Nightwish - Century Child
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Free Music Notes for Century Child
Free Music Review: Share with me your poem
Hit: 5 Stars
One thing I love about Nightwish's music is that from the first seconds of the opening track you're entranced, you're on a ride, you're hearing something original. When I first got into Nightwish I regarded Once as their best CD, but while going back and listening to each of the CDs I own of theirs, I've come to the conclusion that Century Child has taken the reigns as my favorite offering from Nightwish. Each release tends to have the same feel with gorgeous use of strings, great melodies, and some of the best vocals you'll ever hear. But for me Century Child perfected those trademarks. Some songs have a rather corny feel to them, such as Dead To The World's techno-ish feel to it in the opening, but irregardless, this is amazing music.
Bless The Child was a good way to start, there's everything you'd expect a Nightwish track to have in it, and it never once loses your attention. Dead To The World is definitely a solid track with very good male vocals. I might add that often male vocals aren't good when contrasting female vocals in a metal band, but Nightwish nabbed themselves a good singer. I'm not saying that it won't take time to come to like it, but it's not nearly as annoying as some bands male counterparts. I like Slaying The Dreamer mainly for the excellent guitar parts. The verses have a great flow to them but the best part of this song is the awesome beat at the 2:35 mark, the male part is insanely catchy too, so I have no complaints for that. Forever Yours was the first ballad-esque song I ever heard by Nightwish and it's held up as my personal favorite. Tarja has a great voice and if you have any doubts, this song is sure to change your mind. One of the best songs included on here is probably Nightwish's rendition of The Phantom Of The Opera. This is the song where you really get to hear how well the female/male dynamic works when it's used. Beauty Of The Beast is probably the best song offered. The way the verses and choruses are presented is amazing, the music is nothing short of gorgeous, and I need not evaluate Tarja's performance. I like how it plays as a three part song, the second part being my favorite.
My favorite songs are Bless The Child, Slaying The Dreamer, Forever Yours, The Phantom Of The Opera, and Beauty Of The Beast. One thing you're sure to notice after listening to any Nightwish CD is that every single song is a masterpiece, and when you listen to the entire CD all the way through you're bound to notice that the music is epic in every way. I once thought the only good dynamic to this band was Tarja's vocals, but after listening to their CDs I realize that the entire band makes this music what it is. Make no mistake, this release isn't for everyone. Your average rockers will, no doubt, despise bands like this, and your so-called 'lovers of all genres' probably have already dismissed Nightwish. So go in with an open mind and you just might come out a fan.
Free Music Review: Legacies of Nightwish's Variation
Hit: 5 Stars
Many Nightwish fans appear to be split on the album, either loving it or disliking it. I welcome the difference in style that this album has, adopting a more operatic atmosphere with a more epic score in mind (a precursor to their bombastic album Once, which is an album unlike any other out there in scope). However, for those who have mentioned otherwise, Nightwish sounds nothing like the bands mentioned - Dream Theater, Symphony X, Tristania, After Forever, and such could only dream of sounding as good as Nightwish does on this album. The only band that could be considered close in sound to Nightwish is Within Temptation, and that band is also very talented in its own right.
As for the songs themselves, the album kicks off with Bless the Child, a nice atmospheric opener. The album quickly picks up though with End of All Hope, which catches the ear quickly, and Dead to the World. However, the fourth track is a bombshell that will catch your attention from the beginning - Ever Dream is easily one of Nightwish's best songs ever, and a great love song with its increasing intensity. Slaying the Dreamer is a nice one too, but is quickly followed by another good love song, Forever Yours. Ocean Soul puts the atmospheric style to work with creating a yearning for the sea. Feel For You is excellent though, borrowing a little from the melody of some songs from the musical Les Miserables. The tributing of musicals goes on with the cover of the song The Phantom of the Opera, which does the original justice. The final track, Beauty of the Beast, is a cover medley of 3 songs from the musical, and while I haven't heard the original songs, I do enjoy this medley greatly.
In short, this album should definitely NOT be dismissed as a mediocre Nightwish album. It contains songs unique to it that can easily captivate listeners as some of their other efforts, and definitely more than most albums out there. For those who like this effort by Nightwish would surely enjoy the Within Temptation albums Mother Earth and The Silent Force, and I recommend fans pick those up as well (WT is a goth metal band featuring a soprano, Sharon den Aron).
Free Music Review: An album for the century...
Hit: 5 Stars
I cannot believe the negative things I have heard about Century Child. A band decides they don't want to do the same thing over and over again and all of a sudden they're being blasphemed? What is everyone's problem? AAAAGGHHHHH!!!
Sorry, just needed to let my frustration out. Anyways, here we have it, Nightwish's fourth masterpiece. And a masterpiece it is. I consider Century Child to be one of Nightwish's best works so far (my second favorite actually, just under Oceanborn which was slightly more diverse). Rather than cloning 2000's Wishmaster (which in my honest opinion fell a bit flat), the band decided to lessen the use of Tarja's high-pitched singing, slow down their songs to a more laid-back tempo, and just continue to do what they do best: make beautiful music.
Personally, I prefer Tarja's "clean" singing over the operatic alternative - both are great, and contrast each other well, but there's something about her calmer vocals that really send chills down my spine. Tuomas Holopainen, mastermind and keyboardist behind Nightwish, once again strikes gold with his newest collection of songs. New member Marco Hietala (ex-Sinergy/Tarot) camouflages himself into the band quite well, adding some bass lines that pack a punch and some decent vocals too. Emppu slows things down a bit, offering heavier riffs, that aren't quite downtuned, but considerably close. His work on "Slaying the Dreamer" eerily reminds me of Metallica. Of course, Jukka's always been an excellent drummer, and here he's no different.
Highlights for me include the beautiful opener "Bless the Child", the fast 'n' heavy "End of All Hope", the beautiful single "Ever Dream", the tender ballad "Forever Yours", the catchy-as-hell "Ocean Soul" and the epic cover of "the Phantom of the Opera".
Just a great album. Buy it if you have any musical taste whatsoever - you'll love it!
10/10
Free Music Review: Best band ever
Hit: 5 Stars
I thought I would leave a better review of this album. Well here it goes. First thing is frist do not compere this group to any other band such as Epica, After Forever, etc. I like those bands. But what Nightwish does is something that you will never see any other band be able to do. They can do it all. Just look at all five of there CD's. Along with Over the Hills and Far Away.Now on to Century Child
1. Bless The Child: Starts of a little slow but gets very heavy. Nightwish always start off big. So way change it know. 5/5
2. End Of All Hope: From one heavy song into another. This has a really good Guitar playing by Emppu. 5/5
3. Dead To The World: Ok this is different for Nightwish. It sounds like any 80's metal song. But I really like how they used Marco's voice. 5/5
4. Ever Dream: It starts off slow then it gets somewhat fast also again a great use of Marco's voice. 5/5
5. Slaying The Dreamer: If you are one of those people who think that Nightwish is just some goth band and are not heavy please play this song. This is very heavy and Marco shows that he can use a clean voice and growls. 5/5
6. Forever Yours: A very slow song. But I will say that it is one of the things Nightwish always dose. Tarja dose really good here to. 5/5
7. Ocean Soul: I really love this song. I love the way Tarja is heard more in this then having guitar solos. 5/5
8. Feel For You: It's hard to really say what this song is like. But I like it. 5/5
9. The Phantom Of The Opera: Ok other metal bands may have done this song. But if you are going to do it damit do it right. That's what Nightwish did. 5/5
10. Beauty Of The Beast: A 10 minute song hmmmmmmmm. Well it's good for being ten mintues. The longets Nightwish has got a song so far. 5/5
CC like the rest of there albums are beyond words. They add so many different things into there music. I can't want to have Once so that I can hear more of there great music.
Free Music Review: Another Great CD by Nightwish
Hit: 5 Stars
Century Child marks the beginning of a change of sound for Nightwish. After (and in) this album, they start to focus more on the symphonic sounds, rather than the power-metal qualities their prievious albums had.
Of course, for people like me, this is a great change. While Nightwish were great with power metal, they are epic with their symphonic metal qualities.
The first four songs still retain some of the power metal sounds, but they do show the transition between the two styles.
Then the fifth song, "Slaying the Dreamer" is a really fast paced, angry sounding song, especially in the latter half, but it still sounds great, and is one of my favourite songs on the album.
"Forever Yours" is the only song on the album that is slow all the way through, but it sounds really beautiful, as all of Nightwish's slow songs tend to do.
"Ocean Soul" and "Feel For You" are two good songs, but I think almost all the other songs overshadow them.
Then Nightwish does a cover of "Phantom of the Opera" by Andrew Lloyd Webber. This is my favourite song on the album, and it really is great. People who are used to hearing the original version of this song may be thrown off by Marco's gravelly version of the Phantom, but you should be able to get over it rather quickly.
Finally, the most epic song on Century Child, "Beauty of the Beast." It really is a masterpiece in pretty much any way one looks at it. It's also a great way to end the album, with a ten-and-a-half-minute-long epic.
Overall, this is a great album, although I personally like their next album, Once, a lot more. If you like Once or Dark Passion Play, you'll most likely like this album too. The reverse is true too, if you like this, then you'll probably like Once and Dark Passion Play.