Her voice has made Battle Beast as successful as they are, and she elevates every project she guests on. I don't think I'm spoiling too much to say she is the highlight of the upcoming Heart Healer metal opera from stalwart Magnus Karlsson. More interesting than that, however, is this first solo outing from her. With this record, she moves to show her versatility as a singer, and showcase a side of her we might not assme from the roles she is usually given.
Right off the bat, "Eternal Wheel Of Time And Space" is awash in acoustic and slide guitars, with a bluesy tone that gives a modern Woodstock aesthetic to Noora's updated Janis Joplin voice. She sings with rasp and power, always with a tone that sounds like her soul being shredded to pad the notes as they are delivered to our ears. When she belts out the notes at the song's cresendo, it's one of those moments that makes you stop and focus on what you're hearing. It's special.
With softer and more organic songs to sing over, we hear more of Noora's voice here than ever before. The nuances of her delivery come through clearly, and show a singer in complete control of her instrument. She shifts volume, color, and intensity to ride the dynamics of these songs. A one-trick-pony she is not.
On "Piece Of Your Love" Noora asks the subject to "give me one piece of your soul". That's what this record feels like she is doing. I don't mean to stereotype all of metal and harder rock as being incapable of doing that, but there does sound like a more natural connection between art and artist with the classic rock Noora is singing all over this album. We don't know from the outside just how much of herself Noora is showing us, but that doesn't matter, because this sounds like she is opening the door.
If we think of this album as a journey through Noora's life and soul, we get to see the breaks between the chapters. There is the classic rock of the title track, the E-Street burst of sax on "Valkyrie", even some purely 80s groovy soft rock on "New You" and funk on "Sinner On The Floor". As it unfolds, the album is a jukebox of classic sounds for Noora to make her own, which she most certainly does.
This spin through the wheel of time and space probably isn't what peope were expecting, but that's the point of doing something like this. We all know Noora can sing metal and hard rock, so making a solo album doing that wouldn't show us anything new. Noora has taken a risk by making an album like this, but it's a risk that pays off. Not only do we find out about the woman behind the music, but we get to hear more of what she is capable of. Noora is absolutely one of the best voices out there, and this album is a showcase of her varied abilities. It's well worth hearing the world of possibilites open up before us.
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