Songs the Night Sings

Up until a few years ago I would have mocked a band like The Dark Element, and all the predecessor bands of the people involved in it. As fate would have it, a friend of mine shared a video of Nightwish with Floor singing Storytime at Wacken. Myself, thinking at the time, that a 6-foot tall amazon doing head whips looked pretty rad, regardless of the barely metal nature of the music. Having remembered hearing that there was controversy about singer replacements n such; I decided to listen to the studio recording. I quickly found out that I am, indeed, an Anette Olzon fan more than I am any power metal or symphonic metal fan. Anyway fast-forward to now, she is gone from Nightwish and is now two albums deep with The Dark Element.

The obvious comparisons to Nightwish are going to happen and there are definitely some elements of Dark Passion Play and Imaginaerum. But there are equally parts of Cain’s Offering, which makes sense, since Jani is the main songwriter in that band as well. There are even similarities to Anette’s solo material, which I can only assume is coming from Jani writing to Anette’s strengths. While it might be a combination of all those elements, it’s more like a dialed back mixture of all those elements. It’s Nightwish with toned down symphonic nuances of Tuomas. At times it is Cain’s Offering, with its power metal / major scale feel, is not as overbearing. Even Anette’s soloesque material is less electronic and more riffs. Don’t get me wrong it does have all those elements as well; it’s just not steeped in it, as to give this band its own personality. There are even some electronic elements more akin to a band like The Birthday Massacre, thrown in for spice.

The album is paced quite well with songs like ‘Not Your Monster’ and the Imaginaerum tinged ‘Songs The Night Sings’ declaring that this will be a metal album off the line. The surprising ‘When It All Comes Down,’ with Jani’s signature riffing and slick lead work, brings forward one of the best songs on the album. ‘Silence Between The Words,’ and ‘Pills On My Pillow’ are good, and give the album a bit of a rock element, but with a heavy edge. ‘To Whatever End’ is by far the best song on the album, actually giving it the claim to be a symphonic power metal record. ‘To Whatever End’ permits Anette the opportunity to do what she does best. We get the full range of her voice, including the innocent child tone that gave her Nightwish material such character, while being backed up by some sombre violin. ‘The Pallbearer Walks Alone’ lets everyone involved in this band finally show their skill set; some more than others of course. The song structure is unique, it’s fast and heavy, with a sweet lead break, and Rolf gets to spice it up with some nice double kick work.

‘Get Out Of My Head,’ and ‘If I Had A Heart’ have the unfortunate job of following the two best songs on the album. Both are good songs in their own right, the latter having one of the best leads on the album; though I wish they would have left out that annoying synth part in ‘Get Out Of My Head.’ The dance beat thing in the middle section, straight up sucks! ‘You Will Learn’ is a great mid-pacer with an epic feel that again gives us some cool drum and lead work; Anette is right on point with her soaring highs. ‘I have To Go’ is good and has that Slow, Love Slow-esque feel to it. I am just not sure it feels right being tacked on the end of the album like it is.

I love this album, but it does have its downsides. While everyone does great work, they are capable of so much more. Anette puts on an amazing performance; I just wish that they could’ve utilized her softer voice more, like she did on songs like Poet And The Pendulum, Eva, or Cold Outside. She has a great range and there aren’t many like her in metal that have the tonal character and unique timbre that she does. It’s just a shame that it’s used as sparingly as it is. Jani’s talents are without question; I mean the guy is a beast of a guitar player; not to mention a great clean voice. Both skills should have been used to their max potential. Rolf Pilve is an insanely good drummer, and I am not asking for him to do Marduk blast beats here. However some more intricate fill work and chance to let loose would have added a little more dynamics to the pacing of the songs. The fact that the guitars themselves feel like they take a lesser role to the synth, which at times detracts from, or even completely undermines the heaviness of the album. Coupled with the sparse lead work, I find it brings the album down a bit. The songs on this album are long enough, with only one song being under 4 ½ minutes, and the majority being 5 plus, that they could have slotted in more leads and still not made the album a shred fest.

All in all it’s an awesome album and I wanted to give it a 90, but there are just a few elements that just make you wonder what is holding them back. Hopefully they keep doing what they have been doing but swing for the fences on the next one. What do they have to lose by throwing it all on the table...