Dark Sarah returns with Grim, their fourth release and newest fairy tale told through music! This is a band who has funded all their music through the fan-funded site IndieGoGo (you can order Grim through there as well) and mixes symphonic metal with both elements of different metal genres and cinematic storytelling. The Cast (band members) are as followed:
“Luna” Heidi Parviainen — vocals (2012–present)
“Raven” Sami Salonen — guitars (2014–present)
“Raven” Erkka Korhonen — guitars (2014–present)
“Raven” Thomas Tunkkari — drums (2015–present)
“Raven” Rude Rothstén — bass guitars (2014–present)
They team up together to bring a concept album, but a with a new storyline. Follow Luna and the bunny-eared people, along with some other friends, as they lead you deep into a horror-themed journey! Dark Sarah released a movie trailer for Grim as their first release, and they’re not stopping there.
We start with our theatrical journey with creepy vibes from the intro, “My Name is Luna” – two minutes as Luna is introduced, our protaganist. While the music changes for “The Chosen One”, the lyrics are definitely an extension of “My Name Is Luna”, and throws in different elements from symphonic metal. “Illuminate” delves more into our Moonchild, comparing emotions as natural elements and strongly laced into power metal. This is also the third release of the album.
We only slightly slow down for “Melancholia” – which brings out Heavier aspects of Dark Sarah. Despite picking up speed and sounding pretty energetic, this song is more about a relationship gone wrong. It leads straight into “IceHeart”, which is an explanation of Luna being so cold. Shortest song on the album, but the repetitive lyrics really drive in the pain of the “wound” of the song.
La Folie Vert – we go from Latin in “The Chosen One” to French in the sixth song, “La Folie Vert.” This translates to “The Green Madness”. The mix of lyrics and music bring feelings of ecstacy in an Alice-in-Wonderland way. Halfway in the journey, we are greeted with “The Wolf and The Maiden”, which returns with a familiar actor, JP Leppäluoto as Wolf (previously the Dragon in former albums.) Reminscient of “The Phantom of the Opera”, as the Beast sings about the Maiden, and vice versa. Also happens to be my personal favourite. Continuing on through the night with “The Hex”, which sees our heroes continue the strenous journey. What will happen next?
“All Ears!” was the second release from the album, uniting and calling people of magic-kind to join the coven! According to Heidi: “A powerful spell on the citizens of Grim empowers the protagonist Luna to fight against the evil monster Mörk who is terrorizing the city.” We also get to hear the antagonist (Mörk) in the video/song. From there we travel to “The Devil’s Peak”, which hauntingly packs the power of Heidi’s voice with complementing music. Personally, it sounds to me like a level of Hell no one should go through, or want to travel by. And then we come to the final boss! “Mörk” features Jasse Jatala as Mörk and what a track! Expect energy, franticness to pour from here as Mörk and Luna “face off” (go back and forth) for this epic track. Your heart will be on edge, awaiting to see how this battle goes down! We finish off with “The Dark Throne”, which wraps up the storyline. Or does it? I don’t want to give too much away, but this was the perfect ending to the album. Delicious combination of music and Heidi’s vocals to finish the tale written within.
All in all, I enjoyed listen to Grim on both a musical and fantasy level. Dark Sarah captures their audience through thought-out storylines, variations of modern music with their signature twists, and soothing vocals meshing with highly energetic instruments. Who needs audiobooks when you have this masterpiece in your headphones?
By I’m Music Contributing Writer Bridget Taylor
