I step into the reviewing arena, only with my keyboard and ana analysis of a certain album which will stick with me forever. This will be my first ever review, although when I done a Queen II one, it didn't appear so I wasted about 2 hours of my life... anyway, on with the Nightwish masterpiece, Oceanborn!
Well, after an "ok" debut with Angels Fall First, the band had to make a few changes with there music. We owe basicly all of our Nightwish masterpeices to a Mr Tuomas Holopainen as he has written almost every song that they have ever recorded. And he has made some damn good ones too! If we look at their first album, three songs stood out very clearly for me. Them being "Beauty and the Beast", "Astral Romance" and "Nymphomaniac Fantasia". Wow, that was a mouth full eh? Anyway, these were all written by Tuomas and I strongly recommend those three songs as they will stay in your mind for days, months and mabye even years! Thats how good Tuomas is. But he won't go down alone if he writes something too poppy or poopy. He has his fellow bandmates which just started as Tarja Turunen and Emmpu Vuorinen. If you are quite familiar with Nightwish, they started out as a folk group but eventually turned up to eleven and added a drummer (Jukka Nevalainen) and we had the symphonic/power metal band we all know and love, Nightwish!
Line-up
- Tarja Turunen / vocals
- Emppu Vuorinen / guitars
- Tuomas Holopainen / synthesizers
- Sami Vänskä / bass
- Jukka Nevalainen / drums & percussion
Guests musicians:
- Esa Lehtinen / flute
- Plamen Dimov / violin
- Kaisli J. Kaivola / violin
- Markku Palola / viola
- Erkki Hirvikangas / cello
- Wilska / "Devilvoice" & "Pharaohvoice"
...and the battle begins.
-Stargazers (4:28)-
The album opens up with this thumping synth by Tuomas followed by a very "twiddle-synth" sounding into. Then Emmpu comes in with the opening riff and enter Tarja! Jukka plays an odd drum beat behind the vocals of which shows that he has already improved from AFF. The song acually ends then slowly comes back to life, being revived by the flutes. For me, this song is ruled by Tuomas and the on-going synths. 4.5/5
-Gethsemane (5:22)-
This is my favorate Nightwish song ever! I'll just get that out of the way. Anyway, we start with probably one of the most unique intros that I've heard. It sounds all so simple but there is acually a lot going on. After the intro comes Tarja, one of my favorate vocal performances on this. The harmonies in the vocals in the chorus are so perfect that they make you want to cry, while a lone Tarja sings behind her own voice. The lyrics seem to be christian, as is some other parts of the album but we wont go into that. We get to a nice, heavy guitar interlude, accompanied by the flutes again, which work togethor perfectly. Then Tuomas takes a little synth solo and we shoot back to Tarja. We are already being spoiled as they are giving everything they've got. But we still await one more thing. Tarja comes in for her few last lines including a beautiful lyric that for me stands out. "Without you, the poetry within me is dead." Can anymore greatness come out of this song? YES THERE CAN! We are at the outro of this classic and Emmpu rips one of his best solos ever. Why he is under-rated, I don't know but his shredding is put to the max here. When he ends, the song ends and you end up humming the intro for the next 5 months! 5/5
-Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean (4:46)-
The drums immediatly accent the growling guitar riff and then our favorate syths soon follow. It certainly has an evil sound to it as guest Wilska growls his devilvoice, Behind this is a countless number of double bass hits. Jukka is praticly killing himself in this song. The drums are the clear stand-out. Wilska and Tarja alternate between each otherfor quite a bit. Then we get to a fast-paced part with Tarja doing some operatic "ahs" behind a rolling palm-muted guitar. Wilska is on his own now with nothing to back him up. Then the big finish and the song becomes happy. We end with the same guitar riff that started and Jukka has probably lost his feet with all that double bass. 5/5
Hey, if someone knows a link to see this song live then please tell me!
-Sacrament of Wilderness (4:12)-
An intro with some weird echoey-like screaming syths which remind me of Princess Mononoke (See that film?). Then there is that "twiddly-synth" from Stargazers which I don't really like too much. nothing too outstanding although Jukka has these little fast parts before a change of phase to the song. The chorus is backed basicly by Emmpu's palm-muted guitar and some good drum work again by Jukka. We come to an Emmpu solo but it is a bit lacking of shred and relivence, really. We then get a Tuomas solo with quite a weird sound. Overall, the song is quite upbeat and catchy, reminds me of an ace movie and the music sounds relivent to "Wilderness". Beats my criterea. 4.25/5
-Passion and the Opera (4:50)-
Emmpu rips in and catchs up by surprise with another kick-a** riff and the bass goes down low and adds an awsome feel to the song, and we haven't even started. If you listen in the background of some of the songs, the keyboards/guitars usually have this "galloping" rythem which is great because we now know that Nightwish have found their sound! We come back to the intro riff after a semi-solo thing by Emmpu and what every opera needs, a high-pitched "ah-ing" session. All fitting perfectly! And now we wait for that Nightwish climax... but wait, the song is fading already!?! If this song was continued just a bit more in a Nightwish fashion then this would get full marks but they have cut short here, which is a real shame because this is a really good song and the Opeartic part was building up the tension. Shame really. 4.75/5 (If an extended version ever comes out then inform me ASAP!)
-Swanheart (4:44)-
I love this song. It's so tender to your heart. Only flaw is Tuomas's bad knowledge of the english language with "prittyful" seeming to be a word. The flutes and keyboards back Tarja's shinning vocals. The bass then comes in bringing up more tension in the song and we reach were Tarja ends and it becomes a classic as Emmpu hits a powerful E chord (according to mxtabs) and Tarja raises here voice for one last time before Emmpu takes over. The drums roll and Emmpu brings out his most emotional side to his guitar playing. We are in awe as this mini epic ends! 5/5
-Moondance (3:31)-
Ah yes. Every classic album has a reconizable instrumental. This certainly is one. The piano quietly plays the theme and ZOOM! WE'RE MOONDANCING! The flutes then calm down the things a bit... NOW BACK TO MOONDANCING! Each instrument takes turn in playing the theme and the "heys" from the males start calling as we are all howling at the moon and dancing below its lunar rays. This was the first track to catch my attention to Oceanborn and it does well as the instrumental. I can't give this a 5, that would be a bit careless. 4.5/5
-The Riddler (5:15)-
Oh! A new synth! Tuomas DOES have more synths. Tarja starts singing and... WAIT! ANOTHER SYNTH!?! 2 new synths in the same song. But for me, these sound way too "irrelivent" and it's almost like that degraded music that we call "Techno". It's not too bad though as we are saved by a typical Nightwish chorus but this is really just repeating itself. The song slows down and the bass takes over. We are all calm and quiet while Tarja sings then Emmpu "climbs" his guitar back into that chorus... AGAIN! This song doesn't do much for me. The worst song of the album. 3.5/5
-The Pharoh Sails To Orion (6:26)-
Bells! Doom approaches. A bible quote. This is gonna be good! And ZOOM! Tuomas does his best piano performance yet as he plays another kick-a** piano riff, backed by Emmpu's palm-muted guitar. What a team! Wilska has come back as the Pharaoh and him and Tarja, who acually gets a bit irritating in this song, alternate. The song then reaches a happy part. Jukka has acually found the strength to go frantic on the double bass pedals again, which add that lovley touch. We then get to a long period of instruments (inc. Tarja's operatic "ahs") and just before we get to the last verse, Emmpu does the most awsomest part of the whole album. A little guitar run and we are back into the happy music. Then the outro? Well, like Gethsemane, It's Emmpu who shreds the outro. We are saved by that techno synth driven song and the water (or wind, it sounds like both!) then waves out and we fade into our next track. 5/5
-Walking in the Air (5:30)-
Now for the cover song of the album. And it's done brilliantly. Sounds almost the same, but the bass adds some weight to the song. Tarja does another brilliant vocal performance here too. Then Emmpu plays a solo, well, the tune with "colour" basicly. And we fade... but Tuomas brings the song back to life again with the synths and the guitar pounds the chords through the last verse. The outro then just keeps repeating itself and it eventually slows down and fades. Nothing spectacular here though. It's just a remake but metalized, so it's better! 4.25/5
-Sleeping Sun (4:05)-
The starting synths remind me of a temple. Lyricly, it's the best song on the album, but it is a bonus so some unlucky people might not have got this. The keyboards become more "chimey" and Tarja puts as much emotion as she can into her voice. We get to what all Nightwish classics have. An operatic bit then a solo. These don't last very long but they add the final touches to the painting. One last repeat of the verse and we end Oceanborn. 5/5
This is the best Nightwish album out there and you have so many classics on 1 disc that it's unbelieveble. I'm sorry if this was rambly or too blunt.
Peace out!
...I have slayed the beast, but will the arena be vacent for my return?
