Dark Light

Having finished with BMG in August 2003, the band signed to Sire Records in September 2004: Sire took Europe, the United States, Japan and Australia, while in Finland the records came out on the band's own Heartagram label. Recording began in March 2005 at The Paramour Estate in Los Angeles with Tim Palmer, who had mixed Love Metal. Two days of rehearsal were followed by two days of drums, then bass, then guitars and keyboards. It was going to be called In the Nightside of Eden, after one of its songs, and became Dark Light because the band wanted a title people would remember on the record that would be their first proper release in Japan, Australia and North America. Valo's aim was to make the songs cinematic, epic and close to the listener, an idea he took from the work of the composer Angelo Badalamenti; the album has also been described as written at the crossing of Black Sabbath and U2, with This Mortal Coil behind its spookier sound. Matt Taylor and Sonny Gerasimowicz designed the cover. It charted in fifteen countries, went to number one in Finland and platinum there, and went gold in Germany, Britain and the United States — the first gold disc a Finnish band had earned in America. "Wings of a Butterfly" reached number one in Finland and "Killing Loneliness" number two. The running order here is the Finnish edition's as printed.