Prior to the beginning of another one of my seemingly mediocre music reviews, I'd just like to say one thing openly: Oceanborn is my favorite heavy metal album of all time. Ever.
Nightwish is a Finnish gothic/ symphonic metal band. They were signed to Spinefarm records after reocrding a demo, proceeding that released Angels Fall First, their first full length album, in 1996. Then, in 1998, came the musical behemoth that didn't seem to be THAT impacting to the metal scene itself; rather, it was internally amazing.
Their first album tends to lean more towards folk metal in its content, while Oceanborn is purely gothic with lots of progressive symphonic elements. Tarja Turunen's vocals heighten to the roof of the larynx while Tuomas' keyboard "riffs" make this album original.
"Stargazers" has just the right amount of metallic elements (the beginning riff has a double bass drum, as does some other parts of the song) and symphonic elements (stringed instruments are audible during the song). This leads to "Gethsemane," bearing a biblical theme, and having fairly complex guitar and piano melodies. "The Devil in the Deep Dark Ocean" is a duet bearing both "Beauty" and "Beast" vocals (guest growler; Tuomas (keyboarder) refused to sing after he sang fairly badly on "Angels Fall First"). "Sacrament of Wilderness" was a single released before the album came out, and it is beautiful (trying not to use the word "beautiful" while describing this album is like making a sandwich without bread!)
"The Passion and the Opera" assumes a more sexual theme than most of the songs. "Drink from my thies, the rain of lies; a sight so cursed, breasts which never nursed" is as poetic as it gets when singing about intercourse. This leads up to the socially deprived "Swanheart" which bares no clear lyrical theme. Its music is not extremely metallic (excluding the ending) but is a beautiful (aha!) song. The "Moondance" instrumental reminisces the debut album's folk metal, and is this band's last breath of folk air happens here. "The Riddler" is a fairly unrecognized song off of this album, and it is the first song I heard by this band. It is widely melodic and contains proggy elements, such as the use of other instruments outside of the genre (hence "symphonic"), and captures the era of this band quite nicely.
This transitions roughly into the longest and darkest song on this album, not to mention the last original one, "The Pharoah Sails to Orion." Another song bearing dual vocalists, it does not bore the listener one bit as it alternates its musical qualities throughout. This then goes into a Howard Blake cover, "Walking in the Air" which is a beautiful song also. Not much to say about that one.
On the copy that I own, a song called "Sleeping Sun" exists. It was originally on the "Sleeping Sun – 4 Ballads of the Eclipse" EP, dedicated to the Solar Eclipse in 1999. Though it was originally not on the album, this song is, in my opinion, the best Nightwish song, and the best song on the album (if it was). It's a good song.
All in all, Oceanborn by Nightwish is the best metal album ever, subjectively, and is pretty underrated. 6/5
