Tarja was formerly the operatically-inclined frontwoman of Finnish fantasy metallers Nightwish. A couple of years back she was unchivalrously dumped by her bandmates for an alleged lack of commitment to the cause. Boo! Now she is back as a solo artist and doing pretty much what she did with Nightwish, only on a more economical scale.

Herein lies a problem, because this kind of music is about escapism and shameless excess. Shorn of these, Tarja, über-babe though she undoubtedly is, has been reduced to a second-rate operatic soprano with a nice line in costume changes and a vibrato wide enough to drive a bus through. Her new material is fine, I suppose, (a butchered cover of Alice Cooper’s ‘Poison’ aside) but it lacks the scale and ambition necessary to recapture the Disney-esque appeal of Nightwish. Nor is it distinctive enough to suggest she has her eyes on new horizons.

It’s hard to fault her on-stage work ethic, though, and a bizarrely eclectic sold-out audience (young Goths to old pervs, since you ask) appeared delighted to have her back. Not sure why, myself.

Richard Hodkinson
Photo: londontourpix