Nightwish - Dark Passion Play

When Tarja Turunen was booted out of Nightwish, many including myself thought that this was the end. When the first video ‘Amaranth’ leaked out on YouTube, I was positively surprised by the wonderful melodies of this song. New singer Anette Olzon sings different than Tarja, leaving out the classical influences. But I found it exciting to hear a more natural voice, rather than the over bombastic voice of Tarja for a change.

 

The band members were actually so concerned about finding a totally different kind of voice, that opener ‘The Poet and the Pendulum’ and ‘Bye Bye Beautiful’ deals about this. Main writer Tuomas Holopainen presents himself as a character ending up dead in the lyrics. Dark passion indeed!

 

But as the aforementioned Tuomas is actually the main writer of the music and the lyrics, no real radical change has occurred in the world of Nightwish. It is just the same level of quality we're used to. Naming one of the highlights is the well chosen single ‘Amaranth’. It has already reached the top of the charts in several countries. It has got really dynamic vocals and a brilliant melody line. Something I lack from a similar band like Epica.

 

There are fans who claim that there is no Nightwish without Tarja and that they won’t buy the new material. A pity, because they're missing a great piece of music. A journalist even said to the band if they could sell half the amount of copies predecessor Once sold, he would eat his hat. Bon appetite, dude! Nightwish has released yet again another superb recording!

And if you don’t like Anette’s vocals, buy the first edition. It contains an extra disc with the whole album as instrumental. Anyone up for karaoke?