Dark Element, The - Songs the Night Sings (2019)^{Release ID: 14095}

Catchy Metal Introspection

I knew what I was getting into when I threw this album on, but I didn't think I'd be perfectly spot-on with my expectations. After doing a quick scan of the band members it's immediately apparent what Songs the Night Sings was going to be, with Anette Olzon from Nightwish on vocals and Jani Liimatainen from Cain's Offering, an offshoot of Sonata Arctica, on guitars and synths. All 11 tracks are a similar mix of poppy song structure focusing on catchy choruses with synths and keyboards taking the spotlight in the instrumental mix rather than the guitar or bass. At its core Songs the Night Sings plays like the B-sides and cut tracks of Nightwish's Imaginaerum with less creativity and with the sole purpose of breaking into some kind of mainstream radio.

At the end of the day though, that's not inherently bad, is it? Catchy songs that are written well enough and meant to be enjoyed at the surface level by a wide audience shouldn't be instantly condemned no matter how much music I listen to. It's difficult to keep that mentality as I listen to more and more music as my standards are continuously heightened and warped to expect a certain amount of ingenuity and freshness. Songs the Night Sings is, for some reason, an album that made me step back and rethink how I go about criticizing albums, since it's simple, especially in the metal genre, to instantly slap a low rating on something that sounds slightly poppy in nature or has a little bit too much synth.

Sadly, even after all that talk of me breaking the chains of pretentiousness when it comes to talking about albums, Songs the Night Sings doesn't do a whole lot for me. I'm a fan of Anette Olzon's vocals in general and do have a soft spot for hook laden Power Metal like Beast In Black, but what kills Songs the Night Sings is the fact that the two musicians emblazoned on the cover aren't used to their full potential. I was never wowed by Olzon and most songs feel very hollow, especially "I Have To Go". The instrumentation from Liimatainen can be grand and engaging when he fully utilizes the orchestra, but most songs fall into the modern trap of creating a blasting wall of sound with every instrument drowned out as they play the same exact melody to give the vocals during the chorus maximum effect. "Songs the Night Sings" and "Pills on My Pillow" have the synth take center stage and it's just completely overpowering in an annoying way, especially the EDM dance rave that is "Get Out Of My Head", which is super catchy but I'd imagine after 5 or so listens I'll never want to come back to it.

This review is primarily for me, since it gave me a chance to really pinpoint why this sort of stuff doesn't work for me. Bands like Powerwolf, Beast In Black, and Twilight Force are even more bombastic than anything on this album and I enjoy them quite a bit, so what's the difference? Songs the Night Sings lacks that creative and fun element that many other cheesy pop metal albums have. The songs are catchy and most of the orchestra melodies are nice to listen to, but it feels like there's a lot more potential that these artists have that is being stifled. It's good pop metal, but so much of it feels hollow and scripted to follow modern rock trends, which I'm not a particular fan of.