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Dark Tranquillity - Exposures - In Retrospect And Denial review




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Reviewer:
8.0

135 users:
8.16
Band: Dark Tranquillity
Album: Exposures - In Retrospect And Denial
Release date: May 2004


Disc I [Rare & Unreleased]

01. Static
02. The Poison Well
03. Cornered
04. Misery In Me
05. In Sight
06. No One
07. Exposure
08. Yesterworld
09. Unfurled By Dawn
10. Midwinter / Beyond Enlightenment
11. Vernal Awakening
12. Void Of Tranquillity

Disc II [Live]

01. The Wonders At Your Feet
02. The Treason Wall
03. Hedon
04. White Noise/Black Silence
05. Haven
06. Punish My Heaven
07. Monochromatic Stains
08. Indifferent Suns
09. Format C: For Cortex
10. Insanity's Crescendo
11. Hours Passed In Exile
12. The Sun Fired Blanks
13. Damage Done
14. Lethe
15. Not Built To Last
16. ThereIn
17. Zodijackyl Light
18. Final Resistance
19. Ex Nihilo

A new offering from Dark Tranquillity, just to allow us to wait for the new album.
This 2 CD pack is composed of a compilation of rare tracks from the Damage Done, Haven and Projector sessions, with their first two demos included (A Moonclad Reflection and Trail of Life Decayed). All these tracks were re-edited at the fan's demand, because most of them couldn't be found anymore. The second disk is the live recording from the Live Damage DVD.

I won't waste time with the live, see the DVD instead (note : after seeing the Krakow show, look at the bootleg videos from Athens and Paris. They're really representative of DT live? I know because I was at the Paris Show).
So, rare stuff, eh ? Let's make a list : two Japanese bonus (The Poison Well and Cornered), the digipack bonus song from Projector (Exposure), the 'A Moonclad Reflection' demo (Yesterworld, Unfurled By Dawn), the first demo 'Trail of Life Decayed' from 1991 (track 10 to 12). And the three others ? Brand new, unreleased songs. Wow !
The songs from the recording sessions reflect very well the mood, composition and lyrical style of the album they should have belonged. Take No One, for example. This quiet, sad song with clean vocal by Mikael is typical of Projector. An Misery in Me, with its long keyboard solo, belongs to Haven.

And the demos? I love historical pieces ! Of course, they sound quite old by now. But I was very happy to hear them anyway, because it's really interesting to listen to the debuts of a band. With these, you'll be able to see the evolution of Anders Friden's singing from the beginning to Skydancer to In Flames now. One thing that I noted very clearly was the huge influence of the British band Sabbat. Listen to the three songs from Trail of Life Decayed : both in the songwriting and the singing, some passages sound nearly exactly as Sabbat. If you don't believe me, listen to Sabbat's album Dreamweaver and compare? I don't mean that DT just made a copy, but that the influence is really clear.
Conclusion : Thanks ! This compilation is great, a real must have fan DT fans (and In Flames too?). The demos are historical pieces from the Gothenburg scene, and the other songs vary from 'not bad' to 'really great'. The abuse of this little gift is recommended before the coming out of the new album !

N.B. : the song list at the top is the right one, as featured on the disk and the booklet. The backcover of the box has it wrong, exchanging track 3 with track 4, and 6 with 7. The guys at Century Media must have been very tired? ;-)

Written by Darkside Momo | 09.07.2004




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.


Comments

Comments: 2   Visited by: 34 users
05.04.2008 - 02:10
Uirapuru
Liver Failure
whoa.. ''Mysery in me'' is very cool, i almost though it was a cover of some other band.
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member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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23.04.2008 - 06:07
Beautiful War
Account deleted
I was blown after hearing Cornered. Definitely the best song in DT's discography. Wtf, how was this not released on an album?
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