After prolonged simply listen fantastically

At first I was not very convinced. From I Walk Alone I was completely convinced from the very beginning, the song is really totally captivating. But overall I thought at first, the album contains not only good songs, making a total of not so good. Especially the first "pass-through" by the individual tracks, I was only a little disappointed, what does it matter that many songs start very slowly and reduced and be increased only in its later stages. But if you even listen to the album from beginning to end at a time, you realize what you have as a strong album. Almost every song is good, not only every song itself, but the whole album is overall consistency and the order of the songs is very well chosen. By different characters in the Tarja in the booklet and also in the video for "I Walk Alone slips", and by the seamless transitions between songs affects the whole album as a concept album. The melodies convince immediately, since they are simply fantastic, Tarja also draws her entire vocal range from. But not only the vocals, the instrumental tunes that often stand in the foreground, and the background music is very catchy and beautiful. Here convinced the instrumental side of music, which is rather rare among solo artists. Tarja shows that she understands what music and good taste has and uses a full orchestra and a large choir, which is partly still strongly reminiscent of Nightwish. The whole is mixed with a lot of piano and proper rock sounds, which I would not expect at first, I thought, Tarja turned down a gear and can influence their music more from the classical period. Instead, it has created a good mix of classical and rock / metal that made me finally convinced. Only Außnahme: Ciaran's Well. The track is too exaggerated hard for yet a little, maybe that will still change after repeated listening.

You can tell that Tarja's really honest music that comes from the heart. Especially the harder side affects in no way put on, but as it should be. She says on the DVD that she likes both the quiet and classic sounds as well as the harsh sounds, and I buy her off too. This makes them a serious artist. That is quite important in the music market, shows the high chart entry (3rd place). And in the hearts of hardcore Nightwish fans will and always live :-) pity that the video of "I Walk Alone" is played on television so often, but the whole hip-hop can not simply be: - (

For Tarja's voice: So voluminous and dark colored like Nightwish early days does not sound her voice, especially in the lower registers rather breathy and sometimes a bit weak. For her soprano is in the high elevations as clear as ever, and Tarja sings on this album often high. The whole is indeed a crossover, since her voice does not sound 100% classically.

For optical design: The Special Edition is beautifully worked out. The Digipak is unusual portrait. The cover represents the album perfectly, the album really sounds like what it looks like. The dog on the inside is really nice, but even better, I would have found it if it was a wolf =)

Among the bonus tracks: Damned Vampires & Gothic Divine is the rockier and longer version of Damned and Divine. Not bad. The In-Extremo remix of "I Walk Alone" packs a punch, especially in the chorus comes from the bagpipes proper medieval mood. The Artist version does not convince me that. The intro is the same as "Ite, Missa Est" and otherwise are merely to hear a few more instruments, but the normal version is there is hardly any difference.

For DVD: The Making of the album has got me a little short. Tarja told much personal, which I think is good, but from the recordings of the instruments we see little. From the orchestral and choral recording one sees nothing, surely that is a pity, because Tarja's music lives it and because it would underline once again how versatile and high quality but their music is. Otherwise, the DVD is interesting but very often they will not watch.

For Music 4.5 star and a small deduction for the DVD leads to 4 stars.