Dark Passion Play Platinum Edition

[Tramz]

Although a release date has yet to be confirmed, a "platinum" edition of Dark Passion Play is in the works (and pre-orders are being taken at the Nightwish shop) that will include all 13 songs plus five bonus tracks:

01. Erämaan Viimeinen
02. The Escapist (previously available only in the Japanese version and 3 disc boxed set)
03. Meadows of Heaven (orchestral version)
04. The Poet and the Pendulum (demo)
05. Bye, Bye Beautiful (DJ Orkidea remix)

"Erämaan Viimeinen" is the instrumental "Last of the Wilds" off Dark Passion Play, but with Finnish lyrics, courtesy of Jonsu from the all-girl pop/rock band Indica (who will open for Nightwish in Scandinavia). Erämaan Viimeinen will be released on December 5th as a Finland-only single.

In related news, Dark Passion play was recently certified gold in Sweden, selling in excess of 30,000 copies. The United States? We're up to 31,000 copies and counting.

 

[seraph7]

Why didn't they put 'The Escapist' on DPP? I'd far rather hear that than 'Master Passion Greed'! Now even though I don't really like downloading I'm going to have to dig this up. Is there any way of legally DLing it yet? Sorry but I don't want to re-buy it much as I love the album, I've already paid £17 for it. Why do record companies do this?

 

[Iced Dog]

I've already paid £17 for it. Why do record companies do this?

Because they like money, and there are a lot of suckers...er...I mean die-hard fans out there Seriously though, I never feel guilty about downloading bonus tracks if I already purchased the album.

 

[Tramz]

Hmm, i don't know off-hand if there are any legal available sources for download. Possibly iTunes? Though, the song being regional, that seems unlikely. It's a shame that they don't offer these kinds of bonus tracks via a Snowcap pay-to-download system on their Myspace, or via Amazon Downloads.

As for what record labels do, yeah it would have been nice if it was known that this would be coming down the pipe from the start (even *I* don't remember hearing about it), but that's the way business works. It probably would have hurt sales while people waited for this Platinum Edition. Not to mention it would have run the risk of this one becoming the de facto regular edition (depending on price. the pre-order is 19.90 euros).

Why didn't 'The Escapist' wind up on the album in the first place? Well, bands basically require extra songs that they can use for certain markets. At this point, i would say that places like Japan downright expect an extra song or two. So it's really just a reality of business in this world. But remember, the large majority of these decisions come not from the band themselves, but from the labels. Some bands have agreements that allow them to be consulted on which songs get selected as singles, and maybe even which songs get applied for bonus tracks, but as far as i know, the decision to release another edition is pretty much entirely in the hands of the labels.

One idea might be to either give your existing copy away as a gift or sell it, and then buy the Platinum. Though i agree that isn't an optimal solution.

 

[C.]

That's funny, because I read on one of the other forums that they wondered what "Last of the Wilds" would sound like with lyrics. I guess now we get an answer!

So did the girl from the Finnish band write the lyrics, or does she sing? I'm a little confused.

 

[Tramz]

Tuomas is the one who wrote the lyrics. Sorry for being confusing. Supposedly they existed before the decision was made to make LotW into an instrumental song.

 

[St Enigma]

I think Tuomas wrote the lyrics in Finnish long before he knew who finally would become the new singer. They had also Finnish canditates, but when they finally ended up choosing Swedish Anette, she had only about a month to practice all the songs before going to studio for recording the vocals.

Even if she had learned and sung some of the new songs at the audition already, it was amazing how well she coped the recording task. But learning to pronounce LOTW lyrics properly in Finnish in such a short time would have been too much, so Tuomas had to find another way and he did. They recorded LOTW in Finnish with Jonsu of Indica right after the vocals for DPP were done and decided to release it as a CDS and bonus track later.

 

[Iced Dog]

Thanks Doc...that'll be interesting to hear. So this is Jonsu from Indica

 

[St Enigma]

Yup, it's her


:Smug: :Smug: :Smug:

(The audio file on Youtube seems to be recorded from the world premiere of LotW-CDS on YleX radio on Nov 26th 2007)

 

[Iced Dog]

Interesting...I like it. She has a "cute" voice for lack of a better term...and Finnish is fun to listen to. That said, I still prefer the original.

 

[C.]

Thanks Enigma, for clearing that up. Well, it will be cool to hear what other possible candidates for the coveted Nightwish position might have sounded like!

She kinda looks like Tori Amos, and I can't watch the video.

 

[Snowy Owl]

31,000 copies in the States in only 2 months? That's pretty impressive for a group that gets no major support or advertising. Not too bad at all...keep it up!

 

[C.]

That's also impressive considering that Once took 3 months to even sell 9,000.