Asfand: Can you introduce yourselves?

Niklas: Well, I'm Niklas and I'm one of the guitarists.

Asfand: How would you describe your music?

Niklas: The "metal" definition is fine with me. It's up to others to describe or pigeonhole our music if the need occurs, and it's not like we need a tagline for promotion purposes or anything. Different genre names mean different things to everybody anyway.

Asfand: You guys are considered alongside In Flames as the innovators of the 'gothenburg scene' or 'melodic death metal'. How does it feel to be the 'innovators' of a genre? Or for that matter a sub-genre?

Niklas: It's nothing that we constantly think about, but of course it's good to know that our music has made some sort of impact and has influenced other bands. However, the whole "Gothenburg sound" thing has been old news for a very long time now, so sometimes it can feel a bit tiresome to have that label attached to our name all the time.

Asfand: You took a somewhat different direction on Haven and Projector by adding the clean vocals...and to be honest I wasn't disappointed. Infact those two are considered by many to be the peak DT albums. What would be your comments on that...and where'd you get the idea to mix some clean vocals..?

Niklas: Mikael did clear vocals already on "Skydancer", and it was always something that we thought would be nice to experiment with, but it wasn't until "Projector" that the music was open for that experiment. Having clean vocals on "The mind's I" wouldn't have worked at all, so on "Projector" we decided to write the songs with clear singing in mind. "Haven" doesn't have any clean vocals at all, apart from the verse on "Emptier still".

Asfand: Damage Done was a superb album. Atleast that's my point of view, and that of many others. It was a relatively 'raw' and 'heavier' album as compared to Haven and Projector, as it lacked the clean vocals and somewhat 'sombre' bridges. What made you feel the need to churn out such an album?

Niklas: I don't know...Every album that we make is somewhat of a reaction against the previous one, and after having released two pretty mellow and atmospheric albums, it felt fresh and exciting to bring some intensity back into our music again. It's all about avoiding stagnation and keeping the interest alive.

Asfand: Why didn't you go ahead and explore what you started with Haven and Projector. That was an interesting sound and you could've explored further. Why didn't you do so?

Niklas: I fully agree that there is a lot of exploration that can be done within the "Projector" and "Haven" direction, and I'm sure that there will be similar moods on future albums. This time, we just felt like doing something faster and to-the-point, and therefore "Damage done" turned out the way it did.

Asfand: Why aren't there too many guitar solos on all DT albums? It's like, there are two solos per album! WHY??

Niklas: Nah, we have a lot more than two guitar solos per album. Of course, it's a matter of definition as well. I've never been that much into playing shredding guitar solos, nor has the other guitarists, so the lead guitars are usually more melody based. Having typical "metal" guitar solos has never been an important part of our sound.

Asfand: Who mainly does all the songwriting and who pens down the lyrics?

Niklas: The whole band is responsible for the songwriting, and Mikael writes the lyrics.

Asfand: I usually find going through your lyrics very taxing. What are the main concepts that you base your lyrics around?

Niklas: Anything and everything, really. Every album has its own lyrical aesthetic, so it's hard to narrow it down like this.

Asfand: Why do you write Dark Tranquillity with a doube 'L'? haha. Last time ichecked the dictionary it was with a single 'L'. Relatively irrelevant question i guess, but it's bothered me a lot of times!

Niklas: He he, you can actually spell it with one "L" as well; there is an English and an American way of spelling the word, and both are correct. I guess that if we knew about this when we picked the name, we would have gone for another option since people always spell it the way they prefer.

Asfand: Have you heard Metallica's St. Anger? What would be your comments on That album?

Niklas: I've only heard it once, which isn't really enough to form a valid opinion.

Asfand: What would be your views on In Flames's Reroute To Remain?

Niklas: I think it's an excellent album.

Asfand: What's your favourite song to play live?

Niklas: I don't really have any particular favourite. It all depends on the mood, the audience and our own performance. A song that feel really great to play one night during a tour can be a nightmare the next gig.

Asfand: What is the craziest shit you guys have ever done as a band?

Niklas: All sorts of weird things happen on tour, but it's not interview material -
sorry.

Asfand: What are you guys upto these days and when can we see the new DT album coming out?

Niklas: We've started the songwriting for the next album, but it's still too early to know when we can enter the studio. We're not in a rush and will probably take our time coming up with new stuff. Apart from that, there are some festivals booked, and we're also awaiting the release of our live DVD.

Asfand: Any Thank-you's that you'd like to give out?

Niklas: Thanks for the interview!