The Dark Element - Songs The Night Sings

Words by Nick Wells

An album by two of the top exponents of a genre, in this case Symphonic Metal, should be a joy to review surely; a whole even greater than the sum of its parts.

While Songs The Night Sings, the second studio offering from The Dark Element, Anette Olzon (Nightwish) and Jani Liimtainen (Sonata Arctica), has its moments, the overwhelming sensation you’re left with is comfortable familiarity. Yes, the playing and production is beyond accomplished and the vocals are, if anything, too perfect, but there is a lack of soul. Spontaneity appears in short supply.

The first two numbers blur homogeneously into one and it is not until towards the end of When it All Comes Down that there is a welcome respite, introducing some melodic piano before the anthemic, slower-paced outro hints at something more interesting on its way.

Silence Between The Words and Get Out of My Head, with their synth-driven keyboards, are redolent of a heavier 80s era Abba not, in any way, meant as a captious remark. In fact, where Anette Olzon’s voice is pitched down, an interesting counterpoint to the music is achieved, something that opens up new, largely unexplored possibilities.

I Have To Go is a plaintive tale of lost love in which Liimtainen’s guitar style, beautifully restrained, recalls Opeth’s Lars Mikael Akerfeldt.

All in all, given it's the first album, this is not an unexpected collection. It is unlikely to attract too many new converts but is predictable enough to ensure that The Dark Element probably won’t lose any of their existing fan base either.