''We Are the Void'' is the ninth studio album by 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 heavines ...

band

Dark Tranquillity Dark Tranquillity is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Gothenburg. They are considered one of the pioneering acts of the Gothenburg metal scene, which also includes bands such as In Flames and At the Gates. Dark Tranquillity is regarded a ...

. It is their first and only album with bassist

Daniel Antonsson Daniel Antonsson is a musician and songwriter from Gothenburg, Sweden, formerly playing guitar in Dimension Zero. He is also the former bassist for Dark Tranquillity, playing on the album '' We Are the Void'', and former guitarist for Soilwork, ...

, who joined in 2008 and left in 2013. The band began writing for this album in late 2008 (except for the majority of "Iridium" which was written sometime between 1996-1998 but was left out until this album). Stylistically, it is similar to their previous album ''Fiction''; the band utilised the same

Drop B tuning This article contains a list of guitar tunings that supplements the article guitar tunings. In particular, this list contains more examples of open and regular tunings, which are discussed in the article on guitar tunings. In addition, this list ...

as well as clean melodic vocals that were re-introduced on ''Fiction''. The band also began to release songs from this album on their MySpace page starting with "Dream Oblivion" on 21 December 2009, "At the Point of Ignition" on 14 January 2010 and finally the entire album was available for free streaming on 19 February 2010.

Music videos A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

were released for "Shadow in Our Blood" on 10 February 2010 and "In My Absence" on 22 February 2012.

Reception

Kyle Ward of

Sputnikmusic Sputnikmusic is an American music community website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites. The format of the website is unusual in that it includes both professional and amateur c ...

, described the album: "If you take

Fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

, cut out the awesome guitar riffs, increase the keyboard presence tenfold, and then make it more depressed-sounding, you will have exactly what We Are The Void delivers." Metal Underground said that the album is "Excellent

, but it feels like Dark Tranquillity has released the same album three times in a row now."

Track listing

Inside The Void DVD

Personnel

Dark Tranquillity

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 ...

–

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 ...

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, a ...

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 ...

sound recording Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording te ...

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 Laethora ...

–

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 ...

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 ...

*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 ...

*Martin Brändström –

keyboards 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 ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, lead

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular m ...

(on "Shadow in Our Blood" (1st part) and "At the Point of Ignition"), engineering

Guests

Tue Madsen Tue Madsen (born 1969) is a Danish music producer and sound engineer, who is well known in metal genre for his work with bands like Meshuggah, Dark Tranquillity, Suicide Silence, Hatesphere, The Haunted, Mnemic, Ektomorf, Cataract, Exmortem ...

– mixing (October–November 2009) & mastering (Antfarm Studio in

Århus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

) *

Anders Björler Anders Björler (born 26 February 1973) is a Swedish musician, composer and film director. He is best known as the guitar player in the metal bands The Haunted and At the Gates, alongside his bass-playing twin brother Jonas Björler. Björler ...

filmed Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...

"Studio Report 2009" *Hasse Kosonen - engineering *Daniel Antonsson - engineering *Stefan Wibbeke -

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

work *Katja Kuhl - band photo

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:We Are the Void 2010 albums Century Media Records albums Dark Tranquillity albums