OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY

I am actually surpised that this album (EP?) has as high average rating as it does. This is, in all honesty a weak effort. I bought this after being amazed at the title track on the gobsmackingly good live album 'End of an Era'. Unfortunately the rest of this music isn't up this standard.

The musicianship of Nightwish is decent, but nothing to write home about. Tarja's voice of course is the band's defining feature, being far better than any of the other female-fronted gothic metal bands that followed in their footsteps.

The first track is the title track, a cover of a Gary Moore song. I have not heard the original, but this version is brilliant, unlike the rest of this EP. Next up is the memorable, but not too good '10th Man Down'. Pretty mundane by Nightwish's standards. Then there's another good song, 'Away'. A quite beautiful ballad, but they have exceeded themselves in writing songs in this vein many times. Last of the studio tracks is 'Astral Romance', a very forgettable track, which I can't remember enough about it to comment on...

Then there's the live tracks. These are decent but unnecessary. Highlights include 'She is my Sin' and 'Wishmaster'. Also there is a cover of the song 'Walking in the Air' which is rather beautiful, but more of a novelty than anything really.

All in all this is not worth investing money in as most of the tracks can be found in better versions elsewhere.