TARJA – Dark Christmas

The beautifully packaged Dark Christmas by Finnish sensation Tarja Turunen is undoubtedly one of the more interesting winter/Christmas-themed outputs that I have ever heard or come across thanks to its rather creative arrangements and great ideas. In addition, the way in which everyone involved in the endeavor has colored the tone and aura of the chilling compositions – be that the grand orchestra that has been utilized, the children’s choir, or the musicians and producers for that matter – is admirable. The ensemble has adapted and interpreted these eleven well-known Christmas tunes in a highly engaging and positively surprising manner, which entails that the majority of them sound like a natural fit to Tarja’s symphonic goth-flavored style of orchestrated music. The most accomplished and haunting ones include ‘The First Noel’, ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘Frosty the Showman’, ‘Last Christmas’, and the self-penned and exclusive title track, and the collection is generally a very solid one.

Dark Christmas is obviously not something that you would necessarily find yourself in the mood for outside of December, so make sure you give it a whirl during this festive season should you require a sense of grandeur and melancholy.