Video Premiere: DARK TRANQUILLITY's 'The Pitiless'

"The Pitiless", the new video from Swedish melodic death metallers DARK TRANQUILLITY, can be seen below. The song is taken from the band's eleventh album, "Atoma", which will be released on November 4 through Century Media Records.

"The Pitiless" video was filmed during DARK TRANQUILLITY's appearance at Germany's Turock Open Air festival in Essen by director Dirk Behlau.

The band comments: "Selecting the first single from an album as diverse as 'Atoma' is always a hard task, but we felt that 'The Pitiless' gives a good representation of the general vibe of the material. It's fast, melodic and with a sense of urgency that permeates the whole album."

DARK TRANQUILLITY's next video will be filmed by Vesa Ranta (ex-SENTENCED drummer) in Northern Sweden and you can expect something very epic!

"Atoma" track listing:

01. Encircled
02. Atoma
03. Forward Momentum
04. Neutrality
05. Force Of Hand
06. Faithless By Default
07. The Pitiless
08. Our Proof Of Life
09. Clearing Skies
10. When The World Screams
11. Merciless Fate
12. Caves And Embers

A limited-edition double CD will be available as a digipak in North America and as a mediabook in Europe. The bonus disc features the songs "The Absolute" and "Time Out Of Place" that showcase a very different side of the band. Recorded and mixed by Anders Lagerfors at Nacksving studios, these tracks are among the darkest and most brooding ever from the band — but their experimental nature make them far removed from the usual metal territory.

The band explains: "A lot of our songs start out as pieces of music written on piano/keyboards before getting transformed into guitar driven metal. With this recording, we wanted to explore what would happen if we instead let the material take another direction, and we're extremely thrilled by the result."

These songs will exclusively be available on the physical deluxe edition of "Atoma" and won't appear on the digital edition of the album. A vinyl seven-inch single is planned for early 2017.

The gatefold vinyl LP will contain the 12 track CD and is available in different vinyl colors:

* Black vinyl: worldwide
* Blue vinyl: limited to 400 copies exclusive through Bengans in Sweden
* Dark Green: limited to 200 copies exclusive through CDon in Scandinavia
* Clear vinyl: limited to 400 copies in North America
* Transparent Blue vinyl: limited to 300 copies exclusive through cmdistro.com in North America
Transparent Red vinyl: limited to 200 copies exclusive available through cmdistro.com in Europe

"Atoma" was recorded at Rogue Music in Gothenburg, the studio owned by DARK TRANQUILLITY keyboardist Martin Brändström. Mixing duties were handled by David Castillo, known for his work with bands such as KATATONIA, OPETH and CANDLEMASS. The cover artwork was once again created by the band's guitarist Niklas Sundin.

The touring cycle for "Atoma" will start with a headline North American run in November, featuring SWALLOW THE SUN, ENFORCER and STARKILL as support acts. A European tour is planned for early 2017.

DARK TRANQUILLITY vocalist Mikael Stanne recently told Kaaos TV about the recording process for the band's upcoming album: "We actually decided to start recording in January, and then we realized, 'Nah, we're not really ready. We need to work on this stuff a bit more.' And then a bit more and then a bit more. And finally, it was, like, 'Fuck it! We need a deadline. We need to finish this.' So finally it happened. But for a while there, I just couldn't see it. Like, 'It's not even close.'"

Asked why it was so difficult for DARK TRANQUILLITY to come up with a new album's worth of material that they were happy with, Mikael said: "This is gonna be our eleventh album, [and] for yourself, you feel, like, 'My God! We don't wanna repeat ourselves. We don't wanna do the same thing over and over again. We wanna do something new.' It has to feel fresh, and it has to feel different. And how do you find the inspiration and stuff like that? It is kind of tough. But we got started, and eventually, it's, like, 'Holy shit! We're on to something here.' And it started feeling really good, and now it feels awesome. Some of the songs are incredible."

Regarding how DARK TRANQUILLITY's recent lineup change affected the songwriting process for the new album, Mikael said: "[Bassist] Martin Henriksson left the band in January, and that was a big blow. I mean, he used to write tons of stuff for the band, but in the last couple of years, he has kind of focused on other things. He's more like a manager for he band — he arranges all the festivals and trips and everything like that — and he just kind of fell out of love with touring and writing and playing, so now he's a full-on manager and stuff."

Mikael also talked about how the songwriting process was different this time around. He said: "Anders [Jivarp, drums] has written most of the songs, I think, or most of the material, and then Martin [Brändström, keyboards] and Anders kind of structured it and put it together. And then Niklas wrote two or three songs, and Martin [Brändström] wrote two or three songs, stuff like that. It's becoming really diverse. Like some of the stuff that Anders has done is really different, and the stuff that Niklas has done is really different and the stuff that Martin [Brändström] has done is really, really kind of out there in a way. So I'm super excited. The album is shaping up to be fantastic."

Photo credit: Dirk Behlau