The stereotyped equation ‘guitars+pseudosymphonies+female singers=gothic metal” has become so common and trite that even the thought of another record like this provokes spasms. Fortunately, ‘What Lies Beneath’ is far from the standard gothic-symphonic metal releases and Tarja lawfully inherits the crown of a metal queen from the legendary Doro Pesch. Before playing the album for the first time, I instinctively cringed, waiting to be washed away by the next in line operatic-metal nonsense with orchestral pretentiousness and artificial epic. Well, no. After the soft harpsichord introduction and the well-known voice of Tarja Turunen in ‘Anteroom of Death’ in which we also hear the a capella metallers of Van Canto, there comes a powerful metal hurricane. And from there on you can listen to the album with a smile and pleasant surprise. Because the orchestrations present in very sane level and only add vivid colours to a not bad heavy metal record. Yes, heavy metal. ‘What Lies Beneath’ is built up on thick riffs, strong melodies and catchy choruses. The single ‘Until My Last Breath’ catches up straight with its powerful chorus and ‘I Feel Immortal’ shows that Tarja actually can sing gently, without irritating the ear-membranes with her emblematic soprano howl. ‘Little Lies’ surprises with intense guitars; there is much power also in ‘Dark Star’, in which Phil Labonte of All That Remains adds with his voice. Very strong guest list appears in the new album of Tarja. On the strings of the epic ‘Falling Awake’ rages Joe Satriani and for the lead rumble in the low-temp heavyweight of ‘Crimson Deep’ contributes Will Calhoun of the funk metal titans Living Colour. The only recommendation is don’t buy the deluxe edition! The bonus tracks are totally unnecessary and the cover version of ‘Still of the Night’ is frankly awful. ‘What Lies Beneath’ is a fresh breath of air in an otherwise long time drained and tedious style as it combines nice ideas, good melodies and a solid doze of heaviness. The only foible is Tarja herself. Her voice emerges banausic everywhere in the album and it doesn’t manage to bring any surprises while her manner of singing is boring after longer listening. And about Nightwish. Who were those guys?