DARK SARAH – “Behind the black veil”
Behind the black veil
Heidi Parviainen (ex-Amberian Dawn) managed to release the debut album of her new project DARK SARAH by crowdfunding campaigns. She divided her album into three episodes – now it is complete and will be released on May 8th. For “Behind The Black Veil”, Heidi also realised four music videos, which can be viewed below.
Performed like a musical.
To understand the album, it is necessary to know the story behind DARK SARAH. Sarah is a young woman who was left at the altar by her beloved. After that she was shocked and fell into a depression which made DARK SARAH come to life – her evil alter ego. It is like the story of Jekyll & Hyde, but with a happy end.
DARK SARAH plans to take revenge and she decides to poison her ex-fiancé to death. In the third part, her former personality struggles back and Sarah tries to free herself from DARK SARAH. She runs into the forest and finds the silver tree she and her beloved carved hearts on. Sarah stabs a dagger into the heart and the tree starts to bleed – it was the root of all evil. She finds peace in the middle of the night when the moon itself comes down to guide her and Sarah starts her way into a new life.
Although the story is very dramatic, Heidi did not miss to put some funny elements on the album. For example the song ‘Violent Roses’ in which DARK SARAH talks about baking a cake of poisoned apples. There is also a Christmas song as bonus on the album (‘A Grim Christmas Story’), which contains a LOT of humour!
It’s not just music, it’s an experience.
Musically, “Behind The Black Veil” is symphonic metal with a really big influence of theatre/opera. But Heidi’s warm voice is the reason that the album does not become too cold because of all the opera influences. This fact becomes obvious, when she sings a duet with ex-Xandria singer Manuela Kraller (‘Memories Fall’), who has a classical and somehow colder voice. Heidi’s way of singing makes the character of Sarah come to life.
What should not be forgotten to mention are the guests! Not only Manuela Kraller took part on “Behind The Black Veil”. Inga Scharf from Van Canto sings in ‘Evil Roots’ and Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica lends his voice to the moon that comforts Sarah. Guest instrumentalists are Kasperi Heikkinen from U.D.O. and Merging Flare on guitar, Jukka Koskinen from Wintersun on bass and Teemu Laitinen on drums.
Heidi’s beautiful voice is the special touch.
To sum up, DARK SARAH is not only a music project you can listen to, but also an interesting story the listener can follow. Heidi did an amazing job by composing this musical-like album. “Behind The Black Veil” contains many emotions and touches in many ways – you can listen to it again and again and you’ll always discover something new in the music. If you want to give the album a try, listen to ‘Haunting The Dreamer’ and ‘Sun, Moon And Stars’. But the album as a whole is the real experience.
Tracklist:
01. Save Me
02. Poison Apple
03. Hide and Seek
04. Memories Fall
05. Evil Roots
06. Violent Roses
07. Hunting the Dreamer
08. Fortress
09. Silver Tree
10. Sun, Moon and Stars
11. Light in you
12. Sarah’s Theme
13. Memories Fall [orchestral version]
14. A grim Christmas story