"Dark Sarah" is a project by Heidi Parviainen, former singer of Amberian Dawn. But not only is "Dark Sarah" the name of this Symphonic Metal project, it's also the name of the protagonist of the story being told on the first album "Behind The Black Veil".

To give you a short look into the story: Sarah, a young woman, creates an alter ego (Dark Sarah) because of a trauma caused by her fiancé leaves her at the altar to start a new life with another woman. Dark Sarah now swears revenge and begins to loom in between her to personalities. Sarah meets her fate, portrayed by Manuela Kraller (ex-Xandria), telling her she needs to offer herself to darkness. So she does and she slowly loses her sanity and now starts making plans how to kill her husband. A long inner fight for Sarah's sanity begins and in the end, the moon, portrayed by Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica) shows up to guide her and to show her a new path in life. You can read the whole story here.

With this complexity of the story and music, a great rock opera is made. The cinematic elements, which sometimes remind me of Danny Elfman's music in Tim Burton movies, give the listener the opportunity to create a movie inside their head. The large atmosphere is also highlighted by Heidi's operatic voice and the range from operatic songs like "Violent Roses" or "Save me" to Power Metal songs like "Hunting The Dreamer" and "Silver Tree".

Once again, it is proved that crowd funding campaigns can make something beautiful happen. In three parts (the three parts of the story), "Behind The Black Veil" was funded and also, four music videos were released.

I think, this album is something special, it is perfectly planned with the story and what is created out of it with music. I am not really a fan of Heidi's voice, but that's a matter of taste. What matters is that the album itself is awesome and I love that the focus is set on storytelling. But all in all I am of the opinion that Heidi Parviainen has created an outstanding album (especially compared to the work of other solo female metal singers) and I can only recommend it to everyone who loves epic concept albums and a great atmosphere.