www.metal-invader.com czerwiec 2007

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Nightwish - Dark Passion Play

(Nuclear Blast ) Total Time: TBC

This album is something that was waited with enormous anticipation by a huge part of the metal scene. Last year was a turning point for NIGHTWISH since they fired their singer Tarja Turunen whose voice and stage appearance was the band`s trademark. The name of the woman who would replace her was known for some time now, Anette Olzon was the lucky one and all we had to do was to wait and listen to the result. Before saying anything I have to curse the stupid voice that interrupts the songs for ‘safety` reasons. Isn`t the personal watermark on the downloaded songs enough? Show some mercy to the poor reviewers who just want to listen to the complete song…
“Dark Passion Play” is a complex project, as far as I can understand by the lyrics and the song structure it narrates a concept story in a way that goes further than just being a music album. The band has created songs full of emotion with excessive use of symphonic parts as they once again collaborated with London Session Orchestra. The outcome is multidimensional in terms of the production and there are many instrumental parts that manipulate your emotions according to the story. NIGHTWISH are darker than ever combining mellow parts and heavy outbreaks with a progressive touch. The first few minutes of “Master Passion Greed”, a song that is solely sung by Marco Hietala, could be characterised as thrash metal without exaggeration. But whether the songs start pounding hard or with a slow intro all of them develop with an intriguing diversity that keeps the listeners attention fully focused.
As for the new singer she is just brilliant. Her voice is crystal clear, yet a lot different than her predecessor. She is not operatic at all, but she has a heavenly metal that speaks straight to the heart. I openly say that I prefer her voice better even though I might be condemned in eternal deafness by Tarja`s hardcore fans.
All the compositions of this album could easily be movie soundtracks due to their atmosphere and their lengthen structure. Apart from that, “Dark Passion Play” contains some excellent and catchy choruses like “Amaranth” and “Cadence of her Last Breath” that will get stuck in your ears easily. This album has it all, it starts with a magnificent 14-minute epos, it has heavy songs, a ballad, lots of lyrical passages and a unique celtic influenced composition that has a vocal peak at the end with a little bit of Pink Floyd`s magic flowing in the air.
NIGHTWISH are less straightforward here, it is the overall sense of greatness that this album bears that make you its high quality. It would be unfair to compare this album with previous ones from the band. NIGHTWISH has gone into another level having another singer. I am certainly following them there inspired by their dark passion play.

Reviewer: Nikos Patelis