The Dark Element

I am not a huge fan of the pop gothic metal music in the first place. I often find it synthetic, generic, and to be a pointless frontwoman show-off (yes I'm talking about this annoying trend to put the female vocalist on the album cover to sell more copies). Neverthless, the album I am about to review partly proved me wrong. While not being a metal masterpiece, the debut self-titled album of Anette Olzon and Jari Liimatainen's project, The Dark Element, is a very enjoyable record with catchy choruses, efficient arrangements and a well balanced musical approach.

The Dark Element (the album) has quite a solid start powered by an energetic vocal delivery by swede rockstar Anette Olzon, also known as an ex-Nightwish. I like Olzon's studio work in Nightwish, but I was always skeptical about her live performances. Nevertheless, in this new environnement, she seems to be more in her element (no bad puns intended here !). The songwriting is credited entirely to her axeman mate, Jari Liimatainen, also known as an ex-Sonata Artica. Liimatainen did well at putting his vocalist partner in a certain zone of confort while not holding her back too much. He is also experimenting quite a bit with the instrumental soundscape ; no songs sound the same in this 11-track album, going into symphonic heavy, power metal, melodeath, electronic and rock territories. Lyrically speaking, it is not particularly innovative, but it is not cheesy at all and well rendered.

The biggest strengh of the album are the choruses, they are very anthemic and catchy. Whether the song is heavy, midpaced, or a ballad, there are a lot of great choruses which sticks in the head for a long period of time : the title track, My Sweet Mystery, Last Good Day, Here's to You, Someone You Used to Know, I Cannot Raise the Dead, etc. It makes every songs ranging between good and excellent. Plus, whatever other critics would say, I like the Nightwish vibe often found in there. I don't think it is a Dark Passion Play ripoff like I red several times on the Internet. An open string chugging riff like 90 % of the songs Holopainen wrote for his guitarists since 2007 is easy to reproduce without noticing. Implementing it well and using it with moderation is another thing and Liimatainen suceeds at it (ex. : My Sweet Mystery). Furthermore, The Dark Element is not overwhelmed by edgy orchestral arrangements and lyrics about the beauty of nature. In the opposite, everything is kept simple while having good melodic guitar moments and relatable lyrical themes.

In the other hand, I find the drums a little bit generic and weak, a recurrent problem in this particular genre. The bass have its moments, without being outstanding. I tend to enjoy the electronical and orchestral arrangements while finding them a little bit held back. After Someone I Used to Know, the album also weakens a little bit in power, but it is still enjoyable.

Globally, it is a great debut effort that will satisfy the fans of the scene.

Favourite songs : Last Good Day, Here's to You, The Dark Element, I Cannot Raise the Dead

Always hoping that good things were going to happen to Anette Olzon eventually, having been a large fan of her stint with Nightwish, her solo material, and the various guest spots on misc rock and metal albums. Needless to say, when I heard about her metal collaboration with founding Sonata Arctica guitarist Jani Liimatainen, I couldn't help but be totally stoked! Having seen Sonata Arctica once upon a time, but I wasn't what you would call familiar with the material he had written. In fact, if we are being honest, I walked out of that show because I disliked the flowery nature of their brand of power metal. Perhaps I was expecting Iced Earth or Manowar, and I got... Not that! But I am older and more open-minded; hell, I got into Nightwish for crap sakes. The time between the initial announcement and the expected release date was quite substantial. Could I have gone back and listened to Jani's back catalogue and checked out his history; yes, but I didn't really care. I liked almost all of Anette's work, save for the Alyson Avenue stuff, guaranteed I was going to like this too.

More details of the album started to trickle out, like artwork and song titles, which to this day, I am not too fond of the cover art. A few songs eventually started to become available, the title track 'The Dark Element' first, and 'My Sweet Mystery' next. It took a few listens to get into them; I definitely wasn't expecting them to sound so upbeat, but regardless they were catchy and highly enjoyable. This was also my first exposure to Jani's lead work, which was definitely shred calibre despite being brief. Naturally, I pre-ordered the vinyl and cd, but like most pre-orders, they never arrive when you want them, so I ended up downloading the album. I was definitely hoping for something closer to Imaginaerum's tone, with its Celtic and folky elements. Likewise, I would have preferred that they backed off of the synth and that the guitars had more presence, but that is part of Jani's writing style. All hopes and wishes aside, I really enjoyed the album. I think Anette sounds amazing, all the material is written for her voice specifically, and she kills it. Nothing highlights her vocal performances more than 'Last Good Day', the sorrowful ballad 'Someone You Used to Know', and the scathing diatribe 'Dead to Me'. Giving Anette different opportunities to use her expertise, even sharing the space with some death metal vocals courtesy of Insomnium's Niilo Sevänen. Liimatainen is also killing it here, though his reduced lead work is a shame because songs like 'My Sweet Mystery' that do contain solos just have that something extra. His backing harmonies are also on point, he is definitely an underrated singer, but his voice is such a great match with Anette's. Jani's Cain's Offering bandmates provide the rhythm section, and they do a good job, but they stay in the pocket for the length of the album. In reality, this a vehicle for Jani and Anette, but I think the album would have been spicier had they went out of bounds just a bit. And of course, despite being self-recorded, the LP sounds like a million bucks, but what else is new. Welcome to the future, where you don't have to actually spend a million dollars to record an album for it to sound rad.

Since the release of this album, I have gone and listened to Jani's other band, Cain's Offering, and his past work with Sonata. I can see why he writes the songs on here the way he does, all the while keeping Dark Passion Play and Anette's solo material in the front of his mind. There are definitely elements of those projects throughout the The Dark Element, perhaps not "the dark elements," but elements all the same. I would list my favorites songs, but they are all great.

It’s pretty obvious what is going on here. Jani Liimatainen saw a gap in the market for something like The Dark Element when Anette Olzon was kicked out of Nightwish (for falling pregnant, some have uttered), and realized there’d be people out there who wanted to hear more of the stuff the band put out with her behind the mic, so he went away and wrote a Nightwish album for her. Being the master songsmith that he is, the product was a good one, and hell, if you can write pop metal hooks as well as Jani can, why not try to make some money out of it? I wasn’t alone hoping The Dark Element was going to be a female fronted Cain’s Offering, and while there is a snifter of the melodic styling of said band at play, this is a different prospect altogether.

Jani had already penned a perfectly good Nightwish tune on ‘Stormcrow’ called ‘Antemortem’, and this album is more or a less a collection of songs in that vein, only with the Nightwish-isms pushed to the max to make Anette feel comfortable, with a bunch of deliriously penned ballads, as is Jani’s style, to pad out the run time. My first spin of this had me cringing in places, simply because there are riffs and melodies on here that are actually plagiarized from the Anette-era Nightwish albums, save a note or two, and there’s also the matter of Jani name-dropping bands, album titles, and other references into his lyrics that rubs me up the wrong way. I think it’s more a case of lyrics not being Jani’s forte, so he just throws in whatever comes to mind to fit the space. But these are minor complaints, because actually, these songs are incredibly catchy bops that, right now, I can’t get enough of.

Things get off to a great start with the stomping title/band track, with an excellent Euro metal chorus that shows posers like Amaranthe how you do this kind of thing with verve and panache. ‘My Sweet Mystery’ follows with a riff taken right out of ‘Dark Passion Play’ and an absolutely fantastic chorus that I frankly adore. Great tune, definitely one of the highlights. The album continues packing the punches with excellent cuts such as ‘Dead To Me’ and ‘The Ghost And The Reaper’, the best song on here by a wide yard, and one of the greatest tunes Jani has ever penned. Man, that chorus is just fucking brilliant, and I don’t even give a shit that it’s a Nightwish lick, it just bangs. There are weaker songs on here like ‘Here’s To You’, which is just a diluted Delain track, and there are others such as ‘Halo’ that have promise, but never really take off. The highlights on this album jump out on the initial listen, but the more you spin it, the easier it is to take, and after a while I was in sync with all of it and enjoying it as a whole. As much as I want to hear Anette belt over a tune like ‘Constellation Of Tears’, there is nothing like that here, and I wouldn’t categorize this as power metal at all. It slots in nicely with other symphonic metal acts that followed in Nightwish’s steps post-‘Once’, and works as a functional vehicle for Anette to show us that she can really sing, that she wasn’t the problem in Nightwish at all. Anette is perfect for these songs. Jani did a good job tailoring an album for her.

Fans of Cain’s Offering will get a decent amount of mileage out of this, but The Dark Element are really for Nightwish fans who wish Tuomas had knocked off all the Disney soundtrack bullshit during her reign and just let her fucking sing. Jani is a great songwriter, and I keep a close eye on everything he does, and this is another triumph for him, even if it is an excursion from his usual repertoire. I’m hoping their second album will hit a similar level of mastery as ‘Stormcrow’ did for Cain’s Offering. As it stands, this is a promising debut, and fans of female fronted metal aren’t going to want to miss it.

Melodic Symphonic goes electronic in The Dark Element's self titled debut album, featuring Anette Olzon (ex. Nightwish), Jani Liimatainen(Cain's Offering, ex. Sonata Arctica), and Jonas Kuhlberg and Jani "Hurtsi" Hurula (both Cain's Offering). Though it is clearly still a metal album at its core, the balance leans noticeably to the digital side; the rhythm guitar is almost ever-present and the harmonies are strong, but the catchy hooks and synth often take the helm. The production quality is considerably crisp and refined and much of the song structure is simplistic. There are quite a few shortcomings that are clearly apparent that take the album from being potentially great to settling at satisfactory. Nonetheless, each song offers a bit of variety and the lyrical content is poetic and heartfelt, with themes of love and heartbreak recurring throughout the entire album.

Many of the songs sound as if the rhythm guitar parts of Nightwish and the melodies of Amberian Dawn got together and put out a pop album. The product, however, manages to work well enough and not sound distractingly derivative. The opening track, The Dark Element, brings good guitar riffs, an impressive guitar solo, and doesn't overwhelm with the synth tracks. My Sweet Mystery and Halo are also likable songs. There is no lack of energy or vitality in the album, making it easy to get heads nodding, though not banging.

One huge problem in this album is the lack of flavour in the finer points of the songs. Even with the better sections of the album, such as the fantastic guitar solo in My Sweet Mystery, and the songs The Ghost and the Reaper and Heaven of Your Heart, there isn't much happening in the corners. Furthermore, the drum parts are disappointing, as they never really go beyond the very uniform beats with fills or more advanced grooves. Sadly, Anette Olzon, despite being one of the best female metal vocalists there is, rarely gets an opportunity to hit the music with her full potential, resulting in a rather average performance. Someone You Used to Know has potential to be a great slow song, but fails to build into any sort of climax, instead carrying the same feel until suddenly picking up for the last chorus.

Specifically, as mentioned above, two tracks stick out. The Ghost and the Reaper is a fantastic song. The interludes do a great job transitioning into the next verses and the key change at the end is executed well. Heaven of Your Heart is a placid yet powerful song. Its emotional weight is felt throughout its entirety, largely due to Olzon's beautiful and mournful voice. It flows very smoothly, leading to a rich guitar solo before pulling right back and peacefully concluding.

Overall, The Dark Element is competent. It's easy to listen to and, despite a lineup that should have delivered something notable, there is nothing that makes it expressly bad. There were a few parts that were exceptional but it wasn't enough to ascend the album to exceptional status. I am curious to see whether or not The Dark Element puts out another record and if they will release something a little more complex, which is well within their ability.