Dark Tranquillity eye November album release

Dark Tranquillity frontman Mikael Stanne says the band are “deep” into recording the follow-up to 2013’s Construct.

He reveals they’d planned to start recording in January this year, but needed more time to finesse the tracks – but reports that the process is now in full swing.

Stanne tells Kaaos TV: “Now we’re kind of in deep into recording. So finally it happened. But for a while there, I just couldn’t see it. Like, ‘It’s not even close.’

“This is going to be our 11th album and it has to feel fresh, it has to feel different. How do you find the inspiration? It’s tough but we got started, and eventually, it’s, like, ‘Holy shit! We’re on to something here.’ It started feeling really good, and now it feels awesome.

“Some of the songs are incredible. I’ve recorded vocals for five songs already. We have tons more. And I can’t wait to finish it. It’s going to be so much fun. There’s basically just keyboards and guitar solos and vocals left. So it’s going to be a couple of more weeks. It’s going to come out in November. That’s the plan.”

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Guitarist Martin Henriksson ended his 26-year career with the band in April – a move Stanne says was “a big blow.” They’ve brought in Jens Floren as a temporary replacement – but Stanne insists it’s too early to say for sure whether he’ll join them full-time.

He adds: “He’s an old friend. I’ve known him for 10 years or so – and he’s a super-great guy. He’s gonna fill in for this summer and then we’ll see what happens. He’s kind of temporary in the band right now.

“We’re kind of scared of commitment right now. It’s also a lot of fun taking friends out on tour. I’ve known Jens for such a long time, but we’ve never travelled anywhere together. Now we can travel the world. So it’s actually awesome.”

Dark Tranquillity are currently on tour across Europe and will then head to North America for an extensive run of dates towards the latter half of the year.

Tour Dates

Dark Tranquillity to focus on album no.11