DARK SARAH – “The Golden Moth”
Four years ago, Heidi Parviainen started a musical journey hand in hand with the fictional character Dark Sarah, the protagonist of the stories told in this music project. Back in 2014, Heidi told us about its beginnings and the inspiration for these stories in an interview about DARK SARAH at Metal Female Voices Fest. The adventures of DARK SARAH continue in this third concept album following a woman called Sarah and her evil half on a mystical journey through three worlds.
The first part of the trilogy was the 2015-album “Behind The Black Veil” that plays in “Middle World”, where the humans live – which sounds very much like Midgård, the mortal world in Norse mythology. “The Puzzle” came out a year later – with JP Leppäluoto‘s first appearance as The Dragon – taking place in “The Underworld”, which is inhabited by banished souls. The mythological realms of the project are now completed by “The Upper World”, where the Gods rule in “The Golden Moth”.
With JP Leppäluoto as an official member of the project, DARK SARAH‘s line-up is complete as follows:
- Heidi Parviainen (as Dark Sarah) – vocals
- JP Leppäluoto (as Dragon) – vocals
- Erkka Korhonen – guitar
- Sami Salonen – guitar
- Rude Rothstén – bass
- Thomas Tunkkari – drums
“The Golden Moth” is the Disney-ending for the music of DARK SARAH:
The evolution of DARK SARAH is noticeable in sound and visuals – not only the music has reached a peak, but the album covers have also improved in quality. The first single and the catchiest song on the album hits us right at the beginning. ‘Trespasser’ is strong and has a lot of sing-along-potential. It also brings back the “Tango” dynamic that we could hear in ‘Dance With The Dragon’ from the second album, “The Puzzle”. ‘Wheel’ is quite standard Symphonic Metal, with a catchy chorus but it’s ‘My Beautiful Enemy’ that has a very distinct Disney Princess flavor – a sweet duet with JP‘s clean vocals give it even more of a happy fantasy nature.
Leppäluoto‘s raspy and raw vocals are a wonderful contrast to Heidi‘s pure and delicate singing. This is most noticeable in ‘I Once Had Wings’, with music accentuating the playfulness of The Dragon’s verses contrary to Dark Sarah’s laboriously pristine performance. ‘Pirates’ is playful and theatrical with a fun speaking dialog between both characters, a conversation goes on in a romantic duet during ‘Sky Sailing’ – another triumphant sounding track fit for a Disney princess.
We stay in the realms of romantic animated movies while listening to ‘Wish’, a song with spoken parts in which Heidi‘s voice acting reminds me of Dianne van Giersbergen’s in some songs from XANDRIA’s “Theater Of Dimensions”, only much better. Another single of the album, ‘The Gods Speak’, has a DELAIN-touch in the intro and is a dream collaboration with splendid guest vocalists Zuberoa Aznarez from DIABULUS IN MUSICA and NIGHWISH’s Marco Hietala. The title track, ‘The Golden Moth’, is a cinematic ballad with Dubstep influences, a balanced crossover between classical and electronic music, bringing back sounds from the whole trilogy as if to summarize Dark Sarah’s adventures that end – not so happily – with ‘The Gate Of Time’.
I really like “The Golden Moth” and would recommend it to any fan of Symphonic Metal. It is admittedly no album that one can just listen to while doing something else. It requires concentration, even better if you can completely immerse in the story by reading the lyrics along – or maybe even singing them since almost all songs invite to sing along. The dialogues are full of humor, with a sassy Dragon throwing shade at Dark Sarah with phrases like “You’re so annoying!” or “You’re such a show-off”. It feels a lot like a heavy radio drama.
Order DARK SARAH’s third album “The Golden Moth” from EMP in Germany.
DARK SARAH – “The Golden Moth” Tracklist:
- Desert Rose
- Trespasser
- Wheel
- My Beautiful Enemy
- I Once Had Wings
- Pirates
- Sky Sailing
- Wish
- The Gods Speak (feat. Marco Hietala & Zuberoa Aznarez)
- Promise
- Golden Moth
- The Gate Of Time
Are you a DARK SARAH-fan? Are you looking forward to “The Golden Moth”? Tell us in the comments and share this article!