Nightwish - Dark Passion Play

Nightwish has always been a very important band for the metal scene. Not only are they immensely talented, but the easily accessible operatic vocals of Tarja Turunen has caught the attention of legions of fans who would normally not listen to metal. Unfortunately Tarja is no longer with the band due to a public falling out over conflicting interests. This event has touched many fans as personally as a divorce would and lead some to automatically reject new vocalist Anette Olzon with cries of “you’re not my real mommy!”

Personally I consider Annette’s hard rock vocal style a welcome change, breaking through the stagnation that the band had settled into. Her singing is clear and melodic but not nearly as cute and saccharine as some other vocalists within the genre. Musically the band is improving their ability to set up boundaries between one song and another. For example the album opens with The Poet and The Pendulum, a 14 minute long piece that is dramatically orchestrated as though it where meant for a theater stage. Immediately after that song you are dropped into Bye Bye, Beautiful. This is pretty much a simple hard rock song interwoven with some excellent vocals by Marco Holopainen, the bass player. Amarath, the albums big single is a really catchy symphonic rock piece although it feels kind of like fluff. Still I’m sure it comes off great in concert.

One of my favorite tracks on the album is Master Passion Greed. This song starts out as straight up thrash metal reminiscent of Slayer with a strong vocal delivery that once again features Marco and allows Anette to take catch her breath with a supporting role. If the album featured more heavy tracks like this one it would have been an automatic classic. Instead the rest of the album is populated by ballads (Eva, For The Heart I Once Had) and symphonic metal pieces (7 Days of The Wolves, Who Ever Brings The Night) but also hides a couple of great Celtic tunes in the form of The Islander and Last of The Wilds.

Hopefully fans will embrace the bands new direction and allow them to experiment further, since I feel this new lineup has a lot to offer.