NIGHTWISH

After a slow and steady upwards trajectory over the course of three releases, it seems that with 2002's 'Century Child', their fourth studio album, Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish have refined their sound, and taken a huge step up in both critical and commercial success.

Treading the thin line between power metal and symphonic metal, the band have really hit their stride with this album, sounding more inspired and more confident than ever. With a strong emphasis on the symphonic and operatic elements, as well as additional male vocals to compliment Tarja Turunen's voice, 'Century Child' has a much more well-rounded sound than its predecessors.

With great instrumental performances and an excellent production that really gives the music a rich, vibrant sound, there really aren't many faults with this release, other than a couple of filler tracks, it's all pretty stellar.

And with some absolute bangers such as 'Dead to the World', 'End of All Hope', 'Bless the Child', 'Slaying the Dreamer', the underrated 'Feel For You' and the obligatory symphonic metal band cover of 'The Phantom of the Opera', 'Century Child' displays a band who have really established themselves as one of the top bands of their genre, and is an album that belongs in every metal fans collection.

Released in 2000, 'Wishmaster' is the third album by Finnish symphonic metal band, Nightwish. It comes two years after its predecessor, 'Oceanborn', and pretty much continues in the same vein. At this point the band was just beginning to break into the mainstream, and it's easy to see that the strength and quality of their writing was garnering them a bigger and better reputation with metal fans.

The musicianship on this album is fantastic, with particular praise going to keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen and guitarist Emppu Vuorinen. The chemistry between these two is exceptional, with plenty of intense guitar riffs and a flurry of complex keyboard melodies blending together with ease. And amidst it all, singer Tarja Turenen's operatic vocals suit the style of music perfectly.

'The Kinslayer', 'She is My Sin' and the title track, 'Wishmaster', are all absolutely fantastic songs, and could easily rate as some of my Nightwish favourites, and the rest of the album is filled out nicely with the likes of 'Crownless', 'Fantasmic' and 'Wanderlust'. Other than one or two fillers, the album flows effortlessly.

Overall, this is a strong follow-up to 'Oceanborn', and a step in the right direction for the band, and although it may not be Nightwish's best album, there's some very strong tracks that make this an album worth owning.

Following is a list of concrete improvements over the previous "Wishmaster": addition of a superior vocalist Marco Hietala as new bassist, who stayed 15 years and helped take NIGHTWISH to the next level. Unfortunately not yet. Patience.

So, yeah, even Hietala doesn't add much this time around, other some growls in the abysmal "Slaying the Dreamer". "Century Child" presages the future lean into prog only in the length of the uneven closer Beauty and the Beast", but it's no "Creek Mary's Blood" I'll tell you. This is almost worse than "Wishmaster" in the sense that the bombast is barely modulated for long stretches, but is saved by the nearly AOR "Dead to the World" even though my first reaction was to gaze overseas towards ASIA with judgemental dread, "Ever Dream" with a blueprint for the future vocalists' ballads, and the ridiculous yet fantastical "Phantom of the Opera", which I'd say does elevate this child to a higher level, if still squarely in the 3 star camp in which NIGHTWISH ended one millenium and began another. Luckily even more pronounced improvements were in the works, thanks Marco!

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.

Apart from the lack of flagrant prog here (that would come later), "Oceanborn" imprints the NIGHTWISH sound in a way that their debut did not. This is far more bombastic than "Angels Fall First"; it's their first romp, the first where they are clearly having fun and want to pound that fun into us. It even kicks off the tendency to start slow. After all one doesn't lead off with the crescendo else where would one go from there? The opener is fine but compared to the sequence that begins with Tarja's vocalise in "Passion and the Opera" and ends with "Sleeping Sun" via the Cossack thriller "Moondance" and the spine tingling "Walking in the Air" , it's nothing but a warmup act. Yes at times the assault is a challenge to these delicate wizened ears but well worth it in this NIGHTWISH rebirth.

When the early acoustic demo went nowhere commercially, the core of NIGHTWISH dusted themselves off and decided to try one more time, adding drummer Jukka Nevalainen and allowing Emppu Vuorinen to get an electric guitar, which they hopefully paid for. The result is the embryonic NIGHTWISH album, a glance back to the originally conceived folk route and a tentative push towards the overwrought symphonic metal that would propel them to worldwide stardom. As a result, it's not entirely satisfying, with a multitude of decent ideas that coalesce into only a few superb tracks and a gaggle of "nice enough" numbers that don't quite gel. For instance, while "The Carpenter" and the title track are exhilarating, "Tutenkhamen" and "Beauty and the Beast" would have been more searing and seething in the hands of a more mature group. Even the at times gorgeous suite "Lappi" never quite matches its first couple of parts in the later stages, apart from about a half minute of virtuosic acoustic guitar. This is still a keystone in the band's development but it's just not devilishly fun enough for me.

Given the ever present if sometimes suppressed folk interests of Tuomas Holopainen, it shouldn't be a total surprise that he originally conceived NIGHTWISH as an acoustic formation. This demo is their only recording conceived completely in that mode before drums, bass and electric guitars were added within the year.

From the start, Tarja's crystalline operatic voice infuses a sophistication to these gentle pieces played mostly on acoustic guitar and piano, with guest flute. Nonetheless, it's unmistakably ethereal folk in the vein of, say, LOREENA MCKENNITT, later CORDE OBLIQUE, and just as hypnotic, progressing through the subsequent two tracks. The last was reprised as part of the "Lappi" epic on "Angels Fall First", the first album proper.

A demonstration of an immense and budding talent, this offers a glimpse into an alternative future, though I'd guess if you are reading this review that you are more than satisfied with the timeline that unfolded, thank you.

The title of the latest NIGHTWISH effort is a neologism, a combined concoction of Tuomas Holopainen and Troy Donockley, representing the main theme of looking at the past for one's present identity. While easily identifiable, It's noticeably more intense than usual even for NIGHTWISH, whose albums usually come off like off Broadway symphonic metal singalong scores, and I do mean that affectionately. Even when the subject matter is solemn, as say in "Endless Forms most Beautiful", it is generally offset by a carefree romp or three. I miss the old NIGHTWISH already, though that might have more to do with the absence of long time lead vocalist Marco Hietala, for whom the aforementioned Donockley tries valiantly to substitute. Luckily Floor is around to support the bulk of the singing, and she and Troy do harmonize well.

After the brief stage setting of the title track, the next couple of tunes suffer from wild mood swings from heavy metal to kilt-clad, which serves neither well, though "the Antikythera Mechanism" recovers enough to set the stage for the core of the album. "The Day of...", the single "Perfume of the Timeless", the tender ballad "Sway", and the Tongan inspired "The Children of 'Ata" (including the participation of a Tongan choir) form a formidable foursome. Unfortunately, after this only Donockley's "Hiraeth" can aspire to those levels.

MInor gripes notwithstanding, their legions of fans will find much to enjoy here, even if I wouldn't recommend "Yesterwynde" as an entry point. In fact, I'd say it's their weakest since "Dark Passion Play", but not by that much.

1. Yesterwynde for the ideal solemn intro, intense, sovereign; orchestral surrounded by choirs on a used lyrical crescendo 2. An Ocean of Strange Islands which continues with the machine gun after the short intro; symphonic metal, keyboards galore, a warlike rhythm, it twirls everywhere, it's good ... and it's agreed with the voices, the string instruments sampled by Tuomas, the guitar riff; the aerial break with Floor who tries delicacy for a while; it's good but it sounds a lot like EPICA, WITHIN TEMPTATION which themselves sound like NIGHTWISH; the hard riff before Troy's folk-type flute for the progressive outro, soundtrack of an Irish elf film 3. The Antikythera Mechanism follows, more pompous, grandiloquent with a phrased song, Floor in voluptuous jerks; the volleys of violins as a highlight; EPICA again when they were just the little thumbs, a symphonic air with the break battle and the heavy riffs that cut, the violins that tear the air for the grandiloquent final rise, yes it will often be the case 4. The Day of... with the folkloric electro pop rock title with the choir of the little children of wood or another 5. Perfume of the Timeless for the tribal pads on a forest of violins or the cinematic haunting intro, and choirs that rain down from everywhere; the song starts and you will have to be reminded of it on an encore repetita phonetically interesting but cruelly consensual, mantranic. Floor seems alone since Marco left and it is not the burning heavy symphonic moments otherwise perfect that will move because of the repetition for this title, excellent but! 6. Sway for the bucolic folk nursery rhyme ballad with a vocal duet Floor and Troy on an acoustic, to be taken as an interlude

7. The Children of 'Ata with the choir coming from Tonga there; Floor speaks more than she sings on this true story, the sound, the prog blood is in place with the cries and tribal flights 8. Something Whispered Follow Me with a heavy tempo, a piece that stands out with latent synth, Floor reminds me of AMBEON then WITHIN TEMPTATION; it's beautiful like this contemplative break, taking before hearing Floor fly away; pleasant piece that doesn't do the easy, my favorite 9. Spider Silk piano and western slide guitar as an intro launching Floor for the redundant title, getting closer to Annette's titles, much more pop rock. The crystalline piano outro 10. Hiraeth, missing in Welsh for the singing in the local language, more glacial and solemn nursery rhyme; rise halfway through with the return of Troy's keyboards and uilleann pipes bringing the folk procession 11. The Weave returns to the destructive wave of the group printing choirs, fat riff and grandiloquent rise for a debauchery of overly predictable sounds; the choirs very forward, EPICA did that on its first album; shivering outro 12. Lanternlight concludes this chapter which had started 2 albums ago; a triptych with a syrupy melody with proven spleen, piano and flutes in the distance. Origine on Planète prog.(3.5)

The album starts of amazingly, with some of Nightwish's best work to date; then Troy is put on vocals and I'm just like "ugh." Come on, Tuomas, he's a terrible vocalist.

Mastering is a little overdone, but is forgivable, and mixing feels off, as well. I'll give 'em props for the progressive/experimental nature of the album; probably their most progressive album to date. Will require more listens to garner more appreciation here, and if not for the less than satisfactory engineering work, it'd probably be a grower. Not a fan of the synthy/80s poppish moments ("The Day of..." was a, erm, failed experiment imo).

Also what's with the repetition of "we are" in some of the songs' lyrics... lol it sounds like a Penn State advertisement.

Overall a considerable improvement over Human:||:Nature as it is much more consistent (and has more DR, I think), and in some ways better than Endless Forms Most Beautiful, as it is more ambitious (and bombastic, like their earlier work), but lacks the concise refinement that made EFMB masterful imo. Goes a little too far into left field for me, but at least it doesn't have the "kumbaya" moments of their previous album...

"An Ocean of Strange Islands" is kind of by a long shot the best song on the album and probably of Jansen-era thus far. It's not even close, how much better than the rest of the album it is. "Something Whispered Follow Me" is probably Nightwish's first dive into proper prog metal, too, and it's quite good (kind of has some Opethian vibes imo).

Upon second listen, ig my other major complaint would be that the symphonics here really sound bad, like MIDI. It doesn't feel organic like on the previous 2 albums...