Auri is the eagerly anticipated, eponymous debut album from the new side project of Nightwish members Tuomas Holopainen and Troy Donockley. The inclusion of Holopainen's wife Johanna Kurkela makes this the same team that worked on his debut solo album,
The Life and Times of Scrooge, but while that album retained much of the bombast of his day job, this is a much more subdued and atmospheric affair. Heavily influenced by Donockley's folk background, it is inspired at least in part by Patrick Rothfuss' popular fantasy novel series The Kingkiller Chronicle. ~ John D. Buchanan