Celebrating not only the release of the latest album, "We Are The Void" but also their twenty year anniversary how could Metal Chaos resist catching up with Niklas Sundin during the bands latest North American tour? Well we couldn't.....and we didn't!!!!

Dark Tranquillity has spent much of March 2010 on tour in the US of A alongside Killswitch Engage and The Devil Wears Prada. How was the tour, high spots / down spots?

It was most of February as well, so almost seven weeks in total. The tour is doing great, and it's a good challenge for us to play in front of people that haven't heard us before. Can't really think of any specific high/low points apart from the usual tour stuff: Sightseeing and travelling is good. Being ill on the road (which happens to everybody at least once on a tour) is bad.

The band are of course touring in support of your new record "We Are The Void" which has been out now for the past 2 weeks of so in Europe. What has been the initial reaction to the album?

The reactions have mainly been positive, but as usual it's impossible to please everyone. Having a 20 year history and ten albums under the best is both a blessing and a curse. The band is almost like an entity in itself, and everyone that listens will have both certain expectations and wishes regarding our direction. Due to the eclectic nature of our past work, there will always be fractions that think that we should do a new "The gallery", a new "Haven", a new "Projector" or whatever. "We are the void" takes some time to grow; it's not as direct and catchy as "Fiction", and a lot of the songs are harder to relate to at the first listen.

We're always our worst critics, but I can say that I'm personally way more satisfied with this album than the 3-4 previous ones. For the first time since "Projector", I've gotten a lot of my own music included, so naturally I feel more strongly with "We are the void".

Oh, it's completely up to the listeners. We've lost all interest in explaining or analyzing our own music. It doesn't matter anyway, since it's such a subjective thing. Google the response from the new album and you see that different people are comparing it to different albums from our history. Even the things that aren't subjective, people tend to disagree about.

Well, Mikael is the man behind the words, and I'm not completely informed about his reasoning for the title. To me, it conjures visions of human isolation and loneliness where at the same time offering some sort of comfort in the fact that the experience is universal as well as a personal. The I/we interplay between the song name and album title accentuates this. It's only my own interpretation though.

How did you approach the writing of this album? Is there a formula of sorts you guys follow in constructing a song?

The method is the same as always: Every member brings his riffs to the table and then we try them out and arrange them into full songs in the rehearsal room.

When it comes to influences on your music, who brings which influences to the band?

We all listen to different things and have our own tastes, but it'd be hard to give a list. On the guitar side, I'm the provider of chaos and Blade runner-ish dystopian epicness whereas Martin brings order, structure and purpose into the arrangements. We complement each other well.

September & October then sees you guys head out on a marathon European tour. How are you guys looking forward to it, and given you've just spent some time in the US what are the noticeable differences between the audiences on both sides of the pond?

Did you approach the set selection for last years DVD release "Where Death Is Most Alive"?

The band pre recording saw the departure of bassist Michael Niklasson's, and the appointment of Daniel Antonsson as his replacement. What lead Michael to leave and how did you guys hook up with Daniel?

Well, touring as much as we do is hard for anyone, and at a certain point it was obvious that Michael didn't enjoy it anymore. We've knows Daniel for years and years, so he was an obvious choise for the job.

We have a good working relationship and they conduct their part of the job in a professional and dedicated way. Of course we'll examine the alternatives when the current contract is out, as it would be madness not to do so, but it's a fair bet that we'll stay with Century Media.

The new album is again produced by Tue Madsen, and mixed at Antfarm Studio. What made Tue the obvious choice to produce this album? What does Tue bring to the recording process?

We've never had a "producer" in the traditional sense of the word, i.e. someone that actively gets involved in the arrangements of the songs. We record everything here on our own, and Tue's work is to mix the album so that it sounds as good as humanly possible. He did a great job on "Fiction" and the live DVD, so we were glad to work with him again.

No, studio work isn't creative at all. 100% of the material is already finished when we begin recording, so the rehearsal room is where the magic happens. I don't think anyone in the band enjoys being in the studio. It's hard work with a lot of pressure and frustration. Of course the end result is very much worth it, but I never understood people that say that they're having a blast when recording an album.