It was about a year ago that I first heard that Ravel etched pitter-patter leading into barnstorming single Victim Of Ritual by Tarja. After just one play the song was embedded into my head for seemingly ever. A few plays of it left me a gibbering wreck, unable to shift it from my head and needing a course of therapy and electro shock treatment to remove it. Little good it did though as that portion of the brain removed it arrived again leading out the new album Colours Of The Dark a couple of months later. I had what can only be described as a severe relapse and it took more than mere psychotherapy and I was forced to embark upon a controversial trepanning exercise which leaves me feeling very giddy at times. The two discs were removed and are locked in a sound proof dungeon way beneath the crust of the earth. Things were starting to get back to normal and now this… Yes you guessed it Tarja has released a special companion piece to go with the album and guess what the first track is? I really am a Victim of Ritual all over again!
Silliness aside and yes in case you have not heard it the song is one of the catchiest ever made in my opinion, so be warned. What we actually have here is it and nine other tracks from the Colours sessions in different variations, all pretty much stripped down and presented as demo versions, live radio mixes and works in progress so you can hear them as they sounded in the lead up to the full release. Apparently this album was previously available bundled in with a ticket for the 2014 Colours tour in certain countries but has now been released to wider audiences. Very much an album dedicated to the fans Tarja even had a competition for her followers to design the artwork for front, back and booklet inserts here and a good job they did too as the package is as ever a very striking one visually.
No doubt if you have read this far you are a fan yourself and have heard the songs in their original form and are wondering what the differences are exactly. Well there is an element of these being quite a minimalistic listening experience compared to the fully produced songs but that is not such a bad thing as it allows the beauty of the already strong numbers to shine through a lot. For example with 500 Letters you are left to focus on the charm of the vocals along with just a simple piano accompaniment and acoustic guitar allowing the song to sound a lot more natural without any of the more overbearing pomposity of the orchestral aspects. At the other end of the scale and seeming somewhat odd considering that it is Tarja who is as ever the main selling point to this we have a long instrumental version of ‘Deliverance’ but again it is a strong number in its own right and should not disappoint anyone.
It’s an interesting idea overall and makes me wonder how an acoustic Tarja round of concerts would go down, probably very well actually. It comes across as a more than feasible proposition listening to the likes of Live Radio session of Until Silence but the whole album is not like this and there are tracks with much more to them such as a full orchestral Neverlight which has the head-banging power to it with the swaggering charge that we are more used to.
Classed as an EP despite being close to an hour length ‘Left In The Dark’ is by no means an essential purchase but if you already love ‘Colours In The Dark’ it certainly compliments it very well and leaves you with what could be looked at as a double album listening session. I still haven’t managed to catch the tracks live on tour yet perhaps after the next round of therapy I might just about be ready, till then the men in the white coats are poised “RRRRITTTUAAAALLLL’
(7/10 Pete Woods)
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