Album Rating: 2.5

After a second listen, i also come to conclusion this album feels bloated as hell. I think it's cause they repeatedly give their flutes and whistles so much room, while their phrasing really doesn't add anything to their composition imo. Shoemaker and Pan are highlights on an otherwise very inconsistent album. How's The Heart? and Harvest really scratch the lolbad category (them vocal effects on Marco in that segment transitioning into the final chorus on Harvest). Procession doesn't even sound like a finished song with it's apathetic guitar and drums. I feel like i've got anger issues because of Kai Hahto.

Album Rating: 2.5

(wa-)

-TER the fields, su-

-REN-der to the earrrrrttthhhh.



It's like he was reading the lyrics for the first time and was awkwardly trying to fit them into the bar. Props to the instrumental solo section for being an engaging diversion from that.

Honestly, fitting lyrics awkwardly into a bar is a Nightwish staple.

Album Rating: 1.5

Nightwish Share New Song >>>>>>>> Nightwish



https://www.sputnikmusic.com/bands/Nightwish-Share-New-Song/122382/

This is such shit

Album Rating: 2.0

Noise had potential in the second half, but then I realized it just copied Epica... Ironic if you think Epica followed.

Album Rating: 4.5

The review is well written.



But for background info: Nightwish has now a new company and Floor is a partner in it. Tarja didn't want to become a partner of the company back in the day (it was offered to her), so she and Annette were both paid singers.



Haven't read too many interviews but in some Tuomas has been happy that finally they have a singer who is also a songwriter and makes all kinds suggestions. In a new one, he said that Marco polished basically all of the harmonies and that Marco is better in that than him.



It's heavier than the previous one and in many ways closer to Tarja era songs than EFMB - there are clear reminiscents of Oceanborn, Wishmaster. There is very typical operatic choir, Bach and baroque influences, Debussy etc, added some modern atonal features (and singing a descending chromatic scale (Pan) is not easy either, although not as difficult as those interval jumps Floor sings to total precision).



Musically I think it's more experimental as the previous one, on the lines of Imaginaerium. At the same time it's going back to the roots musically, and weird enough, taking leaps forward at the same time.



It's kind of a concept album and lyric-wise, continuum to EFMB too. Tuomas actually got in into a university to study biology, which he dropped after 1-2 years as Nightwish grew. And Floor wanted to be a biologist as a child, so that might explain the themes a bit more. And some of the vocabulary used.

Musically, this is more what I expected from EFMB, although Greatest Show on Earth is a masterpiece.

Album Rating: 4.5

What comes to Floor's singing here, well, it's astonishing. She basically goes through all of her range, most of it already in Music. Those interval jumps, melismatic style is insane, highly technical and demanding - something never even written before for a Nightwish song.

There is hc belting in several songs, lower in Noise than in Pan or How's the Heart. Clean, pure operatic e.g. in Shoemaker, but a bit too e.g. Procession and Noise. Growlier in Tribal. Adding some poppish etc, so not just her range in octaves but in styles too, so I cannot really understand why there are comments that she was underused vocally - were some expecting pure belting with some head voice opera and a few growls?



The same with instruments: some say that e.g. Emppu was underused but, as a whole, the guitar is the instrument one hears the most (then the drums), although there are no solos. I wouldn't be surprised for a little change in arrangement e.g. in Tribal for a live show with a guitar solo. There are many layers and it takes time to hear everything - I think I caught on the 7th time that Floor is actually singing low operatic at the end of Pan with the choir. Some seem to miss e.g. Marco's backing vocals in Music.

Album Rating: 2.0

You seem ready to write a review on this, so consider it. I can't criticize their music by musical-theory standards, the way you do it, but as an audience, there's not enough to grasp me. I find likable parts here and there, but even if there's dexterity and intelligence behind the music, the songs themselves fall a bit flat. They sound underwhelming and for the most part, Nightwish don't refer to the trained ear, i.e. it's not music for musicians the way jazz is.

Album Rating: 4.5

Jazz is a whole genre and there seems to be e.g. metal or rap musicians who are not into jazz or at least all subtypes of it. An equal claim would be that musicians don't appreciate heavy metal.

I just wonder where you base your claim that professional musicians don't like Nightwish that is actually already written studies etc about (came as a surprise for me too).

Album Rating: 2.0

Careful, never claimed that professional musicians don't like Nightwish. I specifically said that the band's target group is not people who know music, but people who like music in general.

Album Rating: 4.5

How many in pop/rock actually think whether their audience is professional musicians? I don't think they bother to think along those lines.

But then again, heavy metal has been extremely popular in Finland for decades, the country having most heavy metal bands per capita in the world, it's played on the radio all the time, Nightwish is a household name (almost got through to Eurovision - people voted for them but experts decided to put through some pop girls, few years later we sent a bunch of monsters singing heavy metal, and Finland won the whole thing...).

Here, same people go to opera, buy heavy metal cd's and even enjoy jazz.

Album Rating: 2.5

I think what really brings this down for me is the band failing to compose good counterpoints to one another. Went back to Wishmaster and Oceanborn the other day and in comparison to songs like The Kinslayer, or Stargazers, this album does feel dynamically flat. Many of their modern songs settle for this mid-tempo stuff that i personally don't care for and they mostly dropped off their neo-classical keys that i thought were a nice addition to their sound.

I don't mind this one being more on the mid tempo side, I prefer it tbh.

My complaint is mostly on the lack of hooks, they just don't do it for me at all. Sounds a bit superficial, but that has always been a major selling point for the band.

Floor is the highlight but not enough to hold my attention.

Album Rating: 3.0

“ Tbh, only Shoemaker, Pan, and Tribal did that for me. The other songs took time to digest after a few listens. I don't know how much you've listened to Oceanborn or Wishmaster, but Pan is peak 2000 Nightwish. I haven't stopped listening to it for the past week.“



Pan and Shoemaker are great songs, I love them. But, they feel like Floor is singing to Tuomas’ melodies as opposed to pouring out her emotional strength into the song. Listen to The Greatest Show on Earth or Song of Myself, and you hear the desperate, straining, purely emotional belts from Floor and Annette. I haven’t found that level of raw emotion on this album.



It’s not bad (if you ignore the second disc), but the other songs are sub-par by Nightwish’s standards. The majority of tracks off their last three albums are much more enjoyable than the rest on this, so I feel it’s a solid step down.



That said, I love Pan, Shoemaker, and Music. I also like Harvest, which seems like a terribly odd opinion, but hey, I dig it.

Album Rating: 3.5

The album is slowly growing on me. At first it felt like ''okay they just don´t care anymore'', now it feels like something which was put a lot of thought into but maybe the execution is just a bit off. And for some reason I can´t pinpoint why. I like the majority of the songs, most are quite complex and diverse, but everytime I finish listening to the record there´s just....something missing. Maybe it´s the absence of the usual ''big epic song'', the overall lack of leading keyboards (not sure, maybe that´s just me), the in general slower tempo or simply me getting used to this sound. At least it´s keeping me interested, quite a few songs show cool new details everytime I listen to them.





Btw screw the vocals on Harvest, it´s just so weird ffs, just gimme that folk metal instrumental section and we´re good.

Album Rating: 1.5

'harvest' feels like something off the lion king remake, but without beyoncé

Album Rating: 2.0

what's the deal with the album title

Album Rating: 1.5

H V M A N . :||: . N A T V R E .

Album Rating: 3.5

I know that a lot of people will discount it, but I rally feel that the second part really adds a lot to this album. Most of it is really beautiful.