So a new Tarja album is underway and 30th August is the time that her legions of fans can anticipate ‘Colours In The Dark’ dropping. In the meantime some of them (and to say she is popular would be an understatement) can look forward to the first single ‘Victim Of Ritual’ offering a taster on July 12th. Not all the fans of the operatic superstar are going to be in luck grabbing hold of this physically I suspect as it is only going to be available on limited 1500 press 7” and 3000 CD digipack single. So I would anticipate these pretty much selling out the second they are available.
The new single actually contains just one new song but it is both a clever and very catchy one that is bound to become a central live number and a firm fan favourite. ‘Victim Of Ritual’ combines flavours of hard rock, opera and classical together as it takes as a central premise a movement of Ravel’s Bolero. This is a piece of music that even if you are scratching your heads I guarantee you will no doubt have heard somewhere. If you are over a certain age you will remember Dudley Moore and Bo Derek running down a beach to it, otherwise it’s renowned in the world of advertising and ice skating and the second those bars starting this single are drummed out it will be in your head for the next month or so. Taking the orchestral route we would expect from it things quickly change, the beat stays the same, the melody does not. Tarja becomes the central focus teasing us, things stop and then all crash in. The mix and production sound fantastic and as el diva croons out “she’s a killer” you can practically hear the cheers of thousands. Flirting with that drumming beat and the hefty and weighty bombast of the chorus this really is a meaty number that is going to blow any fan of Tarja completely out their shoes. If you are not one of them it’s probably going to annoy the hell out of you but I doubt it is going to be easy to avoid in the slightest. Backing this up on the b) side of the single and as an extra on the disc is a demo version of the song. Listening to it twice in a row is not really advised though as like I said just one hit will have it going round in your brain for near enough ever.
Skipping on if you have the disc there are two favourites performed live (from Luna Park) No problems hearing the cheers with these. The glittering keys and slow build up before the chorus of ‘I Walk Alone’ has everyone singing along. Alone she is not! If you have not heard this song before well avoided; I have and again although it is a bit of a slow-burner it’s a classic song with an orchestral swagger and chorus that will be hard to shift. This leaves ‘Underneath’ the fourth single from ‘What Lies Beneath’ so no doubt another one that presented live on disc (in this version for the first time) will be another one for completists to grab up. I’m not giving this a mark, as it only has one new song on it, it is a single and you either love Tarja or avoid her like the plague. What I will say is the new song is a balls out monster of a number and if the whole album is anywhere near as good as it, then it’s going to be well worth picking up.
(Pete Woods)
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