Fair enough. In that case, Endless Forms and Decades should serve you quite well for a while. Should be easy to decide where to go next when the time comes.Originally Posted by Steve983
Fair enough. In that case, Endless Forms and Decades should serve you quite well for a while. Should be easy to decide where to go next when the time comes.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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Just been listening to Dark Passion Play, really liking it.
Excellent album! The Poet And The Pendulum is one of the best tracks they've ever done IMO, and I think they really nailed the feel they were going for with The Islander. Very strong album from beginning to end. Some fans turn their noses up at Bye Bye Beautiful but I really love that one. Sure, it's a bitter song aimed squarely at Tarja, but it's still a great track!
Be sure to check out the b-side tracks from that one as well, like Escapist and While Your Lips Are Still Red.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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So I got Endless Forms yesterday, got the tour edition with the DVD too. I am amazed by this album, it may be called Symphonic Metal but it feels like full on Prog to me. I feel kind of stupid that it took me 3.5 years to discover it! I have the Wembley/Tampere 2 x Blu Ray on its way now too and will order Dark Passion Play soon. I've been trying to like Imaginarium but it seems patchy, Once seems good too on a first listen.
Its funny because I was/am a big fan of Iona and saw Troy with them many times, also Mostly Autumn, but for some reason never really took much notice of Nightwish. Its great to see Troy playing away with his pipes just like he used to do with Dave Bainbridge of Iona.
Once is probably the album I recommend first to anyone curious about Nightwish. It probably needed to be cut by about 2-3 songs, but the material is mostly strong throughout. For someone more inclined toward metal, Wishmaster is the go-to album, in my opinion.
I've warmed up to Endless Forms Most Beautiful, but it was over-arranged with the orchestra and choir. The live versions of these songs were much better without the overproduction.
They are recording a new album in 2019, and I'll be curious to see what Tuomas Holopainen comes up with, now that he has a chance to write an album from scratch for Floor's voice (he had already mostly written the previous album when Floor joined).
The epic track certainly pushes it into the "Prog" territory, even more so than past epics have IMO.
Dark Passion Play is a must! Imaginaerum doesn't quite hit those heights, I agree, but it does begin beautifully with the Marco-sung Taikatalvi flowing into Storytime (with one of the most perfect choruses Tuomas has ever come up with IMO). I Want My Tears Back is another killer track! The rest are of varying quality, and I think they missed the mark a bit with Slow, Love, Slow. As for Once, it's one of the strongest from the Tarja days, although I feel it should have ended with Ghost Love Score. The remaining two tracks seem anticlimactic. There are a few good b-sides from that album as well.
Wishmaster rivals Once as strongest Tarja-era for me. For one thing, it contains Dead Boy's Poem, possibly the quintessential Nightwish track. But the album is almost all classics from beginning to end! Very, very strong. In my top three for sure. That was also the first time I ever heard of the band, even though I didn't latch on at the time (judging a book by its cover, sadly). This was a really interesting period to read about in the biography as well.
In my initial obsession with the band, I bought a few unnecessary compilations as well, just for fun, or because I liked the cover. One such was Tales From The Elvenpath, which if you can find it cheaply, serves as a decent Tarja-era collection, with a few rarer tracks from the period tossed in for good measure. Doesn't have Deep Silent Complete though, which is a favourite of mine. Tuomas hates this album cover BTW, but I love it! Haha..
Re: choir on Endless Forms Most Beautiful - I semi-agree: I think it worked beautifully on The Greatest Show On Earth, but perhaps could have been left off of the others. Oddly enough, one of the bonus discs that came with the big deluxe set I bought has orchestral-only versions of these songs, and they sound pretty good. But combined with the band, perhaps "a bit busy", as Mike Rutherford would say.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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When I watched the video of the Tampere show the other day, I was struck by how much the songwriting in Nightwish has really evolved since Oceanborn and Wishmaster. As much as I enjoy the latter, songs like "Greatest Show on Earth" are on a whole different level. They've evolved into a much more progressive beast now, despite still having metal trappings.
The advantage that Tuomas has now is that Floor Jansen can credibly sing anything he can come up with, where that wasn't the case with either Tarja or Anette.
I thought from a writing POV that Dark Passion Play was the best they have done in years. I’d like to hear Floor’s vocals with that material.
Well you can definitely hear her on official live versions of The Poet And The Pendulum, Amaranth, The Islander (mostly Marco, of course) and 7 Days To The Wolves... I believe that's it so far, unless you can find some others on YouTube that I'm unaware of. Maybe they will pull out a deeper cut on the next tour - I know it won't be Bye Bye Beautiful though, as Tuomas has said that he does not feel comfortable performing that one anymore.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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Here's a great video of them performing Sahara with Floor in Tampa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTvYfLa4Wlk
Not that into Nightwish although I think the stepped up massively once Floor joined.
Might as wel be a good place to point people to the stunning Auri album, a band formed by Tomas and his wife and Troy as an outlet for more atmospheric music. Musically there is a lot of connection with Troy's solo output (where he merges folk with classical influences). Also Iona drummer Frank van Essen contributed all the drums and string parts:
And why not, another Auri track (and possibly the prettiest song I have heard in 2018) with Troy providing lead vocals as well:"
Yep, the one reason I really can't stand most DT is the histeric male vocals. I recently discover this band (see below) and this made me realise that Iron Maiden would have been better with female vocals as well:
^ Thanks for the videos guys, will check them out, Auri is now on my radar too.
Auri is a nice album, particularly the second half. I even included it in my top 10 of 2018! I also mentioned earlier that Tuomas' solo album is fantastic, up there with some of the best Nightwish stuff. It's a strange choice for a concept, but the music is excellent IMO.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 4 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
I changed my mind about getting Decades, I'm rarely a fan of anthologies anyway. I went into town, into HMV (for the last time?) and picked up two Nightwish cd's for £10, namely Once and Dark Passion Play and then spent most of the afternoon listening to them! I don't like everything but I do like most of what I'm hearing. It's good to listen to the studio version of Ghost Love Score while being able to read the lyrics, OMG that song blows me away every time I hear it. I really love Amaranth too, Tuomas is such a great songwriter, haven't felt like this about a band for ages
I liked Targja but damn, Floor is on an entirely different level
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Saw a set by them at a festival in Sweden in 2013. Fantastic band. Much better vocally after Tarja left, she was far too high and operatic. That said, I prefer Avatarium, Therion, Within Temptation, Leave's Eyes, Lacuna Coil and Theatere of Tragedy and of course the mistress of all such bands The Gathering. The thing that immediately appealed to me with The Gathering was the way they sounded like a goth metal version of All About Eve and Inkubus Sukkubus.
The odd thing is that Tarja was only the singer for what about 7-8 years? Left in 2005, that was 13 years ago. It happens with all bands no matter how short the service of the original singer, drummer, guitarist etc. Comparisons will always be made. Mikey Dee, said that until the day Lemmy died he was always considered "the new boy"
Of those that you mention I have seen Lacuna Coil and The Gathering live (actually at the same show as The Gathering opened for Lacuna Coil). it is really hard to say who is the best vocalists. They are all great in their own way and fantastic front women.
Anneke is my favourite. She just has the voice that I like the most. And I love the way she sounds harmonizing with herself on studio recordings. Her performance on the Gentle Storm album is particularly strong!
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 4 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
I agree 100%.
Anneke is amazing, although I saw The Gathering on their last tour with her and the material was significantly mellowed out by then. Lacuna Coil and Nightwish were definitely more metal oriented than what I saw Anneke perform, so it is kind of hard to compare from a live perspective. The Gathering did a relatively short set as well compared to the other two.
Oh yeah!
That's also down to the fact that that's the period when most of a band's classic material is made. I'm not sure how it is with Nightwish but I'm guessing the Tarja-era albums make up quite a significant portion of their setlists.The odd thing is that Tarja was only the singer for what about 7-8 years? Left in 2005, that was 13 years ago. It happens with all bands no matter how short the service of the original singer, drummer, guitarist etc. Comparisons will always be made. Mikey Dee, said that until the day Lemmy died he was always considered "the new boy"
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