Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
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Free Music Notes for Dark Passion Play
Free Music Review: Missed opportunity
Hit: 3 Stars
I want to start by saying that I'm not a huge Tarja fan. She's talented enough, but for my money there are plenty of other female vocalists out there who are as good if not better than the ousted diva. It's a shame Nightwish couldn't have picked one of them to be their new vocalist after their much publicized split with Tarja. When you have what is arguably the biggest female fronted metal band in the world, you should have your pick of great singers. I'm stunned that Annette Olzon is the best they could come up with. I'm sure she's a perfectly lovely person, and I could care less that she doesn't do the whole operatic thing (which can get on my nerves after a while), but the sad fact is she's just not suited for this type of music and is way out of her league here. If Lullacry needs a new singer, I'm sure she'd be a great replacement, but this is Nightwish, people!
What makes this even more of a shame is that musically Dark Passion Play is probably the absolute best album the band has written. I was impressed with Once, but the songwriting and symphonic arrangements on this album are simply awe-inspiring. This is epic metal on par with Therion. With any other vocalist - Tarja, Floor from After Forever, Simone from Epica - this would have been Nightwish's greatest achievement. Even a male singer would have worked (seriously, imagine this album with Evergrey's Tom Englund at the mic). Instead, it just seems like a missed opportunity.
Musically, Dark Passion Play rates 5 stars easily. The vocals deserve 2 stars. I tried to give Annette a fair try, but her voice is just not right here. Fortunately the "collector's edition" comes with a bonus disc featuring an instrumental version of the album.
One last thing, the songs aimed at Tarja and her husband are just plain petty. I know the split wasn't amicable, but there are umpteen press releases and interviews that make that plain. Your dirty laundry has no business on the album though.
Free Music Review: Best Band I've Heard in Many Years
Hit: 5 Stars
Wow! This is it! At last I found a band with exceptional talent that puts it all together. A clssical (orchestrated) musical sound combined with rock is my favorite kind of music. This band compares to one of my old favorites - Renaissance, only they are even better,with a more guitar driven sound. They are also more consistant and stay at an (A) level of quality songs more than Rennaissance ever did. On some songs they sound like Evanesence (only better), on some they sound like Metallica backed by an orchestra (only better), and on a couple of others they sound like The Coors (improved & on steroids). You get 2 cds of the same songs here & it works. One cd is an orchestrated version. Sometimes I'm in the mood for one and other times I like the other version. Both are great. You get soaring vocals and epic classical meets rock sounds with varitions of hard rock, goth, ballads, folk and irish ifluences mixed in. The songs are exceptionally written and arranged. Their are musical genius's behind this music. This is unbelievably great talent. This is my new favorite band. This is greatness. I can't say enough about them. There is great music being made in rock today, if radio would just make room in between the rap/hip hop and britany spears and let the Beetovens of today be heard. This is my most recommended album to buy. I would give it 6 stars if allowed. Turn yourself on to this one.Free Music Review: If "Once" was big, this is absolutely seismic ...
Hit: 4 Stars
In my review of 2005's "Once", I focused on two musical strengths that Nightwish had developed; the album's variety of sound, ranging from celtic-inspired melodies to raw metal tracks; and the over-the-top symphonic bombast that made each song sound like a Tolkien battle scene. Songs like "Ghost Love Score" made any other symphonic metal creation sound dated and halfhearted.
But now we have that album's successor, "Dark Passion Play", which, like Porcupine Tree's "In Absentia"/"Deadwing" duo, attempts to both copy and one-up itself. It's almost as if the band structurally analyzed "Once" and then injected it with performance improvement meds. Though not without its flaws, the album has proven itself with the 7 - 10 spins I have given it.
Many fans will criticize the band's decision to adopt a more mainstream voice to their line-up. To such comments, I will say: though I was always a fan of Tarja's operatic pipes, I like the change for two reasons:
1.) Tarja's booming voice was very limiting. Though a good match for the epic metal the band was concocting, it would not have fit with more accessible, standard hard rock tracks.
2.) Her voice was already becoming less and less operatic album after album. The voice we heard in "Wishmaster" wasn't the same one coming across in "Nemo".
For these reasons (and of course, the ongoing personal drama that often spills into the music) I fully endorse Anette Olzon. She has the range, the power and the intensity to sing songs both old and new. For validation, look no further than the album's opener, the near 14-minute behemoth "The Poet and the Pendulum". I'm not a fan of epic tracks starting albums (see: Riverside's "Out of Myself", Draconian's "Where Lovers Mourn"), but after the first two minutes of this song's spiraling tempest of horns, strings and choirs, all is forgiven. Once again (pun intended), Emppu Vuorinen's guitars play second (more like fifty-second) fiddle to the orchestra, serving almost only as a metronome to the symphonic ensemble.
As a song, "Poet" puts previous symphonic epics ("Creek Mary's Blood", "Ghost Love Score") to shame. With spoken word passages and a story all of its own, it provides an intense dramatism that succesfully guides the song along its multi-part path. I would honestly recommend this album for purchase for this track alone. It's my favorite track of the album and will reign in the annals of epic metal songs for years to come.
The album overall follows the same format as "Once" or Kamelot's "The Black Halo" in that the first third of the album is spectacular, the second third is forgettable and the final third making up for the lackluster middle. We have many melodic heavy-hitters up front ("Amaranth", the electro-heavy "Bye Bye Beautiful" and "Cadence of Her Last Breath"). Afterwards, we have a hard-rock song that could easily have gone the way of the recycle bin ("Master Passion Greed"), a painfully slow ballad ("Eva") and two songs that I always skip ("Sahara", "Whoever Brings the Night"). Then the final third of the album rewards listeners for enduring the previous four cuts. "The Islander" is a beautiful acoustic number with various singers, centering around a primarily celtic melody. "Last of the Wilds" is an instrumental piece that is very reminiscent of Amorphis' "Relief" - folk, instrumental, fast, melodic. Finally, "7 Days to the Wolves" and "Meadows of Heaven" kick the orchestra into overkill, sending horns, flutes and strings into every single beat, accompanying Marco Hietala and Olzon in a competition for attention.
"Dark Passion Play" is, at its simplest, an inflation of "Once". They make better what worked in the previous album, and for some reason, make worse what didn't. Despite these imperfections, Holopainen and company have crafted an intense album that will ultimately survive the public scrutiny that surrounded its production. I give it two thumbs up ... as long as I can fast-forward to the end.
See also: Nightwish - "Once", Therion - "Sirius B"
Free Music Review: Nightwish continues on the path they were on
Hit: 5 Stars
First, Tarja vs. Anette. I honestly don't think they're comparable; they're totally different vocalists. Tuomas has been guiding the vocals of Nightwish away from their operatic roots since "Century Child". There are songs on this album that Tarja's voice simply would not fit. Nightwish purposely sought out a non-operatic vocalist because operatic vocals were just not fitting the style of music Tuomas wanted to write. Anette fits this bill to a T. Her voice is strong and doesn't get lost in the bombastic strength of the music; she can sing delicately ("The Heart I Once Had", "Meadows of Heaven") as well as she can spit out gritty lines ("Sahara"). Anette also has better pronunciation of the English language, if that matters to people at all.
No matter WHO sings the songs, the music is unmistakeably Nightwish. If you fell in love with Nightwish soley because of Tarja's vocals, then you're probably more of a Tarja fan, so stop criticizing Nightwish. If you fell in love with the music itself, the new vocalist shouldn't throw you at all just as adding Marco's male vocals didn't throw most fans.
As for the album itself... When looked at in the context of the entire Nightwish discography, I think the evolution to this album makes sense. It follows the more 'mainstream' appeal of their previous album, "Once" with a few catchy songs ("Amaranth", "Cadence of Her Last Breath"), but nothing too far-fetched, especially if you don't forget previous 'catchy' Nightwish tunes "Bless the Child" and "Nemo".
Some songs continue to be as dark and biting as the darker songs off "Once". These include "Bye Bye Beautiful" and "Master Passion Greed". Others are more experimental, expressing Nightwish's newfound freedom of expression with Marco's acoustic sea-ballad "The Islander", the celtic instrumental "Last Of The Wilds", and the gospel-inspired "Meadows of Heaven".
Overall, the music is superb. The full orchestra is larger than the one on "Once" - it's huge and dynamic, making this Collectors Edition totally worth it just for the instrumental disc, which is basically the songs without vocals. Generally I'm not too excited about 'kareoke' versions of songs as to me they tend to sound thin without the lyrics. But these stand up wonderfully on their own. One or two of the tracks I actually prefer without the lyrics.
I can see how people think Nightwish is "selling out" and sounding more "mainstream" - while I think the music is a bit more accessible, it still sounds like nothing out there today. It's well written and stands well on its own. There are a few weak spots for me: "Whoever Brings the Night" is nothing special and "7 Days to the Wolves" is a bit anti-climactic, but there are some songs that have instantly become some of my very favorite Nightwish tracks: "Cadence of Her Last Breath", "Last of the Wilds", "The Islander", and "Bye bye Beautiful" - and my very favorite, "Sahara", which is thematically the sequel to Nightwish's first album's "Tutankhamen".
This Collectors Edition/Special Edition includes the demo version of "Amaranth" called "Reach": the chorus is different and Marco sings it. The jewel case comes in a card sleeve that has the alternate artwork on it; the booklet itself has the regular album cover art on it.
Free Music Review: Bye bye beautiful, hello hiding amaranth
Hit: 5 Stars
After "Once" I said to my brother "there is only Nightwish, you need no other!". Now with "Dark Passion Play" this is even more true. The band have moved in the logical direction since the last album. Even the side-swipes at former singer Tarja are done so well that they transcend pettiness.
Comparisons between Tarja and new singer Anette are pointless, they are both great, enjoy them both!