Artist: Nightwish
Label: Century Media
Release Date: 2/6/01
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Title: Wishmaster Artist: Nightwish Label: Century Media Release Date: 2/6/01 |
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Abyss's Review:
Nightwish, while apparently pretty big in Europe (just like David Hasselhoff), are brand new to me. They have a pretty, traditional power metal sound, mixing straightforward riffs with the standard melodic bursts that are used quite sparingly (can you believe it? A power metal band that doesn’t feel the need to overdo something?) Anyway, I think this simplicity is the aspect of this band that intriuges me the most.
"Can you believe it? A power metal band that doesn’t feel the need to overdo something?" The guitar and keyboards seem to feel content knowing that there is no way they should try to overshadow a female singer, and while I’ve never seen a picture of Tarja Turunen, I’m sure there’s a ton of horny metalheads out there that think she’s gorgeous (metalheads think every female in metal is beautiful. So much so that a pretty-boy with long hair better take caution) And while I know that she is the centerpiece of this band, she’s the one thing that cuts into my enjoyment of this record. While her voice is melodic and metered, it’s also monotone and whispy, devoid of any emotion besides sorrow. If you enjoy the operatic metal styles, you’ll probably much more tolerant of the vocals that I am.
It’s a shame really, because many of the melodies are strong. Songs like “She is My Sin”, “Come Cover Me”, and “Wanderlust” all have very enjoyable melodies, and if done by another singer I’m sure I’d be way into them. The vocals do sound good in spurts, but they don’t really change throughout the album, stagnating the perky, competent metal going on around them.
Death's Review:
Sometimes in this brutal little business of eating through the mounds of steel and sifting through the metal (gratuitous Overkill reference), its just gotta come down to your gut reaction. And my gut reaction upon first hearing Nightwish is a mighty emphatic thumbs down. And yes, closed minded as it may seem, it's all about the falsetto female choral vocals. Well not all about that, I think the music is fairly boring also. But mostly it's the vocals: not exactly what I'm looking for from heavy metal, I must tell you.
You see, the ocassional Queen moment (or Savatage's "Chance") aside, I'm not really looking for opera metal. When the mood, the atmosphere, the keyboards and the symphonic presence of the female lead all come together and merge into one, I run screaming from the room to put that Soilwork CD back on and just grow more and more bitter that I had to stop listening to Soilwork to spend the time with this. So now at least you know where I am coming from as I write this review.
"My gut reaction upon first hearing Nightwish is a mighty emphatic thumbs down." We've established that Nightwish is not for me, but I can see how some of you who like these frilly little symphonic lanscape and mystical type journey type things might be into it. Of course I'm being too harsh -- Nightwish has some moments of trancendence if you let yourself open up enough to the music to notice them. I suppose Ms. Turunen has a nice enough voice, and the band seems reasonably proficient. But the riffing is so pedestrian and the metal so cliche-ridden, that if you removed all the pompousness, you'd have an incredibly mediocre traditional / power metal record.
You have to remember, I was reared on the old-school, eighties style. Slayer, Sepultura, Testament. If you'd have played Nightwish for me in 1987, I would have laughed so quickly and uncontrollably I'd undoubtedly have spit my beer back out all over you and you'd have been sorry you didn't warn me that Joan Baez had joined Helloween. But OK, this is now. And I say that if you want female heavy vocals, go with The Gathering. If you want power metal - there's literally dozens of bands that will better serve you. But if you want a operatic female vocalist singing upbeat European keyboard-laden power/prog, then Nightwish is your thing.
"Nightwish is not mindless drivel or valueless compost posing as art -- it's just not my bag." It's definitely not mine.
Still, I'm one of those PC fucks who realizes there is value in everything. And Nightwish is not mindless drivel or valueless compost posing as art -- it's just not my bag. So we'll spare it the complete disrespect of the one-skull salute and give that first skull a friend to remember me by (if for nothing else than the Floydian voices and samples behind the music on tracks like the pretty cool "Dead Boy's Poem").
Hel's Review:
Don't you just hate it when childhood scars rear their ugly heads, particularly forgotten ones? Until I listened to Nightwish, I had happily buried certain things in my subconscious, even successfully blocked out entire portions of my life from my memory, and I had been able to more or less curb my dislike for the operatic style of female vocals cropping up as background in many black metal bands. Apparently, in small doses, this kind of vocal doesn't trigger it, but when forced to listen to it for extended periods of time - boy oh boy, do I get flashbacks.
"Fellow metalheads, before I succumb to total madness, I strongly recommend that if you do not have any similar psychological trauma, take the time to listen to this one for its creative value and decide for yourselves what you think of the vocals." You see, when I was 5, my parents sent me to school. Misguided as they were, they enrolled me in parochial school. Yep, we're talking strict Roman Catholicism - twice a week the first "class" of the day was Mass, the other 3 days started with "religion class" and, of course, we also had to attend Mass on the weekends and holidays, plus Friday evenings during Lent. Every other Sunday the school "choir" sang at a particular Mass, which was mandatory, surprise, surprise. Because of these "performances", we also had choir practice nearly every day, and this was in no way voluntary. Consider, if you will, what a K-6 church choir must sound like in the first place. Now, consider what it must sound like when the choir director is an evil, children-hating, 300-pound, nun in full stereotypical habit with shoddy operatic training. Then, consider that she was placed in charge of the choir due to her "ability" to sing. Finally, consider that she had some deluded notion that all children should sing this way too. I will cease description here, but know this - I will cringe every time I hear this style of singing for the rest of my life.
So you see, even if this was the best album ever made (and I don't doubt that some may believe it to be), there is just no possibility that would get the objective review it deserves from me. It's all I can do to push away the image of that withered old face with yellow teeth yelling, "Breathe, breathe!!" each time the vocals kick in. I have even been rendered unable to block out the voice by all of this, so therefore I can't really even be objective about the musical arrangement as a result. The closest I can come are the beginnings of "FantasMic" and "Crownless", pre-vox, and they exhibit great skill and emotion. And then the voice starts, and it all gets very fuzzy and indistinct - background to my mind reliving moments long forgotten.
And this all makes me very sad for the additional reason that I really wanted to like this band, I am all about supporting women in metal, and that this band has done nothing to deserve my wrath beyond the vocalist's uncanny resemblance to the voice of a woman which is connected to a very bad era of my life. Truth be told, once the flute part of "FanstasMic" further jogged my memory and my early flute lessons began repeating on me, I realized that these music-related memories are actually some of the better ones I have of that period. And now I'm pressing "stop", before I start remembering any more. I have nightmare fodder for years now - thanks, Nightwish. Wishmaster, can I wake up now? Sister, Can I lift my head from my desk now? Whoa - I think I'm caught in a bizarre time-space continuum. Fellow metalheads, before I succumb to total madness, I strongly recommend that if you do not have any similar psychological trauma, take the time to listen to this one for its creative value and decide for yourselves what you think of the vocals.
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