THE DARK ELEMENT — Songs the Night Sings (review)

THE DARK ELEMENT — Songs the Night Sings album cover Album · 2019 · Symphonic Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Kev Rowland
The Dark Element is a musical project fronted by vocalist Anette Olzon (ex-Nightwish), together with Finnish guitarist, keyboard player and songwriter Jani Liimatainen (Insomnium, Cain's Offering, ex-Sonata Arctica). This is their second album, with the line-up being completed by Jonas Kuhlberg (bass) and Rolf Pilve (drums). Now, I always enjoyed Olzon’s singing with Nightwish, and was incredibly disappointed when she departed as I felt they had yet to really gel as an outfit, but it has to be said no-one really misses her now that Floor Jansen has made the role her own. I didn’t hear the debut from these guys but was really excited when I heard about it and played it as soon as it was available. Then I promptly put it away and decided I probably was not in the right mood and would play it again another time. That I did, and kept coming up with the same result, which I really didn’t want as I was so looking forward to it.

To put it bluntly this is Nightwish-lite, and there are bits and pieces which remind me of Olzon’s work with that band, but I actually think this could all be forgiven if it wasn’t for the drums! To say they have someone who wants to sit there and just play standard 4/4 with little in the way of variation is an understatement. I soon found that I was concentrating more on what he was doing than Olzon, and that cannot be right! Liimatainen built a very strong reputation with Sonata Arctica, and he is a dramatic guitarist, but the band could do with a better keyboard player, preferably someone who has never heard Nightwish. There are some nice bits and pieces, and Olzon’s vocals are superb, but there still needs to be much more work undertaken for this band to create their own identity and become a force to be reckoned with.
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