Songs the Night Sings

The Dark Element is a collaboration between two marquee names from Northern Europe's metal scene - guitarist Jani Liimatainen (Cain's Offering, ex-Sonata Arctica) and Anette Olzon (ex-Nightwish). As one would expect from any band or project where Anette's vocals are front and centre and Jani is on guitar, this is metal with strong elements of both symphonic and pop that has its fair share of fleet-fingered guitar solos. Following a solid debut, they returned in 2019 with impressive follow-up Songs the Night Sings.

The material on offer here does bear a few things in common, lighter atmosphere aside, with Dark Passion Play and Imaginaerum, the two Nightwish albums featuring Anette as frontwoman, but Jani has his own style of songwriting and does the right thing here by not trying to emulate Tuomas Holopainen. In fact, Anette is completely in her element here; Jani appears to have offered her the freedom to fully express herself vocally and, given how natural this clearly was for her, she has honestly never sounded better. I'm of the opinion that she had far too rough a time of it during her five-year stint in Nightwish, with a large section of the fanbase refusing to accept her forsimply not being Tarja Turunen, and Tuomas clearly considering her not the vocalist he really wanted, but the best that he could get. She's an excellent singer and is clearly at her best when she's not restricted to doing what she's told.

Jani is also a very good songwriter; he's proven this before with Cain's Offering and his few songwriting credits for Sonata Arctica, to the point where some fans of the latter band even pinpoint his departure as beginning the decline of their studio album quality (I find it hard to really agree with this, though, as Tony Kakko has always been their main songwriter). To call this a straight up pop metal record would be unfair, as there's a good diversity of songs here, and six of the eleven tracks are over five minutes long. Jani also handles keyboard duties, with the majority of the songs featuring a mix of symphonic strings and orchestrations (all on keyboards though, no live orchestras or anything like that) and poppy synths, the latter often having a very 80s vibe. Bassist Jonas Kuhlberg adds some nice bass fills from time to time, and even has a fine bass solo in the title track, rather than merely following the root notes, while drummer Rolf Pilve pounds away energetically without ever getting too flashy. And of course, Jani's guitar work is as good as ever. Rather than chugging away at power chords like one would expect from this type of band, he whips out several typically impressive guitar solos and adds some nice riffs in where he can.

The opening song, 'Not Your Monster', sets the tone for the album very well - pounding rhythmic drums, distorted power chord sequences and riffs, and a synthesised orchestra all supporting Anette's powerful, emotive vocal delivery. Songs the Night Sings features a couple of songs that are essentially The Dark Element's take on the 'Nightwish hit single' playbook, such as the title track and 'Silence Between the Words'. Which is of course fine, as it was precisely these kind of tracks where Anette was usually found to be at her best in her former band. 'Pills on my Pillow' and 'The Pallbearer Walks Alone' bring some extra energy, the latter being the closest on this record that Jani comes to writing a power metal song. There are two very good, very different ballads too in the form of mid-number 'To Whatever End' and jazzy closer 'I Have To Go', and Anette absolutely nails both. A major highlight is the epic third track, 'When It All Comes Down', which is arguably the best song on the album and has a big, symphonic closing half minute that is guaranteed to invoke emotion in all but the most cold-hearted of listeners.

Lyrically, Jani is clearly writing about his personal experiences, good and bad. He has evidently gone through some difficult times, but he does show a some positivity at times here (see the title track, which is about wanting to travel the world playing his music) and the nature of the music often suggests a 'pick myself up and move on' attitude, rather than brooding on things. The lyrics might not exactly be poetry, but they're not bad either, and certainly good enough to work very well with both the music and Anette's voice.

There are a couple of missteps, however. 'Get Out of My Head' is a very catchy song (so much so that you probably won't be able to get it out of your head after hearing it), but it eschews the symphonic elements almost entirely in favour of the 80s-style synths, rather than in tandem, giving it a bit of an outdated disco feel. The mid-section, featuring an overly upbeat synthy keyboard lead melody, sounds like something I'd expect to hear on a Beast In Black album, and probably leans a bit too far in this direction compared to the rest of the material. 'If I Had a Heart' also isn't that great, featuring a chorus that sounds just a bit too one-dimensional. Neither song is bad, but I was left feeling like they both could have been better.

Overall, Songs the Night Sings is a very good symphonic pop metal album that showcases the best of Anette's voice and Jani's penchant for writing album of accomplished, memorable material. At the very least, it's an essential pickup for fans of Anette-era Nightwish and/or the poppier side of symphonic metal, and I can think of several similar bands who wish they could write an album even half this good.

Recommended tracks - 'When It All Comes Down', 'Not Your Monster', 'The Pallbearer Walks Alone'