Verbum Lux
Member
Eh, the poem's not too bad. It's listenable. But yeah, you'd think that being one of the best lyricists in the business, he could come up with something better than a bunch of second-rate goth poetry. I do think that having the members of the band each recite different parts was a cool idea though. I think the poem would have worked out okay if he had kept it around two or three minutes tops. Give us this stark interlude and then go back to overwhelming you with epicness.
Oceanborn remains my favorite Nightwish album. It's the most consistent in terms of quality and has plenty of great iconic pieces like Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean, The Pharaoh Sails to Orion, Walking in the Air, and Sleeping Sun, as well as awesome performances from Emppu and Tuomas - which sadly is something we don't get too much of these days. Whenever Emppu does something cool, I get all excited about it because he doesn't do it that often, and Tuomas even less so.
Second favorite would be a tie between Once and Dark Passion Play. Once isn't their strongest album musically, but man oh man, the VOCALS. Tarja just blows me away The vocals have always been one of the vital elements of Nightwish, but she really steals the show here. Once has one of the best performances by a singer ever - I can only think of three or four other albums that are on that level. Oh, and it has Ghost Love Score - AKA the most brilliant piece of symphonic metal ever produced. That song alone is more than worth the price of the whole album.
Dark Passion Play is essentially a more developed and diverse version of Once with a different singer, and it succeeds in that wonderfully. I don't love Annette as much as I do Tarja, but she's magnificent here nonetheless. It's s shame that a masterpiece like this had to be marred by the inclusion of some petty drama, because otherwise there's very little to dislike.
I would place Imaginaerum (anyone else think they should have kept the initial spelling?) third. Great quality, very consistent, and as Flesh&Blood pointed out, diverse. I would still consider it a metal album because that's mostly what we get here, but its cool that they're not afraid to delve into other genres. It never quite hits the high points the other three albums I listed do, but it's great nonetheless.
Oceanborn remains my favorite Nightwish album. It's the most consistent in terms of quality and has plenty of great iconic pieces like Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean, The Pharaoh Sails to Orion, Walking in the Air, and Sleeping Sun, as well as awesome performances from Emppu and Tuomas - which sadly is something we don't get too much of these days. Whenever Emppu does something cool, I get all excited about it because he doesn't do it that often, and Tuomas even less so.
Second favorite would be a tie between Once and Dark Passion Play. Once isn't their strongest album musically, but man oh man, the VOCALS. Tarja just blows me away The vocals have always been one of the vital elements of Nightwish, but she really steals the show here. Once has one of the best performances by a singer ever - I can only think of three or four other albums that are on that level. Oh, and it has Ghost Love Score - AKA the most brilliant piece of symphonic metal ever produced. That song alone is more than worth the price of the whole album.
Dark Passion Play is essentially a more developed and diverse version of Once with a different singer, and it succeeds in that wonderfully. I don't love Annette as much as I do Tarja, but she's magnificent here nonetheless. It's s shame that a masterpiece like this had to be marred by the inclusion of some petty drama, because otherwise there's very little to dislike.
I would place Imaginaerum (anyone else think they should have kept the initial spelling?) third. Great quality, very consistent, and as Flesh&Blood pointed out, diverse. I would still consider it a metal album because that's mostly what we get here, but its cool that they're not afraid to delve into other genres. It never quite hits the high points the other three albums I listed do, but it's great nonetheless.
