say "heavier" - quality to it, making it more immediately accesible than prior albums. Once again, the arrangements are absolutely sublime, each and every instrument co-operating perfectly. The guitars are now significantly more powerful, playing infectious, groove laden riffs at varied tempos, from slow and anthemic ("Fabric") to reasonably fast ("Not Built To Last"). The drums too, are remarkably well written; complimenting the rest of the music perfectly while still maintaining a life of their own, adding their own layer to the music. The double bass pedal is used sparingly but to great effect, most notably on the title track, giving the music a greater air of power and anthemicism. Production is also debatably the best it's ever been for DT; clean and clear with all of the instruments sitting at exactly the right level in the mix.



The introduction of electronics and keyboards into the music is also well founded. They serve to give the music a soaring quality, and play a huge helping hand when a song is building to its climax, even if it does cost DT some of their organic quality. Mikael Stanne's vocals... sad truth coming here, but it has to be said that the only fault to be found on Haven is in Mikael's vocal performance. While his low pitched growls still work well with the music and play their part perfectly in relation to the atmosphere on offer, he no longer leaves us awestruck with his banshee like howls found on "The Gallery" and "The Mind's I." It could well be that this style is no longer possible - I have read in an interview that he suffered from a throat infection around the "Projecter" sessions - but even so, this integral part of DT's old style will be missed.



Small gripes aside though, this is still an absolute belter of an album. Dark Tranquillity have never failed to deliver the goods, but "Haven" may well be one of the peaks of their illustrious career.



"