A friend recently shared a wonderful piece of music with me: a cover arrangement of the seminal melodic death metal album The Gallery by Dark Tranquillity, for piano.
This is an album indescribably dear to me. Since I first heard the opening notes of this disc, I’ve never stopped wanting to engineer a way to have passion like this gush forth from my chest and spill into the lives of others. An example of their lyrics:
Make all the cold trees mourn
Their branches frozen in sightless motion
Waving, reaching for the whipping rainThere was silence, and the firmament withdrew
Revealing all, shapelessly and swiftly
In carmine and crimson stood flaming the sky
The relics of myths that exploded and died—from Silence, And The Firmament Withdrew by Dark Tranquillity on The Gallery, 1995
I’m not convinced that I’ll ever be able to write of the world or worlds in such terms, but fortunately I’m keeping the option open that that’s a good thing.
Here’s the video.
At first, when I noticed the songs were arranged in an order different from that of the album, I was furious. But this person has really done a fantastic job of stitching them all together, and selecting the most memorable melodic passages without too much repetition.
I recommend you check out his blog, which hosts many more similar endeavors, with audio file versions of each one to boot.
“Those empty frames staring at me!”
that’s very cool, I really like Moonshield on the piano, I always dug that song. that came up on my pod the other day on shuffle when I was walkin the dog and I was pumped. I’ll have to check out dark tranquility now since you love them and I trust your metal taste.
Dude, if you’re just getting into DT, definitely check out The Gallery, but I think you’ll also want something newer like Character. That CD was surprisingly well loved: these dudes never lost their touch.
Basically they’re just about what In Flames used to be. =P
And I agree, Moonshield piano renditions are win.
I’ve forgotten how awesome this album is. Each line from Stanne is like a tortured cry, and the guitar melodies, while not complex, are just so haunting.
Going against my love for electronics and production, this is still my fav DT album.
Thanks for this. I predict this will consume a large portion of my evening.
Everybody dumps on it, but Projector might still be my fav, up there of course with Damage Done. I think DD had a few filler tracks here and there, but the gold ones are gold.
The Gallery is definitely untouchable, though.