In some ways I have always felt a little sorry for Olzon, as she was the filler in the sandwich between Tarja Turunen and Floor Jansen, and people tend to forget that her two albums with Nightwish, ‘Dark Passion Play’ and ‘Imaginaerum’, are very fine indeed. But since leaving the band she has been somewhat lost, and to be fair her albums since then have been missing something, but at long last she has recovered her place with what is easily her finest release in the last decade. As she did with ‘Strong’, she has again joined forces with Magnus Karlsson (guitar, bass, keyboards) and drummer Anders Köllerfors with Johan Husgafvel providing the growls here and there and this time they are a much more powerful unit.
Olzon was always more of a melodic rock singer than the classical Turunen and Jansen, and here she uses that to great effect with a set of songs which blast from the beginning right through to the end. This is not a Nightwish knock off in that the symphonic element has been brought right down, although there are some choral elements here and there which are somewhat reminiscent, but one can see how that band could well have moved in this direction if Holopainen had wished it to. To be honest I was not expecting great things from this album, and nearly didn’t grab it when it became available, but I was willing to give Olzon another chance given how much I rate her work with Nightwish, and I am so glad I did as here is an artist reborn. She has finally moved on and created something where we can talk about her as a great singer and no longer “just” compare her to the previous band as she is taking control of her destiny with one melodic rock belter after another. It is bass led with loads of bottom end, yet her vocals rise easily over the top and the result is a singer reborn. This is a real comeback, and if like me you had wondered if she would ever again reach the heights she is back with a real bang – this is an album all lovers of melodic metal need to seek out.
