Timo Tolkki - Saana - Warrior Of Light, Part I (2008) - A hypnotizing record to calm down to - 70% (04/12/11)

Timo Tolkki is and has always been an exceptional musician that has many different musical sides in him. He's well known for his power metal records with Stratovarius, Revolution Renaissance and Symfonia. In the early years of Stratovarius we have even seen a far more interesting side of his music with a more progressive approach where Tolkki proved that he is not only a very gifted guitar player but an amazing singer as well. Tolkki used his solo records to experiment a lot, often with hints towards classic music and collaborations. When Tolkki can break free and do what he wants, you shouldn't expect an ordinary power metal record.

The unfairly bashed and misunderstood "Saana - Warrior Of Light - Part I: Journey To Crystal Island" is probably the most courageous experiment Timo Tolkki has ever done. I admit that this album isn't easy to approach and must sound quite unusual to the majority of the metal fans.

This album focuses on chilling keyboard passages and almost uses no electric guitars. Tolkki invited different guest singers, female and male ones to perform different characters in this conceptual record. The singers all have different kind of voices and even though they are rather unknown, they are quite gifted and give an emotional and unique touch to the record that mixes New Age approaches with ambient music and some classic influences. The album has some symphonic touches and a few climaxes next to many calm passages. The bombastic final double pack "Warrior Of Light" and "Journey To The Azores" could please to a larger fan basis but the rest is calm, slow paced and very particular. A big part of the short record is purely instrumental and invites to dream and relax.

Some parts lack of diversity and sound monotonous but that's exactly the effect Tolkki wanted to created. This album is peaceful, meditative and inspiring. It's a great and hypnotizing record to calm down to. It's not a masterpiece, it's not as unique as Tolkki pretends it to be and it's surely not an album I could listen to every week. But it's a special record for special occasion and despite its monotonous flaws and mediocre sound quality a quite enjoyable album for open-minded fans of New Age music.