lukretion By many considered one of the best albums of the Finnish band, Wishmaster is an album that I found somewhat disappointing in relation to the expectations that I had formed about Nightwish after listening to their first two albums. Don’t get me wrong, Wishmaster is a more assured and mature album than any of the preceding two records and there are clear signs of progress in the band’s songwriting and arrangement abilities. But these improvements feel more like baby steps rather than giant leaps towards stardom, resulting in an album that feels like a close cousin to its predecessor Oceanborn, with all the pros and cons of the case.

Sonically, the album is based on similar coordinates as Oceanborn. By their third album, Nightwish have seemingly found a niche of their own with their special blend of symphonic power metal with operatic vocals that pulled them apart from the rest of the power metal scene of the time. As a whole, Wishmaster is perhaps somewhat less “speedy” and aggressive compared to Oceanborn. There are more mid-tempos and the power metal influences are partly diluted by more traditional metal influences, hinting at the transition towards symphonic metal the band will complete a few years down the road.

Relative to Oceanborn, Wishmaster displays clear improvements in the songwriting department. Tuomas Holopainen seems to have refined his ear for strong melodic lines that surface more consistently throughout all tracks of the album. This was one of the main problems with the previous album, where moments of melodic brilliance were starkly juxtaposed to blander and more anonymous episodes. There are more melodic hooks on Wishmaster, with most songs endowed with decent memorable choruses that ensure proper climactic release.

This ensures that Wishmaster overall feels more balanced than its predecessor. Herein, however, lies the biggest limit of the album, perhaps. It all feels a bit too samey, without many really spectacular moments of brilliance like “Swanheart” and “Walking in the Air” on Oceanborn. Sure, there are strong tracks here too. The album opener “She Is My Sin”, the bombastic title-track, the soft ballad “Two for Tragedy” are all excellent compositions, although they perhaps do not reach the level of the aforementioned tracks from Oceanborn. Other tracks are less impactful, like “Come Cover Me”, “Bare Grace Misery” and “Crownless”, continuing Nightwish’s unfortunate tradition of diluting the quality of their albums’ tracklists with fairly anonymous fillers. The longer tracks are equally disappointing, showing that the band have not yet found the formula to write “mini-epics” that are engaging through and through. The end result is that, halfway through the record, one starts having this nagging feeling of deja-vu, as the same ideas are repeated over and over again without much variation.

Nevertheless, Wishmaster is a strong record, confirming the potential of the Finnish band as one of the leading forces in the European metal scene. It is also clear, however, that Nightwish are still “work in progress” as they have not yet found the right formula for a perfect album, capable of flowing seamlessly from start to finish without boring or tiring the listener.

lukretion Only one year after having released their debut album Angels Fall First, Nightwish made a comeback with their second full-length, Oceanborn. Apart from the addition of bassplayer Sami Vänskä, the lineup is the same as on the debut LP, with Tuomas Holopainen on keyboards, Emppu Vuorinen on bass and guitars, Jukka Nevalainen on drums and Tarja Turunen on vocals. But Oceanborn is a very different beast relative to the endearing but still raw debut album. Nightwish have now found their footing and have started to unlock the potential that they had only hinted at on the previous record.

Oceanborn has a much clearer sonic identity than Angels Fall First. While that album was suspended between folk metal, power metal and symphonic and operatic ambitions, Oceanborn embarks more decidedly the path of symphonic power metal with operatic vocals. Relative to the debut album, the folk influences are toned down considerably (they only surface on the instrumental “Moondance”). There are fewer mid-tempos and acoustic interludes and far more bombastic uptempos that are a feast of powerful guitar riffs, tight drum grooves and swirling keyboard interjections. While this may bring Nightwish’s sound closer to other European power metal bands (Stratovarius, Rhapsody), the overall result is an album that feels more well-defined and more assured of its direction and identity, which is a substantial improvement over the debut.

There also signs of maturity in Tarja’s vocal performance. Her melodies are better than most of what she sang on Angels Fall First and her tone and expressivity have also improved. She sounds more in control of her voice, which remains splendid. Thankfully, Tuomas Holopainen this time decided to refrain from providing a male counterpart to Tarja’s vocals. His performance on Angels Fall First was terrible and he wisely decided to let all vocal duties to Tarja on this album. There are two songs (“Devil & the Deep Dark Ocean” and “The Pharaoh Sails to Orion”) that contain male vocals by Tapio Wilska (Finntroll). His performance is halfway between narration and singing and, oddly, it reminds me of some of the narrated parts one can find on Cradle of Filth’s albums.

The album is also a step-up in terms of production value. Oceanborn’s sound is smoother and more balanced than the debut album. The rough edges of that album (hyper-distorted guitar sound that dominated the keyboards; drums slightly too upfront in the mix) have been smoothened and the mix and mastering of the duo Mikko Karmila/Mika Jussila is truly excellent.

Despite the considerable signs of progress, however, it is also clear that Oceanborn is still “work in progress” for Nightwish, and that there is still ample room for further improvement. The main dissatisfaction with the album lies in the inconstant quality of its material. There are only a handful of songs where Nightwish seem to be able to fully realize their immense potential, by writing tunes where everything “clicks” and just falls into the right place. “Passion and The Opera” and the ballads “Swanheart” and “Walking in the Air” are the only three songs that I can really call masterpieces on this album. These songs have it all: great melodies, lean structures, sophisticated arrangements (that beautiful strings quartet on “Swanheart”), and fantastic performances. The rest of the album does not quite reach this level of accomplishment. “Gethsemane” gets closer, thanks to its brooding chorus, but it loses steam towards the middle before inexorably drifting towards a meandering conclusion. “Devil & the Deep Dark Ocean” and “The Pharaoh Sails to Orion” are meant to be ambitious “mini-epics” where Nightwish showcase their “progressive” ambitions, but they feel clunky and drag on far too long, showing that there is still work to do in the songwriting department. Other tracks, such as “Sacrament of Wilderness” and “The Riddler”, are little more than inoffensive fillers that do little more than diluting the overall quality of the tracklist.

Overall, Oceanborn is an album of hits and misses where Nightwish manage to channel their immense talents into perfect compositions only in a handful of tracks. When they do, the outcome is nothing short of breathtaking. The rest of the album leaves the listener with the bittersweet taste of unfulfilled potential, while nevertheless confirming that Nightwish are a band on the rise and a force to be reckoned with in the European metal landscape.

lukretion Released in 1997, Angels Fall First is an impressive but flawed debut by Finnish symphonic metal superstars Nightwish. This first album did not actually yet squarely fall in the symphonic metal genre they will eventually help create, but it’s rather a concoction of several different influences, including symphonic and operatic metal, but also folk metal, power metal and a certain fondness for Broadway musical plays. There is a lot to like, but also many rough edges that should be chalked down to the inexperience of the young Finnish band.

Starting with the positives, the nine songs of this debut album make it already quite clear that Nightwish is a band of immense talents. The technical proficiency of the three musicians involved (Tuomas Holopainen on keyboards, Emppu Vuorinen on bass and gutiars, and Jukka Nevalainen on drums) is astounding. Tuomas’ sublime keyboard arrangements are the driving force of the music, but Emppu’s guitars offer a more than capable counterpart, whether he resorts to delicate acoustic guitar arpeggios or crunchy metallic riffs. Meanwhile, Jukka is a powerhouse, his drumming inventive, powerful and precise. And then there is Tarja Turunen. A trained classical singer, her operatic vocals are Nightwish’s trademark signature and she is one of the best vocalists in this style. Although on this record she still sounds somewhat immature (both in terms of expressivity and in the choice of some of the vocal melodies and arrangements), it is clear that her potential is vast.

The album also shows that Nightwish are a very ambitious band, unafraid to try and carve their own path in the metal musical landscape. The band’s ambition to write spacious, progressive compositions is apparent in tracks like “Beauty and the Beast” or the multi-part album closer “Lappi”. The ambition to merge the raw power of traditional metal with folk influences, symphonic arrangements, spoken narrations, and operatic vocals is impressive. Indeed, at the time there were no bands that sounded like Nightwish. The closest act in terms of common fondness for the symphonic/operatic influences were perhaps Therion, although the Swedish’s band had with very different musical reference points (death metal, doom, thrash) than the Finnish quartet and the two bands do not sound at all like each other.

Alas, at this stage of the band’s career, all these ambitions were not yet matched by solid compositional abilities. The various styles are not well amalgamated together on this album, which sounds too fragmented and without a clear identity. The speedy power metal of “Elvenpath” stands in stark contrast with the folkish romanticism of “The Carpenter” or the operatic ballad “Angels Fall First”. Their inclusion on the same album feels incongruous and may be partly explained by the fact that these tracks were actually recorded at two different points in time (“The Carpenter” and “Angels Fall First” in April/May 1997, while “Elvenpath” in September 1997). This makes me wonder whether, halfway through the record, Nightwish consciously decided to change the musical coordinates of an album that may have been initially conceived just as a folk metal album with symphonic leanings. Regardless of the reason, the lack of a clear identity is something I find somewhat unsettling about this record.

Another issue I have with the album is that at times the songwriting feels clunky and undeveloped. Most tracks lack a strong melodic identity, which is particularly problematic for the more complex compositions, like “Beauty and the Beast”, that would really benefit for one or two melodic hooks to help the listener navigate through the dense material. Moreover, the tracklist is diluted with a few tracks that are unremarkable and flat, and feel a lot like fillers (“Tutankhamen”, “Know Why the Nightingale Sings”). And then there are some unfortunate choices of arrangements, especially in the vocal department. The imitation technique Tarja uses on the verse of “Nymphomaniac Fantasia” (that second vocal melody that after a short delay imitates the main melody) and in "Lappi" sounds odd and ruins somewhat two otherwise decent tunes. But the biggest problem are Tuomas Holopainen’s vocals, which are just plain poor - there is no other way to describe them. He does not have a bad voice per se, but he has almost no control over it and therefore he is almost always out of tune. Unfortunately, his poor performance literally butchers songs that would have otherwise been decent, like “The Carpenter” and “Astral Romance”.

Some people complain about the production, but I actually find it quite fitting. It is raw and slightly unbalanced (the guitars at times dominating the keyboards), but it matches well the rawness of the musical arrangements and the juvenile songwriting.

Overall, Angels Fall First is an endearing debut album that revealed to the world a band of immense potential. It may be raw and undeveloped, but it is nevertheless an impressive musical achievement for a bunch of twenty-years-olds who had big ambitions and fearless dreams, and that soon, very soon, would end up dominating the metal charts for a long time to come.

Kev Rowland In between this 2015 album and the previous studio release, 2011’s ‘Imaginaerum’ it is safe to say the band had been through some struggles (seek out the excellent tour documentary on YouTube detailing what happened). Due to singer Anette Olzon being hospitalized immediately before a show in Denver, the band went ahead with Alissa White-Gluz and Elize Ryd (who were part of support band Kamelot) taking on the role, using printed lyrics and a revised setlist. This in turn led to Floor Jansen being invited in for the rest of the tour. Late in 2013 it was announced that Jansen would be the full-time replacement for Olzen, and the band also made Troy Donockley a permanent member (he had already been touring with the band for five years at this point). However, before they went into the studio to record the new album it was announced that founding member and drummer Jukka Nevalainen would not be involved due serious insomnia (he has since left the band as a musical member although to this day he is still heavily involved in taking care of band-related business), and he would be replaced by Kai Hahto (Wintersun.

So there had been a lot going on in the band, but they had weathered issues prior to this, particularly with the loss of original singer Tarja Turunen, so like many I was intrigued to hear this album. I happened to see Nightwish on the tour with Floor (who I had always admired with After Forever) and thought the band had connected really well together, so was looking forward to this. Jansen is a good replacement for Olzon, as while she can sing that material well, her voice is also suited to the earlier material of Turunen, and I expected to see something of a return to the sort of material with which Nightwish made their name. When Marco Hietala joined the band in 2001, he made a massive impact as it gave the band a second really strong songwriter and someone who could also take centre stage as lead singer, so I had very expectations indeed.

However, apart from a few standouts, what we have here to my ears is a band who are really going through the motions. It has everything that one expects from Nightwish, but somehow muted. It is bombastic and over the top, yet without the soul and passion I expect. Delicate numbers such as “Our Decades In the Sun” stand out as they are a delight, an oasis of light in a fairly dark and parched atmosphere. But, it’s not a bad album, it is still much better than many bands will ever hope to release, it is just I expected more from a band who had been through so much, and I firmly expected them to take a step up from ‘Imaginaerum’, which I loved, yet somehow they have not managed that.

Anyone who enjoys symphonic metal is going to love this, but for me while it is an excellent album, and one which I am sure I will return to, it doesn’t deliver as I expected it to.

martindavey87 ‘Oceanborn’ is the second studio album by symphonic metal legends Nightwish. Released in 1998, it comes just one year after their debut, but already there’s a marked improvement in every aspect of the band and their music.

For starters, everything is more polished. The compositions flow a lot better and don’t seem as disjointed as before. The interplay between all the musicians, in particular, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen is fantastic. Full of exciting melodies and energetic performances, the music sounds much more vibrant and alive on this release. There are also more varied influences on this album, such as ‘Swanheart’ with its folk influence, ‘Moondance’ with its exotic flavour, and a wide use of neoclassical runs used throughout. It makes for a much more refreshing album.

Then there’s the production. Wow! A huge improvement! While ‘Angels Fall First’ always sounded raw and, in my opinion, a little flat, ‘Oceanborn’, again, sounds much more alive. Everything is clear and well balanced and it suits the music perfectly.

However, despite all the praise, there are still a few filler songs, and in general, a lack of that “big” sound that Nightwish would develop more over the years. But it’s not really a criticism, as this is a really good release. And songs like ‘The Riddler’, ‘Gethsemane’, ‘Passion and the Opera’, ‘ Stargazers’, ‘Sacrament of Wilderness’ and their amazing rendition of the classic ‘Walking in the Air’ are all great signs that this band are developing and maturing at a fast rate, and are definitely destined for bigger things.

Pekka You probably know the story. Anette Olzon, Tarja Turunen's replacement at the Nightwish mic was let go in the middle of the band's tour for Imaginaerum, and Floor Jansen was summoned to be her stand in at an extremely short notice, finally ending up as the permanent vocalist. At least for the time being, that is, knowing the band's tumultous history with their front women. While all this was happening they had the cameras rolling for a tour documentary they would probably have released anyway, but this turn of events naturally kicked the interest level up a notch or two.

The documentary starts at the turning point of the tour - the gig with the Kamelot singers while Anette was hospitalized and the heroic entry of Floor Jansen, and so naturally the viewer expects a dramatic back story of how they got to the low point. But no, the tour starts out great and everything goes smoothly and the touring machine is examined in great detail from many angles right down to Tuomas Holopainen's wine bottle stand under the keyboards. The tour continues to be a success and everyone is having fun, and suddenly they have insurmountable personnel strife that just can't be salvaged. Especially after reading the mercilessly honest and brutally detailed official band biography, it's very disappointing that the problems with Anette are in no way explained. They just couldn't continue being in the same band and that's that.

So the big potential is wasted, possibly due to Anette's refusal to be included in any form, and that may after all be a blessing in disguise, since the documentary was originally supposed to be a stand alone release. I'm only guessing here, but perhaps this bastardisation was the reason they chose to include the Wacken gig as well, and push the documentary to the second disc.

And holy hell are they on fire in the main feature! I get immense pleasure from the sense that this group that I started listening back in 1997 when I first heard The Carpenter on a metal compilation cassette (fuck yeah) made by a friend, and lost for some years after Once, has finally found the perfect line-up without a single hiccup. Tarja's voice was what made the band stand out in the beginning, but as a metal frontwoman she was always awkward, as was the pop-oriented Anette Olzon after her. Third time's the charm, and in Floor Jansen they have a true stunning metal goddess with lungs to handle any and every song from the band's catalogue while making them her own. And let's not underestimate the official addition of Troy Donockley, who brings important colour to their sound. I'll be excited to hear how the band utilises his rather metalless but extremely pleasant voice on the next album.

The band is captured touring my favourite Nightwish album, so the setlist leaves little to be desired, but it would've been nice to hear more than one track from their first three albums. And Scaretale from Imaginaerum, though that was such a perfect performance by Anette that I doubt Floor can top that. Nightwish as a musical unit is so much tied to the taped orchestrations these days that it leaves very little space for improvisation, which is why it's nice to hear a little additional keyboard solo in I Wish I Had An Angel, and which is also why it's easy to let the newly improved vocal department steal the show.

Put cameras on this show, and it's bound to be brilliant. The band were on top of their game on this tour after the personnel change, so it will be interesting to see how they make the new line-up work on record. For the first time since 2005 I'm eagerly awaiting the next Nightwish album.

Concert ***** Documentary **½