When H.I.M. burst onto the rock scene a few years ago, they intitially seemed like another of those slightly dodgy Scandinavian death metal bands, not least because their lead singer was called Ville Valo, although it's probably safe to assume that that is his actual name rather than a statement about how vile he is. After all, how evil can a band be when their logo is the 'Heartagram', which is a pentagram that has been turned into a heart and their last album was called Love Metal?

However, that's not to say that they don't play up to the image as scary Finnish goths, and when the opening song is called Vampire Heart you pretty much know exactly what you're letting yourself in for.

But that doesn't mean this is scary death metal, as it is musically closer to The Cure, which is hardly surprising as Dark Light is produced by Cure/U2 producer Tim Palmer, who gives all the songs a new wave sheen that brings out the undercurrents of melody that are present in almost of the songs.

Of course, this isn't a U2 album, and when the poppiest song is called Rip Out The Wings Of A Butterfly (strangely a longer title than the single version), you can guess that there aren't many songs you're likely to hear on Radio 2 here. However, both Butterfly and Under The Rose are certainly catchy enough to get some airplay, while Killing Loneliness has a piano introduction that could almost be Coldplay.

Chris Martin is unlikely to ever write a line like: "The suicide of love took away all that matters and buried the remains in an unmarked grave in your heart with the venomous kiss you gave me", but there is a very mainstream feel to the music, even if the lyrics are a little more macabre than your average love song. It works rather less well on the title track, which is a little bit too mushy, but overall this is a surprisingly effective heavy-goth-pop album.

Possibly the best track on Dark Light is the last one, In The Nightside Of Eden, which has a daft name but a great pounding guitar sound as well as very atmospheric production, culminating in a crunching swirl of noise before fading out with some scary voices. It's also nice to see a band not afraid of making an album with only ten tracks, instead of trying to pad it out to 15 or 16 with terrible filler...