Dark Passion Play

C. said:
I agree, I think that's what it is for me too. I don't necessarily think Anette is the world's best singer; hell, I wouldn't even cite her as one of my favorites, but there's no denying that as a songwriter, Tuomas knows how to bring out the better qualities of the singers he works with.

And there are some songs on DPP, definitely, that I could almost hear Tarja's voice on. Songs like "Eva" and "Meadows of Heaven", especially, have that feel like they could have been written for Tarja, or at the very least, that her voice would sound fitting on them. Not so much on songs like "For the Heart I Once Had", "Cadence of Her Last Breath", or "The Islander".
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I can't imagine Tarja doing FTHIOH at all. Suits Annette very well though and perhaps my favorite vocal job of hers on the CD.

Gotta remember all of DPP was written in a singer void. Everything was done before Annette came on board.

I'm really looking forward to the next CD now that Tuomas has the whole team together.

Jim
 
Liverslapper said:
Annette just sounds to mainstream to me. There isn't that power that Tarja had. It's kind of like what happened with Dino in Fear Factory. Once Dino left, Fear Factory lost its sound. Listen to "digimortal" then listen to "trangression".
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Nightwish sounding more "mainstream" now has nothing to do with Anette IMO.
I think they've been sounding more this way since Once.
But each to their own, I like them either way.
 
It seems mainstream to me because I was so use to Tarja's vocal style with the band. I listen to DPP and I feel like they drifted away. Anette's vocals remind me of other bands, and as much as Tarja's style stood out for me, brought me to that conclusion.

Still not a bad album, it just took more time to get use too.
 
Maybe I missed it, but no one has commented on the abysmal compression of this album. It's apparent from the open and glaring during TPatP's chorus, when you have Anette singing, a strong backing choir, and the orchestra in ful ("Get away, run away, fly away....")l. It all becomes a blaring, distorted mess. There were hints of this on Once, but DPP was the worst offender yet, and Roadrunner has a bad habit of overcompressing their albums.

It wasn't among the worst offenders in the loudness wars, but DPP was definitely wrecked in the mastering process. I'd be interested in hearing the vinyl version.
 
I can't say, because the only version of Once I listen to is my imported copy from Spinefarm, and the only copy of DPP I have is the Roadrunner version. So I really have nothing to compare it to.

Maybe I should listen to my 2 different versions of WT's The Heart of Everything, I have both the import and the Roadrunner version. If Roadrunner is notorious for doing this, certainly it would show up there too?
 
I don't know if RR masters them separately in Europe. I would think not.

The real differences are between CD and vinyl. You can't compress analog, so none of that compression shit shows up. That's why vinyl has had a resurgence in recent years. People realized vinyl sounds so much better than CDs. Music like Nightwish's would definitely benefit from it.
 
C. said:
"The Poet and the Pendulum": This exceeded any expectations I had going into this, knowing what the song was, knowing that it was an epic. It seems like every Nightwish epic tops the one before. When I first heard "Ghost Love Score", I didn't think it was possible to ever top "Beauty of the Beast". Then once I became a believer, I found it hard to imagine that anything could EVER topple "Ghost Love Score", especially when there is no more Tarja. But by God, Tuomas has done it! This is hands-down my favorite song on the album and if they perform it live on Sunday I could die a happy girl.
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"The Poet and the Pendulum" is not my favorite epic. That would be "Beauty of the Beast", followed by "Ghost Love Score", "FantasMic", "The Poet and the Pendulum", and finally "Dead Boy's Poem" last (I suppose that could count as an epic). I still do like "The Poet and the Pendulum", but it is not a song that would be in my top 10 or even my top 20. Marco's screaming vocals are what is holding the song back from being higher on up my Nightwish song rankings.

Tramz said:
As i type this, i am listening to the Music Choice Metal channel and they are playing Bye Bye Beautiful. It's nice to see that they have Nightwish in rotation now (even if most, though not all of their pictures show Tarja instead of Anette.. as do some of their band facts).

Score one for Dark Passion Play exposure.
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One of the TVs in my house has those music channels on it. I've checked out the metal channel a few times before and never saw Nightwish being played once.

VeraRenczi said:
Tarja just had this mysterious, sensual and dark effect to her voice that fit with the music.
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I agree. I think that was responsible for some of the emotion in the music. Of course, I think Anette is just as good as Tarja when it comes to putting emotion into the music.

Tramz said:
Ugh. Dark Passion Play lost out on being Metalstorm's Power Metal Album of the Year (debates on what classification it deserves notwithstanding) by ONE vote. People voted Kamelot - Ghost Opera as number 1 with 263 votes to Dark Passion Play's 262. The people who voted Ghost Opera over DPP need to lay off the drugs :p Hell, imho, even Helloween and Dark Moor's albums were better than Ghost Opera, but that's neither here nor there. I figured DPP would surely win.
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I checked out that site and had to check the archives for 2007. I'm not really that surprised Kamelot could beat Nightwish by one vote. Despite getting second place for the Power Metal awards, DPP somehow managed to barely get first place in "The Biggest Letdown". DPP also managed to get first place quite easily for "The Biggest Surprise". Seems like DPP was a strong opinion-dividing album, with many people disappointed by it and many who actually liked it. Time to hope the next album doesn't pull this off again.

C. said:
Yeah, I remember the days of vinyl. I don't know how much "better" it sounds, per se, because of all the scratching and such, but then again, I'm one of those few people who can't tell the difference between 128 kb MP3s and 192. :rolleyes:
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I was never around back when vinyl was a lot more popular. I also can't tell the difference between 128 kbps and 192 kbps bitrate.
 
I think, since I started out with this album and worked my way backwards in the catalog, DPP is a decent album. It made me love Anette's voice. I honestly love Nightwish with both Tarja and Anette, but this album holds a special place for me.
 
After having heard Imaginaerum, I am much more appreciating of Dark Passion Play. For about a year or so, I listened to NOTHING BUT old Nightwish, refused to touch DPP because I couldn't STAND Anette and didn't see the reason behind Tuomas hiring her. Now, I am NOT one of these fans that say 'Bring Tarja back' because realistically, that's NOT happening, I just have a tendency to let my personal feelings toward a person color my professional view of them.

However, NO comparison between Song Of Myself and The Poet And The Pendulum, Poet wins HANDS DOWN. Much stronger sound.
 
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