Dark Tranquility

Often credited with having started the famed Gothenburg metal movement, Sweden's Dark Tranquility have been around for some 16 years now, yet have so far never come to Australia - an unfortunate state of affairs that is at last being rectified.

"An Australian tour has been in the works for years," vocalist Mikael Stanne informs me. "We know we have a lot of fans over there and have been in contact with a lot of people over the years, but it's just been one of those things that was hard to put together. Finally, though, we're doing it and we couldn't be happier. One more continent for us to conquer!"

While they're over in our part of the world, the band will also be doing some shows in Japan and South Korea, two countries that they've played numerous times before. According to someone else I once spoke with, whose group has often played in Japan - Alexi Laiho of Children Of Bodom - Japanese people are unbelievably polite, an observation Stanne is quick to concur with.

"Oh yeah, they are incredibly polite," he agrees. "After you finish a song, they'll clap, as well as scream a bit, but when I start talking they will be dead silent, even though most of them don't understand English. I'll have to start screaming to make them realise that there's a new song coming up! It's really weird. And when they leave afterwards, the venue will be totally clean! Where else could you see something like that? Everybody brings their own stuff and throws it in the trashcan afterwards. They will also politely thank you for the show. It's fantastic! I love it!" he laughs.

South Korea holds similarly good memories for him. "We played there last summer," Stanne recalls, "we headlined an outdoor festival in Pusan and also did a secret little show in Seoul. The latter show was in a really small packed club - I've never seen that many people in such a small place before! - while the festival was held on a beach and attracted about 35,000 people. That one was beautiful, one of our greatest moments, actually."

Changing the subject to goings-on in Stanne's part of the world, I ask him what he thought of Lordi's victory at this year's Eurovision, something I'm sure would have given Scandinavian metal as a whole some welcome publicity.

"I loved it, man, I loved it!" he enthuses. "Actually, it was on my birthday, so we had a huge party here with people from a lot of other Gothenburg bands; we sat around watching it and all voted. Lordi are a cool band that I've liked for many years and I think it's fantastic they won. Our contribution to the competition, Carola, is a huge star here and she was so pissed that those monsters from Finland won!"

Once they've returned home from their Asian and Australian tour, Stanne tells me that the band will begin recording their next album, which they hope to have out by next April. The new release will be the follow-up to last year's 'Character', an interesting piece of work that fuses metal with various other musical styles, most noticeably electronica. Not surprisingly, Stanne reveals himself to have diverse musical tastes.

"I grew up on extreme music in general. When I went to school you were either into metal or electronic music; that was it! There were fights between the electronic and metal guys; there was always rivalry. And I never got that because I was into both; I was really into old German electronica in particular. Like metal, that sort of music is extreme and not in the mainstream. It's fresh, really interesting and creative, so we as a band have always loved it. Martin [BrŠndstršm], our keyboard player, comes from that genre. Before he came on board we were always searching for a permanent keyboard player; we always wanted someone who could handle that side of things. Having him in the band works, I believe; I think it's a good thing, it's something we've always wanted to do. It gives us a new instrument to play with as well. You can do all sorts of things with it; you can use it to make the music so much heavier or melodic. It lets you take things to another extreme, which is what we're always trying to do."

JAMES BRAZEL

Dark Tranquility play at the Adelaide UniBar on Sat 16 September with Truth Corroded and Double Dragon. 'Character' is out now through Century Media.