WISHMASTER

Nightwish

Progressive Metal

3.46 | 179 ratings

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kenethlevine
Special Collaborator
Prog-Folk Team

The good news re "Wishmaster" is that it's proof that NIGHTWISH, up to now, is utterly incapable of making a mediocre album; the bad news is that "Wishmaster" might be as low as they can go.

While this still isn't prog in any capital P sense, they seem to be trying to shoehorn short tracks into this genre, which is the haberdasher's equivalent of custom fitting you for 2 distinct suits in one, rather than actually 2 suits for the price of one. The best and worst example of this is "Wanderlust", a NIGHTWISH classic in the making that flames itself out in pure metal purgatory at the halfway point. Many of the rest don't quite hit enough of the peaks of prior and future releases while still being perfectly listenable, the only exception being the dreary "Kinslayer". Even the performers (including...gasp...Tarja) seem ambivalent, though that's maybe just an invasion of my own bias.

Only "Crownless" and "Dead Boy's Poem" are worthy of the type of approval commonly accorded to a half dozen tracks on the likes of "Oceanborn" or "Endless Forms Most Beautiful". A good album, yes, but not up to the masters' standards. It's all there but it's just a bit flattened and dehusked.

kenethlevine | 3/5 | 2025-1-13

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