Tarja - Colours In The Dark (CD Review)

01.Victim Of Ritual
02.500 Letters
03.Lucid Dreamer
04.Never Enough
05.Mystique Voyage
06.Darkness
07.Deliverance
08.Neverlight
09.Until Silence
10.Medusa

Tarja Turunen (Vocals/Piano)
Alex Scholpp (Guitar)
Julian Barrett (Guitar)
Kevin Chown (Bass)
Doug Wimbish (Bass)
Christian Kretschmar (Keyboards)
Mike Terrana (Drums)
Max Lilja (Cello)

Guest Musicains
Thomas Bloch (Glass Harmonica)
Saro Danielian (Duduk)
Justin Furstenfeld (Vocal on Medusa)
Caroline Lavelle (Cello)
Naomi Cabuli Turunen (Vocals On Lucid Dreamer)
Mel Wesson (Synth)

At the end of 2005, Turunen performed several classical concerts in Finland, Germany, Spain, and Romania.Since she expected to participate in another Nightwish album, several concerts and the release of her Christmas album Henkäys Ikuisuudesta were the only activities scheduled for 2006. Turunen again played at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in July 2006, In November she performed at the charity concert “Tomorrow's Child” with the Tapiola Choir as a benefit for the UNICEF Children's Fund. On December 6, Turunen performed a big concert at the Sibelius Hall and was nominated for the Finnish Emma Award as Best Soloist of 2006.

The following year, Turunen recorded vocals for the track "In The Picture" on the Nuclear Blast All-stars album Into the Light.
Her solo album'My Winter Storm' was released featuring various styles, including symphonic metal with classical “operatic” lead vocals.

In November she embarked on the Storm World Tour to promote My Winter Storm. She performed 95 concerts throughout Europe, North and South America and ended the tour in October 2009 at the O2 Academy Islington in London.In December 2008, the EP The Seer was released in the UK and the new extended edition of My Winter Storm released on January 2, 2009.

She also contributed three songs to the Finnish charity Christmas album Maailman kauneimmat joululaulut,In December 2009 she recorded her vocal part for the song "The Good Die Young", a duet with Klaus Meine which is included on the final Scorpions album Sting in the Tail.

Turunen recorded her third album, What Lies Beneath, in 2009 and 2010; it was released in September 2010. The album combined metal with classical “operatic” elements in an out of the box approach.[52] She started the What Lies Beneath World Tour performing in several festivals, including the Wacken Open Air and the Graspop Metal Meeting, with special concerts at Miskolc Opera Festival and at the Masters of Rock, when she performed accompanied by a full orchestra. The tour is scheduled to last until April 2012.

Turunen with her support band at the Wacken Open Air, August 6, 2010
On February 27, 2012 during her What Lies Beneath World Tour concert in Brussels, Turunen announced that she will be working on a new album after completing the tour. During the concert she already presented 2 new songs.
In March 2012, Tarja won the title 'Europe's best crossover performer' with over 100.000 votes.

In May 2013, Tarja announced the title of her 4th solo album, Colours In The Dark.
The name of the album, as the cover image, came as a metaphor from the idea that life has a large range of colors and the dark absorb all of them, containing every color.

Its a Tarja album, so you know what you gonna get lots of superb vocals over symphonic rock and metal music, and thats exactley what this is, have to pick out a few tracks though such as 'Never Enough' which is very dramatic and heavy, 'Mystique Voyager' for its classical theme with amazing chorus vocals.

The Peter Gabriel cover is pretty good, but the last track featuring Justin Furstenfeld (WHO?) is a bit average.

Rating 9/10

For fans of : Nightwish, Epica, ReVamp, Within Temptation