Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights

In the autumn of 2000 the band began demoing their third album at Petrax Studios in Hollola with T. T. Oksala. They were happy enough with those recordings to want to overdub them and use them as the album; BMG disagreed. Valo believed the label wanted a better-known producer, and BMG's Asko Kallonen has denied that and said what worried him was a plan to release what were essentially demos so soon after the exhausting tour behind Razorblade Romance. Under pressure from BMG's international branches to repeat that record's success, the band was paired with Kevin Shirley, whose earlier work included Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and The Black Crowes. Shirley was glad to be there; the band were less sure about his way of working, and about what the label had paid for it. Valo has since allowed that some of his ideas improved the songs. It was recorded at Finnvox Studios, Petrax Studios and Crystal Sound Studios over roughly eleven months. The result is sleeker and more pop-oriented than the album before it, and the reviews divided. Some praised the writing and Ville Valo's singing; most were hard on the production and the commercial sound. It charted in seven countries all the same, went to number one in Finland and Austria and to platinum and gold there, and was the band's first album to enter the Billboard 200. All three singles reached the top two in Finland. The running order here is the Finnish edition's as printed.