Tarja Turunen
My Winter Storm

The Nightwish made a colossal mistake by letting her go. Poor souls. With this album, she was seeking redemption, revenge, and she achieved it. While her former band released a less than mediocre album with a singer who was worth less than half of Tarja, the Finnish ice queen created an album built around her voice. Excellent to say the least.

The album is a mix of delicacy and aggressiveness, of strings and guitars, of melodies almost like classical music and incursions of electronics and metal here and there at the right moment.

The best summary of what I said is the opening track of the album "I Walk Alone" where strings, guitars, and electronic sounds intertwine to highlight Tarja's voice. Then it moves to songs composed entirely of strings where Tarja's voice stands out majestically (for example, The Reign, in my opinion the best). There are also metal-themed songs where the guitars get edgy (for example, Ciarana's Well) that remind us that Tarja knows how to masterfully navigate every genre on which her voice is based.

Finally, I believe this work is great, too bad for the cover of "Poison", the famous song by Alice Cooper, which does not do justice to Tarja's splendid voice. Endless emotions. This album has little to do with Nightwish's sounds. And I'm sorry to say, but thankfully it's like that...

TRACKS:

1. ITE MISSA EST (INTRO) 6.5
2. I WALK ALONE 7
3. Lost Northern Star 7
4. SEEKING FOR THE REIGN 6.5
5. THE REIGN 8.5 (BEST TRACK)
6. THE ESCAPE OF THE DOLL 6.5
7. MY LITTLE PHOENIX 7
8. DIE ALIVE 7.5
9. BOY AND THE GHOST 7
10. SING FOR ME 8
11. OASIS 6.5
12. POISON 5.5 (WORST TRACK)
13. OUR GREAT DIVIDE 7
14. SUNSET 6.5
15. DAMNED AND DIVINE 7
16. MINOR HEAVEN 7.5
17. CIARANA'S WELL 7.5
18. CALLING GRACE 7