The Dark Element - The Dark Element Review

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Concise Summary:

Anette Olzon's (formerly of Nightwish) and Jani Liimatainen's (of Cain's Offering, and formerly Sonata Arctica) new project, The Dark Element, just released their debut self-titled album, and it's pretty darn good. Anette's vocals are, unsurprisingly, amazing, and the instrumentation on this album is also very good. Even the lyrics are well-done! However, I was surprised by the amount of synth used on this album. At first I was really enjoying the energetic sound, but towards the last third of the album, I started to want a change because it felt that what I was hearing had already been done earlier on the album. I mean, individually, the songs are very good, but as an album, variety seems a bit lacking. The slow(ish) songs on the album, "Heaven of Your Heart" and "Someone You Used to Know", and "Only One Who Knows Me" do change things up a bit, but a lot of the other songs on the album really could have used at least a different synth tone. Maybe I'm being too picky, but that bugged me. Also, the continuity of the album seems a bit off, especially with two of the slower, more methodical songs right next to each other at the end of the album. Overall, I would say that this is a good album, but I'm rather surprised that experienced musicians like Jani and Anette did not order the songs on the album a bit better and that they used basically the same synth tone for most of the high-energy songs. I'm a little disappointed, but generally, I really like this album.

My Rating: 7.5 out of 10


Highlights:
  • Great singing
  • Fun, high-energy sound
  • Good songwriting
  • Very nice slower songs that balance out the higher energy songs
Lowlights:
  • Same synth sound gets old after a while, and it was rather overpowering as well (it seemed to drown out the guitar)
  • There aren't many guitar solos, which I found surprising
  • I think the song ordering could have been better
Favorite Songs:
  • Someone You Used to Know
  • My Sweet Mystery
  • Here's to You
  • The Ghost and the Reaper
More Info:

The Dark Element Facebook

Comments

  1. A.J. SpaudeNovember 10, 2017 at 2:42 PM

    Follow me on Facebook and Twitter @BPMetalReviews to stay updated on the latest reviews! Also PLEASE feel free to suggest albums in the comments! Appreciate ya!

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