Well I have been looking at the reviews for this album for a long time and I don't think they have done AFF justice. people are saying it's a bad album. It's not! It's the best debeut album that I've ever purchased. Infact, I didn't even want to purchase it butt it somehow got mixed up in a bunch of CDs that I was buying in HMV and I was worred incase I wasted my money on what I
thought was going to be a bad album. This was the birth of one of the best bands to ever come together. A blend of symphony, progressive and power metal with a touch of operatic vocals has made Nightwish, well, Nightwish:
Line-up
- Tarja Turunen / vocals
- Emppu Vuorinen / guitars
- Tuomas Holopainen / synthesizers
- Jukka Nevalainen / drums & percussion
Oh and just to warn you now, I'm in a pun mood tonight so there may be a few of them in the text. ^_^
Elvenpath (4:38)
Wow! What an opening! Tuomas's ode to the LOTR trilogy. The sound is strong and up-beat all through the song with exellent rythem work. Even if Tarja can't pronounce "path" properly, this song has immediatly got you hooked to Nightwish. The great thing about any avarage Nightwish song is definitly their middle sections, each all quite unique. In this case, it's the band playing with a man speaking about the rings of power. If you are feeling disatisfied with this song, I'm not going to feel much sym-
path-y for you as this album is just getting started! 4.5/5
Beauty & The Beast (6:22)
My third favorate Nightwish song. Why? This is only their debeut album yet they have produced such an epic. The best song on the album by far as it shows brilliant composition, heavy guitars (to a certain extent) and, even if Tuomas's vocals are below average, he and Tarja do brilliant at alternating between eachother. I was utterly speechless when I heard this song, and mabye you think I'm over-exagurating, but it's got the best lyrics out of almost all the Nightwish songs. This song is definatly
beautiful! If this isn't too much trouble, can I ask who is the better vocalist out of Chalie Dominici (
Dream Theater's First Album) and Tuomas? 6/5
The Carpenter (5:56)
Tuomas takes over vocals this time, calming us down from being "epicized" with a nice, soft, acoustic song, although Emppu does add some powerchords to keep the chorus driving. I'm ever so slightly disappointed because after listening to BatB, you notice how weak it is compared to it. Apart from that, it is another brilliant song with another brilliant middle section (strangly...) 4/5
Astral Romance (5:11)
Opens with one of those riffs which will stay with you for a long time! The songs main riff is mainly noticable because of the layers of guitars used on it. Another lyricly brilliant song with Tuomas's vocal's acually touching me inside. May that be another brilliant middle section? Oh yes! The instruments begin to take over about half way through the song, mostly repeating itself but ever so slightly building up more tension untill we break away into the main riff again. This is however, the last song that you will hear Tuomas's vocals and as we are given the end to our romantic tale by Tarja, Emmpu leads us out with a solo. The song has all you need, a riff, male and female vocals, a solo and brilliant lyrics, brilliantly sung. 5/5
Angels Fall First (5:34)
Ok. If you are not convinced that Tuomas's lyrics are beyond brilliant, then this will do the trick. As every has, this is the ballad. We have some people who can't stand ballads and often refer to them as "fillers" but I am one of the many lovers of ballads. The song shows how Nightwish where intending to be, a folk band, and each peice of music put together is perfect for the outstanding lyrics and sets the mood perfectly. As two guitars play in the background, Tarja switches into ballad mode and amazes us with the warmth of her voice. As the synths come in, the song gets darker, as you would expect and eventually fades away. If you don't like ballads, you better start liking them because you are missing out on a fair bit. The album
trips up after this however. My 4th favorate Nightwish song. 5/5
Tutankhamen (5:30)
...and we plundge into where the ablum gets bad. The music is expected. The synths and guitars do certainly sound egyption, it's neccecery. The bad part is how the music doesn't fit Tarja's vocals, at all. I don't even think you can call this song "power metal", "progressive" or "symphonic metal". This is a valuble lesson that Nightwish should not experiment too much. We
sand-drift away from what was good in the album. Bad song. 2/5
Nymphomatic Fantasia (4:45)
We are held on to the magic of the album by this oddly titled song and combines Nightwish's folk and metal elements. The lyrics may make Tarja sound like a l*sb**n but the music is quite a relief. After that horrible tediousness of Tutankhamen, we are back to our good old friend, Nightwish. 4.5/5 (I must remember to watch my new
dinesy DVD after this...)
Know Why The Nightingale Sings (4:13)
Catchy. From the moment that drum fill enters your ears, you can't resist the memorable guitar riff. I don't really understand the lyrics to this song that much, it's the music which mainly catches my ear. The main part of this song is the solo. The most stand-out lead in the album. It's good, but a bit irrelivent. Tarja finally starts singing like a
bird again after the last two songs were considerably more weak. 4.25/5
Lappi (Lapland) (9:20)
I - Erämaajärvi:
Nice folk tune in finnish and part one of our pritty boring final scene. I don't know what the lyrics mean so I'm not going to judge on them obviously, but I like how Emmpu has used two guitars, each going seperate ways with Tarja singing over them. 4/5
II - Witchdrums:
This is more of an ambient track than anything else. Me personally, I love acoustic ambient bands like
Nest. It's quite brilliant how using synths can make such a landscape. I must say though, this is a poor attempt at making an ambient track but at least this mixed well in the
Magic Pot of experimentation. 3/5
III - This Moment is Eternity:
This is quite a pointless track, with Witchdrums building up tension yet this sounds like it's ending already. I get confused at what track I'm on when I reach here. It doesn't flow with the rest of the song. The music is basicly the same as previous tracks and I have no idea what the lyrics are on about. 2.5/5
IV - Etiäinen
At least we go off with a good ending though! Brilliant how the acoustic guitar leads you out of the album with Tarja using her voice as an instrument too. The two guitars that we started with drift us further, as if we are sailing away from Lapland, and the album. 4.5/5
This album basicly has a good half and a bad half, Track 1-5 are all brilliant while 6-13 don't really stand up for themselves. This is how Nightwish started though and it's a shame how they have left most of their folk roots behind. I love bands who can blend folk music and metal together.
Opeth and
Agalloch usually spring to mind.
A truly
Angelic album.
