Review Summary: Dark and a freezing athmosphere slowly unravels on My Winter Storm
My Winter Storm contains a dark atmosphere with complete orchestra and choir arrangements accompanied by Tarja Turunen's classical vocals with drums and electric guitars bringing in more kick to otherwise slow material.
The wintery album kicks off with the single I Walk Alone which has more electronic sound than rest of the album. Although the song is catchy and peaks high at the end, the lead single is also forgettable.
Lost Northern Star is the only heavier song that really works as hard rock which both reminds of the vocalist's past in Nightwish but actually sounds a lot like something from a Red Alert soundtrack. Lost Northern Star contains the most compelling and original lyrics and the fastest vibratto on the album.
Tarja's slower vibratto shines on The Reign, which is the only completely classical song on the album. Images of sky and deserts don't fit the otherwise dark theme of My Winter Storm but wins easily the competition of the best track on the album.
The next few songs are the least pleasing on the album with strange vocals and structure on My Little Phoenix and a bit off-track rock-compositions on Die Alive, which contains some decent choir-work, though.
Boy and the Ghost has awkward lyrics but falls nothing short of great interpretation by Tarja whose voice explores the dark realities of a pain-staking childhood. Sing for Me continues where Boy left, continuing to amass powerful choirs and orchestra arrangements.
The only song completely written and composed by Tarja Turunen is actually quite a good instrumental piece which includes a small but memorable vocals in Finnish. Again, waves of sand and the sky travels in this song but the melody and the lyrics especially fit the tune of the album.
One of the worst mistakes is to include a cover of Poison which has kick-off chorus but otherwise totally wrong vocals, girlie and lacking any hint of dark eroticisim.
After suffering greatly from the Poison cover, the album experiments with a vampire theme, not too uncommon in the metal genre. This one is a ballad though with a very soundtrackish feel to it. Starting with Tarja howling, the song introduces a catchy but sad chorus until fading into the night, so to speak.
Our Great Divide presents one of the best vocals on the album and also hints at the the vocalists departure from her former band, Nightwish. Only Tarja Turunen can have a last laugh at hard rock, as she was the target of predujice in the field of heavy metal. Ciaran's Well is an utter parody of heavy metal and works perfectly as well-intended comedy. Those high notes will stick in your head.
The album closes with two ballads, Minor Heaven which also hints at her departure and Calling Grace which offers acustic guitars instead of powerful orchestral bombast and athmospheres presented earlier in the album. Like almost all the other tracks on the album, Calling Grace has a great chorus but Minor Heaven would've worked better as a closing track for the album. The first effort by former Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen is a truely good start for her solo career.
