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Timo Tolkki - Hymn To Life
During the rest Stratovarius are having to recharge their
batteries (which if you ask me was very necessary at the end), guitarvirtous
Timo Tolkki takes the oppurtunity to release a soloalbum. I guess that for Timo there are pretty much 2 choices
when doing such a thing: either he takes the style of Stratovarius even
further in heaviness, depth, speed and melodies - or he seeks completely
new ways, styles and approaches. Apperantly this album is supposed to be a very personal journey through Tolkki's life expressed through his music, and he spent many months in a small studio/house by the sea in Finland recording this. The ones that have or have heard his first soloalbum Classical Variations and Themes that came back in 1994 - which was a nice one where he showed off his talent, and are expecting a natural follow-up on that one is going to be vastly disappointed. This is very laidback music - I am even hesitating to
place it under the category metal. Very slow, melancholic songs in the
midtempo ballad style. This doesn't really make any sense or have some sort of value to me, and I have a hard time seeing that metalfans as well as people more into the soft sides would like this. Today's guitarpopbands make album way more interesting than this - both when it comes to melodies and grooves. Reading that Hymn to Life has been chosen as the Album of the Month in many magazines worldwide makes me wonder on what criterias they are basing such declarations on, cause in my eyes this album basically doesn't fit anywhere. There are one nice song on this, though - the catchy Now
I Understand, but the rest is basically very dull, under average songs
that neither fail nor stands out, and he also proves that he are able
to produce really horrible songs. This may, as we have been told, very well be a very personal and important project for Timo, but it doesn't carry the slightest bit of commercial value, and neither does it have much musical value. This doesn't do much for us fans of your guitarplaying,
Timo.
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