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The epic Finnish soprano Tarja Turunen has not impressed that much on her previous musical solo work. It felt like it has become a thin echo from her succesfull time in Nightwish (Tarja fans will have to excuse me). The songs did not fit her high pitch voice and the musicians were replaced frequently. Many like me missed the magic that existed when Tarja was the bombastic Finnish power metal band.

Anyway it is history now and that re-union door seems to be closed forever, but ladies and gentlemen 'Colors in the Dark' is an album, which brings hopes for her solo career. With the hard hitting monster Mike Terrana on drums and several heavy songs that are rougher and darker than on the previous work, makes me belive in a future for the symphonic metal queen's solo career. This is perhaps her best (solo) album so far.

There is a lot of room for her excellent singing and it doesn't take over the overall impression of the tracks. Tarja has a unique voice in metal genre, but it shouldn't over-power the rest. There are several tracks that feel hefty even instrumentally. It seems like they have put together a good cohesion with this line-up. The mix of hard riffing metal and the gentle, sensitive hard rocking tracks attract me anyway.

It quivers of pure joy and their symphonic metal with big brush strokes and strong colours are evident on Tarja's new album. If you like your female symphonic metal, this is an obvious choice.

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