Chaos Magic

There aren't many things Timo Tolkki hasn't tried out yet and he has added something completely new to his extensive curriculum vitae with this female-fronted symphonic power metal project around himself, his colleague Jami Huovinen on drums and Chilean singer Caterina Nix on vocals. Chaos Magic's first self-titled effort focuses on modern industrial soundscapes and symphonic layers as backdrop for Caterina Nix's emotional, melodic and soothing vocals. Tolkki plays bass, guitar and keyboard on this record but his most important participation might be as producer and songwriter because this album was made to help Caterina Nix get her international breakthrough and not to offer Timo Tolkki another occasion to show off his unique skills which is quite humble and respectable. If we consider the fact that both artists met by chance years ago and that Tolkki remembered the female rookie vocalist and decided to support her career shows how special this collaboration is.

Sadly, just like so many other of Timo Tolkki's recent outputs, Chaos Magic's debut didn't get much attention or praise. On one side, this is regrettable because Tolkki tried out something completely new, because Caterina Nix is a truly skilled vocalist and because much less talented female-fronted metal bands like Battle Beast, Beyond the Black and Blues Pills get way too much credit. On the other side, while being profesionally crafted with a decent production, one has to admit that Chaos Magic misses a unique touch to really stand out. The record recalls early Within Temptation and mostly focuses on smooth ballads and soothing half ballads with only a few faster and heavier songs at the very beginning and the very end of the record. Chaos Magic is a record that is enjoyable listening to but you won't remember one single song from this output a few days after you have listened to it. Chaos Magic is a decent symphonic metal release but ultimately faceless and comes at least one and a half decades too late to have any significant impact. This type of music has been performed over and over again by bands such as Epica over the past few years and they generally did a better job in a more creative songwriting department.

Fans of Timo Tolkki's regular power metal album don't need to check out Chaos Magic's debut effort because it's very smooth and entirely focused upon Caterina Nix' vocals. If you like smooth symphonic metal with a few minor electronic elements, you should dig this record though. If you have lost or sold your old Within Temptation records but feel nostalgic for some reason, Chaos Magic also offers what you need. If you like female metal singers or aspire to become a singer as well, you could learn a couple of things from this release as well. Chaos Magic is good for what it is, no more, no less.

The advent of Tolkki's 2008 split with Stratovarius has brought about a different nature to said beast, one that is still quite recognizable in a sense, but has shifted from being the driving force behind a singular power metal powerhouse to one of the more prolific solo artists in the style. Granted, only a couple of his recent projects have actually included his name and to many he seems more a session musician and songwriter than a dominant personality, but it is pretty difficult to miss the familiar Stratovarius tinge in his songwriting from Revolution Renaissance up until his recent outing as Magnus Karlsson's replacement in Allen/Lande. In the past few years, his principle focus has been a metal opera project in Timo Tolkki's Avalon, employing various vocalists that was a bit reminiscent of Avantasia in presentation, but musically a bit closer to Timo's signature sound. Chaos Magic is a de facto offshoot of said project, carrying all of the familiar symphonic trappings, but featuring one vocalist and an even more commercially palpable flavor.

Apart from a lack of virtuoso guitar gymnastics and a greater reliance on industrial synthesizer sounds and orchestral texture, this embodies a lot of the same qualities of Avalon's recent and sluggish outing Angels Of The Apocalypse minus the production flaws. It has a meatier guitar sound and even a few isolated spots where the fairly fast offerings of latter day Stratovarius rear their heads, though nowhere near the speeding glory of a "Legions" or a "Father Time". The ethereal soprano of Cati Torrealba, who made a couple of appearances on the last Avalon LP, is all but a perfect knockoff of Sharon Den Adel, which may have explained the latter's absence on said album. She's clearly the main attraction, and while some songs on here cook a bit more than others, the vocals steal the show with the symphonic elements running a somewhat distant second. It has a bit less of a rushed quality overall, though it tends to come off more as an Avalon album and has a very formulaic feel that occasionally comes off as being too safe.

While this album tends to revolve a bit more around the vocals than anything else, there are some noteworthy points of musical contrast that make for a reasonably engaging listen for someone not expecting a rival to 90s Stratovarius. The opening number "I'm Alive" (somewhere a bell for a song title record being broken just rang) is largely a mid-pace rocker that incorporates a heavy amount of symphonic and electronic elements, meshing in some Amaranthe influences alongside Tolkki's usual harmonic cliches, and largely listens like his 2013 breakout Avalon single with Elize Ryd "Enshrined In My Memory", minus the guitar solo. Similar musical stories are told on "One Drop Of Blood" and "A Little Too Late", with varying degrees of symphonic vs. electronic additives. Things take on a bit of a Epica type twist on "Seraphim" and "Passionflow" where the feel is a bit heavier, slower, and leaning a bit heavy on eastern musical influences. But the places where the album actually shines is when Timo finds himself channeling more of his power metal roots and picking up the pace, notably on "Dangerous Game" with it's crunchy shuffling guitar riffs, and especially on the closer "The Point Of No Return" where things revert back to cruising speed indicative of the stronger songs on the Revolution Renaissance debut.

This is a fun album with most of the gimmicks that most have come to expect out of Timo Tolkki's growing array of projects, and it's pretty clear that he is moving away from being a guitar hero to being more of a composer and arranger, which is somewhat frustrating given how much he shined as a soloist in the past and how it would probably complement most of these songs to have just a brief 15 second lead break. But it's pretty obvious that marketing was king when it came to putting this project together, and from a visual standpoint, Timo has scored a winner with a strong female personality at the helm with all the gentle vocal beauty of Sharon Den Adel and the angelic beauty and stature of a Chilean answer to Simone Simmons. It won't win over many new converts in the power metal world as it definitely straddles the divide between pop and metal a bit more overtly than even Amaranthe, but it's well put together and is definitely a step up from Avalon's last outing.