Description

Still sealed official Taiwan pressing on Rock Empire records with OBI-strip

This album is definitely a mix of neoclassical and Melodic Metal at it’s finest. Timo Tolkki’s first solo album, Classical Variations And Themes shows signs of classically inspired music, such as Capriccio In A Minor, which is a short interlude if you will, of majestic proportions. It has a very beautiful feel to it, one that is most often aroused when listening to piano inspired classical music a la Tchaikovsky. This is a very worthy purchase for fans of this genre of music. The album is mostly instrumental, with the exceptions of Fire Dance Suite and Soldier’s Prayer. Timo Tolkki’s thick accent is a bit prevalent throughout the two songs, however the correspondence between his vocal style and the melodic guitars, correspond perfectly. This album alternates between faster and slower guitar melodies. For example, Fire Dance Suite, has a faster tempo, which serves as background melody, but only because vocals are involved. Guitar Concerto on the other hand is a slower paced guitar instrumental with, for the most part, simplistic strumming. The correlation between the faster paced tracks and the slower ones is done perfectly and offers a huge amount of variation. Although I, personally, enjoy the faster tracks a bit more, adding the slower tracks certainly did not hinder the album’s overall quality, it only made it stronger. The lyrical tracks are two of the highlights of the album, probably since they offer a bit more variation within the song while, at the same, time adding a lot of variation to the album as a whole. The two songs have fantastic, catchy lyrics that are strengthened by the atmosphere that the music produces. In all fairness, this album is a fantastic illustration of neoclassical influenced Melodic Metal, done right. I strongly recommend this album to fans of classical music, such as Tchaikovsky, fans of the melodic feel of certain Stratovarius albums and fans that enjoy a more delicate listening experience with lots of memorable melodies.

Track listing:
1. Lord Of The Rings
2. Fire Dance Suite
3. Guitar Concerto (From Aranjuez)
4. Northern Lights
5. Capriccio In A Minor
6. Back To The Ice Age
7. Death Of A Swan-from Tchaikovsky`s Swan Lake
8. Soldiers Prayer
9. Flying Samir
10. Sunwinds
11. Greensleeves