[EINHERJER] [SUMMONING] [DARK TRANQUILLITY] [PROPHANITY]






Next up we have a genious quartet from Sweden, namely Dark Tranquillity. As one of the most highly productive acts, they’ve released three albums and two MCD’s. We sent guitarist Niklas Sundin some questions, unfortunately his answers were not too long (but still good), and we’re glad to feature them as they are one of the creators of the so called “Gothenburg-sound”.

Your new album "The Mind’s I" have been out on the market for a couple of months now. Have you got any selling rates yet? Are you satisfied with the album overall?
- We haven’t been informed of any exact figures yet, but the first sales statement is apparantly on its way right now, so we’ll probably have a good picture within a few days. I understand that the new album outsold ”The Gallery” pretty quickly, though, and OSMOSE are really satisfied with the sales. As for the album itself, I think that we’re all pleased with how it turned out, but it sound a bit outdated at this point. Most of the songs are around 2 years old now, and the recording was made almost a year before the actual release.

The new songs are in my opinion more "straight to the point” and also a bit more thrashy. Do you agree? Was this a natural development for the band or was it something you had planned. It’s not hard to compare this development with AT THE GATES, which had more complex songs on their first albums...
- Well, it’s a pretty common thing for bands in general, I think. After having played for some years, stretching the borders of technicality doesn’t seems as important as writing good, distinct songs. The ATG-comparasion can’t be denied, but I honestly think that we’d taken the sound in a similar direction in any case. We decided shortly after having recorded ”The Gallery” to try something else out the next time, as that album was as far as we could take the technical / experimental direction and still make it sound interesting. It’s always better if every album has an individual direction, so to say. The next CD may be more complex and technical, who knows?

The title track differs a lot from your ordinary stuff. It was also written by a man called Morgan Palm. Please tell us about the upcoming of this song.
- Morgan is a friend of Fredrik’s, and he wrote the chord progression of this tune. They then did a recording in their own 8-track studio, and the result got so impressive that we decided to include it on our album. I think one could say that Morgan and Fredrik contributed with 50% each to the final result.

The cover art... I think it looks good but also a bit hard to figure out what it means, and I defenitely think that you’re the right person to help us! I guess that the title ”The Mind’s I” is some kind of wordgame, does it have anything to do with the album cover?
- Absolutely. In our opinion, the music of the album gives a shattered, slightly confused (in a good way) impression, which a lot of songs that differ much from each other. We wanted to give the same associasions with the cover, so we simply arranged a still life with several different components, and put them together in a pretty chaotic way. The result is a bit confusing; it’s hard to make the connection to the album title, but I think that the idea came across pretty well. The title itself is a play on words. We took the phrase ”The mind’s eye” and made it more individualistic.

OK, you have an upcoming tour with ENSLAVED, SWORDMASTER, BEWITCHED, DELLAMORTE and DEMONIC. Do you have any expactations on this one? What do you think of having such massive number of bands on a tour?
- It’ll be great hitting the road again! We’ve had several planned tours cancelled in the last minute this year, so it’s good that something serious finally happens. As usual, things are a bit hectic and busy, as we haven’t rehearsed the old songs for quite some time, but I’m sure it will turn out well. I definately think 6 bands are too much for a single gig, speaking from the audience’s perspective, but this label tour package will hopefully attract more attention than a usual tour with 2-3 bands only.

You’ve also made a homevideo for the new album, ”Zodijackyl Light”, give us some details please... Was this something you wanted to do yourselves, or was your label OSMOSE behind the idea from the beginning? How important do you think that promotional videos like this is for Death/Black metal bands, is it just a fun thing to do or...? What’s your fave metal-videos through the years, by the way?
- OSMOSE suggested it, and we immediately took the chance of experimenting with the visual side of the music. I don’t think videos are so important in this field of music; they’re more of a bonus thing for people that already know the music. Most bands probably agree to record a video for the experience of doing it, but it’s always good promotion for the bands anyway - provided that you don’t end up with something of ANCIENT or HECATE ENTHRONED-quality, that is...Fave videos? I had a lot of goodies when I was tapetrading in the late ’80’s, including a brilliant SABBAT (UK) video from one of their first performances ever. It was shot in a small pub in Bradford, with no more than 15-20 people in the audience, and they played a lot of never-released demo songs. For single promo-clips, I’d say that the TOOL-video (first song on the new album, don’t know its name) with the animated clay figures is the best one.

Before the album you released a MCD entitled ”Enter Suicidal Angels”. The fourth song was a bit different, a remix of some old songs in a techno-version. Are you satisfied how it turned out? Are you guys listen to such music yourselves? Never a thought about doing that with traditional instrument?
- We’re really satisfied with the result. Believe it or not, but ”Archetype” just appeared on a magazine compilation CD with experimental music. The compilers wanted an intense ”modern” techno/industrial tune, and thought that our song was better than all the alternatives (made by ”real” artists in that field)...pretty funny, I think... Some of the bandmembers really enjoy that sort of music, some definately don’t. That song was more of an experimental thing for us, and the reactions have of course been very varied. What’s your opinion, anyway? (Are you sure that you want an opinion from little me? Ok, it sucks! Sorry Niklas... /ED)

How do you look upon OSMOSE compared to SPINEFARM? What do you think of the other bands on OSMOSE? How you received any offers from some bigger labels?
- SPINEFARM is OK by all means, but they’re mainly a distributor for alternative music in Finland and don’t put much priority on the record-releasing side. OSMOSE can offer more in terms of promotion, distribution and tour support. We had offers from some labels that are way bigger than OSMOSE, but in the end we decided to accept Hervés offer. I enjoy most of the other OSMOSE-acts as well.

About your bandname... I know that you’ve been around for a while, but don’t you think it sounds a bit cliché including ”Dark” in your bandname today?
- Absolutely! The band name is a bit corny these days, and it doesn’t reflect our lyrics or music to any greater degree anymore. I wouldn’t mind changing it, but at the same time I don’t see any need for it either, since we’ve established the band under this name.

The female vocals on DT-albums have always been excellent. Where the heck do you find all these singing ladies?!
- We find them in cheap bars and venues, drooling for our young, hungry bodies, offering us all kinds of XXX-ish favours for inclusion on our albums... Seriously, the studio where we record has a large list of session-musicans that can be called for quick drop-in performances. The girls we’ve used have all been professional vocalists in some way.

What are you doing besides DT? Are you working or...? Any other bands?
- Our daily lives are embarrasingly boring and not worth speaking of. As for other bands, I have a project called DEAD MEN’S BANQUET going on with Anders, vocalist of IN FLAMES.

How important is DT for you? And music generally? Do you think that DT reflects the members personalities?
- I don’t know, really...It’s a large part of our lives, but it’s not the only interest. Our personalities are probably reflected in some way, but only to a minor degree. We’re pretty different people anyway; it’s more a case of doing good music with our combined efforts.

What was the purpose with the sun in your old logo?
- It had some connection with the lyrics in an old song, ”VOID OF TRANQUILLITY”, which ends with the explosion of the sun. All that would remain after the reversed big bang would be a dark tranquillity, so to say. Ah, those pretentious times...

What do you think about fanzines? Do you answer all interviews sent to you? What do you think about doing interviews by e-mail like this one?
- Fanzines are important and always fun to read. We answer most interviews, but take the liberty of ignoring those that are painfully bad and clearly show that the interviewer don’t take an interest at all in the band. This is not a case of being arrogant or anything, but it wouldn’t do anyone any good of reading a D.T. interview with questions like ”Are u true Black Metal Warriors” or ”What about religion?”. It makes the editor look stupid, it makes us look uninspired and it bores the reader. 95% of all interviews, however, are OK, and e-mail inties are much easier to reply to than ordinary mail interviews.

Have you seen the excellent movie ”Snickeriet”? If, what do you think about it?
Nope. Tell me about it!

OK, I think I’m running out of questions here, it was hard figuring out questions, you aren’t controversial enough ha-ha. Please end this interview as you want to!
- Hell, if you only knew what controversial scandals we caused this summer in Belgium, ha ha...Well, thanks for the good questions!

Well, thank you for the good answers Niklas! If you, as strange as it would be, haven’t heard Dark Tranquillity yet, do check out their albums ‘cause they’re all great!