Timo Tolkki - Hymn To Life
Nuclear Blast - 2002
Reviewed by Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Nuclear Blast website
There are times when I wish I hadn't gotten into reviewing albums, you know. Yes, I know you think it's all wine and roses - getting all my albums for free, gaining the leverage to easily blag freebies from bands and lig my way into gigs... but occasionally the lifestyle of a music journalist has its downsides. Like when you get an album such as this to review.
This, quite honestly, is tripe. Statovarius I can put up with. This, Stratovarius' frontman's second solo album, is very nearly unlistenable, cloying, pretentious, Euro-pop-rock bollocks of the worst kind.
Tolkki himself says in the promo material I received with this album; "It was a perfect chance for me to forget all the 'frames' a metal band tends to have; I didn't set any limits for myself musically or lyrically." That's where the problem lies, Timo my mate. You're in a very popular, successful and capable prog/power metal band. That's what you're good at. What you're not so good at is mainstream-hugging, 'personal' opuses based around songs that sound mainly like a cross between 80s pop songs and the Euro-power-metal ballads that The Scorpions kept insisting on churning out.
First track, 'Key To The Universe' is, in all honesty, not that bad. Meybe that's because Michael Kiske performs vocal duties, and so you can kid yourself that the song is a 'lost' Helloween track. It starts with a decent sounding 'waa-waa'-effected guitar melody, before settling into one of those power-ballads I was alluding to ('the key to the universe is love', apparently).
'Divine' becomes bearable towards the end of the track, with a good drum beat, chugging riff and decent solo. Then comes the unbridled horro that is 'Little Boy I Miss You'. We're in full-on piano melody, synth-strings, lighters-in-the-air tear-jerker territory here, with such lyrical gems as 'the taste of ice cream on the first day of summer', and 'in the jungle of rules you have found your way'. It's usually at this point in the album that I'm laughing too hard to carry on. However, I'm a dedicated reviewer... maybe things will get better.
'I Believe' shows promise with a nice, simple, melodic riff. However, things go downhill rapidly when the drums and vocals kick in and you're reminded of Sting.
Within Temptation's Sharon Den Adel sings on 'Are You The One?', which proves to be the song's only saving grace. Her melodious, pleasant vocals save the song from being just another pop-rock anthem.
And, the album carries on much in the same vein. There's not a single song on here that I would choose to listen to, and there are some (like the truly unforgiveable 'It's Xmas Morning') that should really be deleted and erased from everyone's memory. Please don't buy this - I'd feel that I hadn't done my job properly if you did.
1/10 (half a mark for Michael Kiske, half a mark for Sharon Den Adel).
Nuclear Blast - 2002
Reviewed by Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Nuclear Blast website
There are times when I wish I hadn't gotten into reviewing albums, you know. Yes, I know you think it's all wine and roses - getting all my albums for free, gaining the leverage to easily blag freebies from bands and lig my way into gigs... but occasionally the lifestyle of a music journalist has its downsides. Like when you get an album such as this to review.
This, quite honestly, is tripe. Statovarius I can put up with. This, Stratovarius' frontman's second solo album, is very nearly unlistenable, cloying, pretentious, Euro-pop-rock bollocks of the worst kind.
Tolkki himself says in the promo material I received with this album; "It was a perfect chance for me to forget all the 'frames' a metal band tends to have; I didn't set any limits for myself musically or lyrically." That's where the problem lies, Timo my mate. You're in a very popular, successful and capable prog/power metal band. That's what you're good at. What you're not so good at is mainstream-hugging, 'personal' opuses based around songs that sound mainly like a cross between 80s pop songs and the Euro-power-metal ballads that The Scorpions kept insisting on churning out.
First track, 'Key To The Universe' is, in all honesty, not that bad. Meybe that's because Michael Kiske performs vocal duties, and so you can kid yourself that the song is a 'lost' Helloween track. It starts with a decent sounding 'waa-waa'-effected guitar melody, before settling into one of those power-ballads I was alluding to ('the key to the universe is love', apparently).
'Divine' becomes bearable towards the end of the track, with a good drum beat, chugging riff and decent solo. Then comes the unbridled horro that is 'Little Boy I Miss You'. We're in full-on piano melody, synth-strings, lighters-in-the-air tear-jerker territory here, with such lyrical gems as 'the taste of ice cream on the first day of summer', and 'in the jungle of rules you have found your way'. It's usually at this point in the album that I'm laughing too hard to carry on. However, I'm a dedicated reviewer... maybe things will get better.
'I Believe' shows promise with a nice, simple, melodic riff. However, things go downhill rapidly when the drums and vocals kick in and you're reminded of Sting.
Within Temptation's Sharon Den Adel sings on 'Are You The One?', which proves to be the song's only saving grace. Her melodious, pleasant vocals save the song from being just another pop-rock anthem.
And, the album carries on much in the same vein. There's not a single song on here that I would choose to listen to, and there are some (like the truly unforgiveable 'It's Xmas Morning') that should really be deleted and erased from everyone's memory. Please don't buy this - I'd feel that I hadn't done my job properly if you did.
1/10 (half a mark for Michael Kiske, half a mark for Sharon Den Adel).
