The new Nightwish album is a lot better than any of their earlier ones. You can´t even compare ONCE to the previous ones. It´s a lot heavier, and the themes and melodies are a great deal more refined. Plus the production with st. martin in the fields -orchestra etc. of course it sounds amazing. I myself did not like the poor powermetal stylish stuff they were doing on the last ones. But now I just love them, this album´s a killer, even though there are some stupid "Holopainisms" to be found in the middle of some songs. The stupid chord progressions that he´s been using since the second album. I just hate them. But fortunately he mostly has gotten rid of them. But a superb album in every way still. And someone said it will only be a hit in Finland or something? How come? Actually it was announced yesterday that Nightwish´s Once is the best selling album in whole of Europe! And that´s very cool. I just hope that they could get into the USA market a little bit. I think Nightwish could be the kind of band that could open up markets for melodic etc. metal in the states ´cos if I understand correctly, metal scene is coming up in the states, but it´s all about that nu-metal and then that very brutal slipknot kind of stuff. I think it´s about time the americans could get their hands on real music, like Nightwish. I think if they just get the right promotion and their associates are networked correctly, this entering of the USA markets could be done. No european metal band playing melodic music has done it since the 80´s.