HIGHEST HOPES - THE BEST OF NIGHTWISH

Although not planned as such, "Highest Hopes" serves as a good summary of the Tarja era of Nightwish. Nightwish's female lead singer with the distinctive voice was of course surprisingly sacked by the band in October 2005.

Nightwish's music is a bit like having KIRI TI KANAWA guest on a RHAPSODY album. They blend operatic vocals with bombastic, symphonic metal. With occasional notable exceptions, they do not tend to make extended pieces or utilise particularly complex structures, but their music is nonetheless exciting and original.

Here we have a CD crammed with many of the band's best, and often most commercial songs. They are not presented chronologically but since, with the exception of their first album "Angels fall first", the tracks on their albums are pretty much interchangeable, this is not an issue.

Opening with the gothic masterpiece "Wish I had an angel", the album weaves its way through bombastic cod operatic pieces ("Stargazers", "Bless the child") and atmospheric power ballads ("Ever dream", Nemo"). The movingly passionate "Sleeping sun" could almost be a Renaissance outtake, with Tarja even sounding like Annie Haslam. I notice in his review of the "Sleeping sun" single, PA member LD4000 informatively advises that the version here is a new (2005) recording, not the "Oceanborn" original.

It is however the cover versions which arguably hold the most interest. The superbly over the top versions of "Phantom of the opera" and "Walking in the air (The snowman)" will already be familiar to those who have the original Nightwish albums. The interpretation of Gary Moore's "Over the hills and far away" from the EP of that name may be less familiar, but it is the cover of Pink Floyd's "High Hopes" which hold most interest. Perhaps significantly, this is the only song on the album Tarja does not sing on. Personally I would rather she had though, as Nightwish and a male vocal are something of an oxymoron. That said, the band transform the song into a storming power ballad. This otherwise unreleased live presentation cuts the song down to 4 minutes by not even attempting to imitate David Gilmour's unique guitar solo.

An excellent introduction to, or summary of, the bands work to this point.

I'm not sure how limited the "limited" edition really is, but it includes a second disc in DVD format with live videos of three songs, only one of which ("The Kinslayer") appears on the audio disc. The others are "She is my sin" and "Dead to the world".

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