Dark Tranquillity
The Mind's I

THE REVIEW

The Dark Side of "The Gallery".

In a nutshell, this is how you could summarize this "The Mind's I", the third full-length released by the French label Osmose with which the five Swedes, before transforming into a sextet and making a stylistic shift in their sound, aim to repeat the success achieved by the previously mentioned "The Gallery", still considered today among the masterpieces of the then-emerging Gothenburg sound.

Those expecting a "The Gallery 2" will be disappointed: while the stylistic coordinates of the genre they helped shape remain, in this instance, our friends show a preference for a much more stripped-down and "in your face" approach compared to the grandeur and compositional variety that characterized the previous platter.

This results in direct and powerful songs like "Zodijackyl Light" or "Hedon" (featuring Anders Friden from cousins In Flames), where Jivarp's drums set the (very fast) pace on which Sundin and Johansson's guitars churn out riffs bordering on thrash, and Stanne spews his rage encapsulated in lyrics that are, as always, anything but straightforward.

Along the same lines are the fast-paced "Scythe, Rage and Roses" and "Dissolution Factor Red" (a total of four minutes), between which there is the more expansive "Constant", characterized by atmospheres reminiscent of those that made the previous album successful.

Some echoes of the band's recent past can also be found in the subsequent and captivating "Insanity's Crescendo": introduced by delicate female vocals and an excellent arpeggio, the seventh track is developed according to an emotional and musical climax that reaches its peak in the truly cathartic screams of a never-so-inspired Stanne, accompanied by riffing that brings us back to the glory of "Punish My Heaven" and "Lethe".

Then we return to pressing the accelerator with "Atom Heart 243.5" in which the blond singer displays a remarkable vocal performance, well-supported by the rest of the band that charges like a high-speed train, at least until the rhythmic slowdown of "Tidal Tantrum" which gives us a moment of calm before the stormy sounds of "Tongues" kick in again.

The instrumental title track closes the album beautifully, which, especially compared to its illustrious predecessor, is in some ways controversial due to a compositional formula overly devoted to aggression at the expense of melodic refinement, a refinement that the band notably returns to following with the subsequent, and equally debated, "Projector".

Despite everything, however, "The Mind's I" still deserves to be (re)discovered today by old and new fans of the band, thanks to a batch of truly valid songs wrapped in a film of dark allure, aided by a particularly inspired artwork (notably created using HASSELBLAD cameras, the furthest thing from the computer graphics that would become the fortune of Sundin's Cabin Fever in the years to come) and the always solid production from the renowned Fredman Studios, a true forge of Swedish Death masterpieces.