Character

And, in keeping with that station, 2005's Character marks the third installment of what most agree has been the band's most consistent career-phase; one which finds them, like other genre standard-bearers before them (Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, anyone?), reveling in their mastery of a formula they know so well it inevitably begs the question: have they become too comfortable in their niche?

"Character" has been awaited obsessively by the self-appointed defenders of heavy, who've pinned their Swede-metal hopes on DARK TRANQUILLITY after lamenting loud and long the "selling out" of IN FLAMES, SOILWORK, et al. Good news — Mikael Stanne's much-maligned clean vocals are history, his emotive...

Dark Tranquillity were one of the progenitors of the mid-'90s form of Scandinavian metal known as