Dark Light, is HIM’s first release with Warner Music and their first album to be released globally. We first heard opener Vampire Heart at Rock Am Ring festival in Germany last June. Freshly recorded, it was only the second time the band played this live. The crowd loved it; an old-fashioned HIM-sound with killer lyrics! Of course live-tracks always sound very different on the actual album and Vampire Heart turned out to be less rocking than we expected. Not the worst thing that could happen, it’s still a great song.
Killing Loneliness would originally be the first single, but was replaced with Rip Out the Wings of a Butterfly. As Ville explained in the interview we did with him, Killing Loneliness resembles one of their previous singles too much; The Sacrament (from Love Metal, 2003). They felt Wings of a Butterfly was a better representation of the sound of the new album. Like The Sacrament, Killing Loneliness starts off with a piano tune that is repeated throughout the track, though the sound of it is darker and more guitarry. Wings of a Butterfly is a somewhat more uptempo track, with a similar vibe to Razorblade Romance classic Right Here in my Arms. It’s catchy without being poppy and an excellent first single.
We found more similarities between songs from Dark Light and from Love Metal: in Under The Rose Ville sings ‘I dream of the winter in my heart turning to spring’, referring to his frozen heart in Love Metal’s Soul on Fire. The comparison ends right there. Soul on Fire is dark and fast, Under The Rose is a light, mid-tempo lovesong with a catchy chorus.
Title track Dark Light opens with a very 80’s synthesizer sound, which luckily subsides during the verse, but then reappears when the chorus sets in. A very whiney chorus. We don’t like it. The non-chorus parts of it are good though! When it hits 3:38mins, close your eyes and picture a full moon and some bats. The eerie, halloweeny instrumental part at the end of the song makes you want to howl like a wolf.
When listening to Behind the Crimson Door you probably wonder why this sounds so familiar. Pay attention to the opening line, go back to Killing Loneliness and listen to the first line of that. You’ll hear that both sentences sound the same, although the words are different: Memories, sharp as daggers (KL), Covered the carcass of time with flowers (BTCD). Great song though, we won’t be surprised if this will be released as a single in the future.
Face of God is nice. It doesn’t really stand out, apart from it’s somewhat unexpected ending. Drunk on Shadows is another classic HIM track; great sound, a lot of guitars, good lyrics and Ville making funny noises in between words. Play Dead is beautiful. The lyrical master at his best, Ville is very good at writing less obvious love songs like this.
The limited edition of Dark Light has two bonus tracks on it, we have the regular version though, which ends with In The Nightside of Eden. It starts as a lazy mid-tempo track, but gets a little faster towards the end. This is the darkest one on the album because of the doomy sound of the chorus and the deep guitars. A perfect closure of this album!
Verdict: This is a hard one to review. If we look at it as a release from a band we had never heard of before, we would probably have rated it higher. Being HIM-fans however, early days HIM-fans, we’re a bit disappointed. It’s a little over-produced and too lovey-dovey, like 2001’s Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights. Fans comment that Ville’s happiness reflects in this album, or maybe it’s Warner Music’s influence on the band wanting a more accessible album to break the international market (read: the US) -which would explain the poppy production and repeats of choruses-, maybe it’s the fact that we all become a little softer when we get older. We won’t join these speculations. We like the album, some songs more than others, we just miss the raw edge of the Razorblade days. But who knows, maybe the next one will be more our taste. After all, Love Metal was a lot darker than it’s predecessor.