''Fiction'' is the eighth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the Swedish

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavine ...

band Dark Tranquillity. It was released by

Napalm Records Napalm Records is an Austrian independent record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock. Originally, Napalm focused on black metal bands, such as Abigor and Summoning, and folk metal bands, such as Falkenbach and Vintersorg. The label l ...

on 19 April 2007, and by

Century Media A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

in the UK on 23 April, and in the US on 24 April. This is the last new material to feature Michael Nicklasson as their bassist before leaving in August 2008 and the last release to be recorded at Studio Fredman.

Background

This album marked a few returns of previous quirks the band had done in the past - the song "Inside the Particle Storm" marks the return of Sundin writing lyrics again since "Tongues" from ''

The Mind's I ''The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul'' is a 1981 collection of essays and other texts about the nature of the mind and the self, edited with commentary by philosophers Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett. The te ...

'',

Mikael Stanne Bengt Mikael Stanne (born 20 May 1974) is a Swedish musician, best known as the vocalist and one of the lyricists (as well as a former rhythm guitarist) for the Swedish melodic death metal band Dark Tranquillity. Since the departure of origina ...

utilizes clean vocals in addition to his usual growled vocals on "Misery's Crown" since "In Sight" from 2009 reissue edition of '' Haven'' and a guest female vocalist on "The Mundane and the Magic" since "Undo Control" from ''

Projector A projector or image projector is an optical device that projects an image (or moving images) onto a surface, commonly a projection screen. Most projectors create an image by shining a light through a small transparent lens, but some newer types ...

''. An expanded edition was released in North America on 27 May and was scheduled for Worldwide release on 23 June 2008, containing two bonus tracks previously released in Australia and Japan, two previously unreleased tracks and two tracks taken from the band's live performance in Summer Breeze festival in 2007. The expanded edition also contains a bonus DVD with live songs, behind the scene footage, ''

Character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

'''s "The New Build" promo video, and the "Focus Shift" video clip. In addition, the expanded edition features an extended booklet layout, an alternative cover artwork, and includes also a free Dark Tranquillity patch.

Reception

The album was generally well-received, with the album being called "another worthwhile addition to Dark Tranquillity's impressive discography." It was also noted that the album was similar to ''

'', in terms of musical style.

Track listing

Expanded Edition DVD

The expanded version also contains a bonus DVD with over 45 minutes of live recordings and promo videos: # "Focus Shift" (promo video) # "Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)" (brick-movie) # "Focus Shift" (rehearsal room video) # "Blind At Heart" (live) # "Final Resistance" (live) # "Misery's Crown" (live) # "Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)" (live) # "The Lesser Faith" (live) # "The New Build" (live) # "The Endless Feed" (live)

Personnel

Dark Tranquillity

−

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Niklas Sundin Niklas Sundin (born 13 August 1974 in Gothenburg, Sweden) is a musician of the band Mitochondrial Sun, but was best known as the founding lead guitarist of band Dark Tranquillity (1989–2020). He was also one of the guitarists in the band Laethor ...

−

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

Martin Henriksson Hans Martin Knut Henriksson (born 30 October 1974) is a former Swedish musician best known for his work with death metal band Dark Tranquillity and was one of the original members, and the main songwriter for the band until he left them in 2016. ...

−

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

* Martin Brändström −

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

* Michael Nicklasson − bass * Anders Jivarp −

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Other credits

Nell Sigland Ragnhild Westgaard "Nell" Sigland (born 13 November 1976) is a Norwegian singer from Hamar, best known as the lead vocalist of Norwegian gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy from 2004 to 2010. She was also the lead singer for Norwegian gothic ro ...

− additional vocals on "The Mundane and the Magic" *

Album artwork An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to either the printed paperboard covers typically used to package sets of and 78-rpm ...

and design by

Cabin Fever Media Cabin Fever Media is a design studio founded in 1999 by original Dark Tranquillity guitarist, Niklas Sundin. Cabin Fever Media specializes in graphic design of album artwork, however, Cabin Fever Media also does various other commissioned wor ...

Charts

References

External links

''Fiction''
at

Century Media Records Century Media Records is a heavy metal record label with offices in the United States, Germany and London. In August 2015, Century Media was acquired by Sony Music for US$17 million. Background Century Media was founded by Robert Kampf and Oli ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiction (Dark Tranquillity Album) 2007 albums Dark Tranquillity albums Century Media Records albums Napalm Records albums Albums produced by Tue Madsen Albums recorded at Studio Fredman