Dark Tranquillity - Exposures: In Retrospect And Denial

*=Staff's pick

Cd 1:
Static*
The Poison Well*
Misery In Me
In Sight*
Cornered*

No One
Exposure*
Yesterworld
Unfurled By Dawn
Midwinter/Beyond Enlightenment
Vernal Awakening
Void Of Tranquillity

Cd 2:
The Wonders At Your Feet
The Treason Wall*
Hedon
White Noise/Black Silence*
Haven
Punish My Heaven*
Monochromatic Stains*
Indifferent Suns
Format c: For Cortex
Insanity's Crescendo*
Hours Passed In Exile*
The Sun Fired Blanks*
Damage Done*
Lethe*
Not Built To Last
Therein*
Zodijackyl Light*
Final Resistance*
Ex Nihilo

Genre	Melodic Death Metal	Mikael Stanne	Vocals
Tracks	12/19	Niklas Sundin	Guitar
Runningtime	63/78 Min.	Martin Henriksson	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Michael Nicklasson	Bass
Release	25 May 2004	Anders Jivarp	Drums
Country	Sweden	Martin Brändström	Keyboards
Similar artists	---

A collection of songs that are leftovers from albums and some old demo-recordings don't exactly make me raise my expectations. Songs of that kind are generally left out from an album because of a reason, and that is that they don't fit in or aren't good enough. But why Dark Tranquillity have left these ones out I just cant figure out? They are all really good and I cant see a reason why they have been left out from Projector, Haven or the Damage Done album.

Static and The Poison Well comes from the Damage Done (2002) sessions and is just as good as any of the others on that album, or even better than some. They go in the same great way as the others on Damage Done with driving guitars and are filled with melodic parts and great harmonies, not least with the melody-lines with the great keyboard playing from Martin Brändström. In Sight, Misery In Me and Cornered are from the Haven (2000) sessions and yet again you can hear which album they should have been on. Misery In Me and Cornered is of the harder kind whilst In Sight is slower and more emotional with great clean vocals from the otherwise superb growler Stanne. And finally from the Projector (1999) sessions we find the tracks No One and Exposure. No One is of the mid-tempo kind with aggressive verses and has a slower yet powerful refrain, again with clean vocals. Exposure is perhaps one of the better tracks Dark Tranquillity has ever done, fast and aggressive like the earlier kind of their music but with the vocal and melodylines from their later period, it is packed with energy and is furiously beautiful.

The last five tracks are demo-recordings with descent sound quality and a song material that perhaps isn't their best but at least good enough to enjoy. These tracks also sees Anders Fridén from In Flames as vocalist before Mikael Stanne that played guitar at the time took over the vocals.
The demos are recorded back in 1991 and 1992 and when they are placed after the tracks from the later Dark Tranquillity period you can hear the progression they've done, from aggressive and dark death metal to this refined melodic death of today with keyboards playing just as an important part of the music as the other instruments.

The second disc is a live album with good sound from a concert that sounds to have been really great. The concert is the same as on the Live Damage DVD-release, and this album contains a great collection with nineteen great Dark Tranquillity songs where the intensity and energy from their performance is captured. So while the first disc of Exposure is a great way to get deeper into Dark Tranquillity the second disc serves as the perfect introduction to one of Sweden's better bands, all to the price of one CD. This is a must have for all Dark Tranquillity fans of the mentioned albums. These songs are just too good to be missed.

See also review of: We Are The Void , Fiction , Character

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	7	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Thomas