DARK TRANQUILLITY To Enter Studio Tomorrow

Swedish melodic death metallers DARK TRANQUILLITY will enter the studio tomorrow (Friday, August 28) to begin recording their ninth album for an early 2010 release via Century Media Records. The band previously said, "We'll keep the recording setup completely in-house this time. Drums will be tracked in Daniel Antonsson's [bass] studio, while the remaining instruments will be immortalized in Martin Brändström's [electronics] newly renovated Rogue music facilities. The mixing duties will once again be handled by Tue Madsen in his Antfarm studio in Denmark.

"As for the music itself, it's a bit too early to delve into details, but the material feels diverse and fresh and covers all the facets of the DARK TRANQUILLITY sound. Those who are familiar with our songwriting process know that we always keep re-arranging and experimenting with the material until the recording starts, and while we currently have the basic foundations for around 10 songs, many things are still open. The final result is likely to surprise ourselves as well as you people.

"Some tentative song titles are 'I Am The Void', 'Zero Distance', 'The Burden Of Love Alive', 'Archangelsk' and 'Memories In Reverse', though these are subject to change as usual."

DARK TRANQUILLITY will release its new DVD, "Where Death Is Most Alive", on October 26 in Europe and November 17 in North America via Century Media Records.

Commented the band: "This little baby took quite some time to deliver, but when you'll see the scope and quality of the material, you'll understand why it wasn't done over a fortnight.

"Our first official DVD, 'Live Damage' (2002),was OK for its time, but hardly spectacular, so this time we wanted to make sure that we could offer people something more substantial that would live up to the high expectations.

"For the main feature, we had our headline show in Milano last October professionally documented by Finnish production company Vasara Films. As expected, they did a stellar job with both the filming and editing and really managed to capture the vibe of the evening. Italy is home to some of the most devoted and enthusiastic DARK TRANQUILLITY fans on earth, something which is very obvious from the footage. The show is the longest one in DARK TRANQUILLITY history (and one of the very last concerts held at the legendary Rolling Stone club),and features a guest performance by Nell Sigland [THEATRE OF TRAGEDY] on 'The Mundane And The Magic' and 'Insanity's Crescendo'. For the mixing, we once again let Tue Madsen work his magic at his Antfarm Studios in Denmark, and the result is simply amazing.

"In addition to that, Village Road Films have put together 'Out Of Nothing', a true stroll-down-memory-lane documentary about the band. All current members as well as Michael Nicklasson (ex-bass) and Fredrik Johansson (ex-guitar) are interviewed, and a host of people from the early Gothenburg scene share their anecdotes and memories. Among others, Tomas Lindberg (AT THE GATES, GROTESQUE, etc),Anders Iwers (TIAMAT, CEREMONIAL OATH) and Fredrik Nordström (Studio Fredman) appear in the film, which spans for approximately 47 minutes.

"The DVD will also mark the premiere of the 'Misery's Crown' promo video, shot earlier this year by Roger Johansson and Vasara Films. All our other promo clips from recent years are featured as well.

"Furthermore, we undertook some extensive detective research, raiding our old homes to dig up long forgotten VHS tapes from the archives. A surprisingly large amount of footage was found, most of which never even got spread through the tape trading network at the time. In total, the 'Live Archive' portion of the DVD features 21 tracks with a strong emphasis on old ('Skydancer' and earlier) material including some real rarities. Most of these songs were only performed live a handful of times, as shows weren't that frequent back then. Two of them ('Soulbreed' and 'The Dying Fragment Of An Elderly Dream') are actually the only DARK TRANQUILLITY songs that were 100% completed but never recorded properly in studio. Both were written in the autumn of 1991.

"To conclude — we're damn proud of this release, and more than sure that it will satisfy the high expectations of both old and new fans alike. Here's to the next 20 years!"

Fan-filmed video footage of the Milan concert from last October can be viewed below.