Unremarkable crap.

Written by Dark Forever on 10.04.2020 at 17:50

I said "people who don't like their music for at least the past decade". I'm not saying people don't like the band or don't love their earlier outputs, but I still see people talking about the Tarja-era sound in this comment section. I mean, clearly Nightwish are not going back to that.

Ah fair enough mate, I misunderstood. Sorry!

Written by mikeprado30 on 11.04.2020 at 02:37

What the hell do you want from Nightwish to create, guys?

Pretty much covered by The Shape 1973.

For me, they should disband.

Written by [user id=104220] on 11.04.2020 at 03:41

Written by Dark Forever on 10.04.2020 at 17:34

This has to be the band most listened by people who don't like their music for at least the past decade.

I think it's the other way around. There are people like myself who appreciate Nightwish's career so much, that every new album is considered a must listen, even if their last album wasn't that good. That's very flattering for a band! Having a persistent and dedicated fan base.
Loving most of their records, doesn't automatically makes their latest album a 10/10.

That's an interesting perspective. And it does say a lot about the impact Nightwish's career had in the Metal community. Either if you love them, hate them, or anything in-between, you can't deny their relevance and skill. That being said, I understand their new direction is not as impactful and original as their earlier outputs. I still love it, but I admit it's not groundbreaking.

Written by RaduP on 10.04.2020 at 21:09

Crazy how Floor is the best vocalist that they've ever had, but the albums with her are their worst.

Floor isn't the best vocalist that they've ever had!

Written by Anconeus on 11.04.2020 at 17:06

Written by RaduP on 10.04.2020 at 21:09

Crazy how Floor is the best vocalist that they've ever had, but the albums with her are their worst.

Floor isn't the best vocalist that they've ever had!

she kinda is, has a a wider range (am I saying it right?).

Written by Anconeus on 11.04.2020 at 17:06

Written by RaduP on 10.04.2020 at 21:09

Crazy how Floor is the best vocalist that they've ever had, but the albums with her are their worst.

Floor isn't the best vocalist that they've ever had!

Objectively false. She can handle both the straighforward singing and the operatic singing, in which both Tarja and Annette were only top-notch in one. Plus I think she does both styles better than both of them.

Written by RaduP on 10.04.2020 at 21:09

Crazy how Floor is the best vocalist that they've ever had, but the albums with her are their worst.

Funny because I think she influences the way this album feels a lot. Obviously, I think Floor is one of the best vocalists, puts a hell of a show live, BUT I can't help but feel that this album would be better with Anette as a vocalist xD Don't kill me. With her voice, perhaps the same songs would sound less generic, and more magical, like for example Eva. What do you guys think?

Written by Furiator on 11.04.2020 at 17:16

Funny because I think she influences the way this album feels a lot. Obviously, I think Floor is one of the best vocalists, puts a hell of a show live, BUT I can't help but feel that this album would be better with Anette as a vocalist xD Don't kill me. With her voice, perhaps the same songs would sound less generic, and more magical, like for example Eva. What do you guys think?

Not gonna disagree. A lot of people are blaming Troy and Tuomas for the decline, but it just might be that Floor might actually have a bit of a say. Otherwise she is severely misused here.

I think it's the whole band... they have a kickass drummer, a guitarist who played with a lot of feel and skill on 4 albums, a vocalist with huuuge range and lots of good albums to her credit, and a composer who made songs that blew our minds away once.

but at this point, whatever they release, they'll still sell out shows, they'll travel the world, live the dream so they kind of don't need to work hard on making good music. i think hard work, creativity takes a back seat when you're busy touring, doing fan-service etc and the touring pays you that well.

I know this is going to sound strange but here it goes: it seems that Tuomas is creatively influenced by the vocalist.

For Tarja, that's a well-known fact. Tuomas used to refer to her as his muse. By the Century Child and Once albums, Tuomas started heavily rehashing old themes: oceansoul and innocence. However, with Tarja gone, Nightwish has changed both instrumentally and thematically. Anette was not a welcome change for many but she sparked something within Tuomas. A new fire, a change, some kind of creative burst.

The same thing happened with Floor. With the introduction of a third singer, Nightwish has gone through a third thematic iteration as well. However, I would agree with others: this time it's not as glorious as before. So yes, Floor has something to do with it. Not because of her singing or decision-making process. She's just not lighting the right fire within Tuomas.

This CD is boring and uninsteresting. It doesn´t go anywhere. It lacks creativity and the "wow" factor. There´s no standout song, almost all of them sound boring. I almost fell asleep... Floor Jansen is amazing, always was, but even she could not save this mess. Also, it lacks guitar solos, I think Emppu´s position in the band became almost invisible. The guy only does bland guitar riffs, nothing more.

It´s a shame and this is not the right path for them in my opinion.

I logged in just to post my review of this album: I have listened to ALL NW albums including side projects. This newest album is easily the worst of all. Uninspired, bland, soulless. I don't know why Tuomas seems to consciously undermine and understate the talents of Floor, Emppu and Marko (and even his own). Lose the hippy, pseudo-science crap and go back to the old, majestic magic you used to make in older albums with Tarja. Yes, I said it, with Tarja, who was the absolute soul and distinguishing mark of the band. Or quit. You are literally harming the reputation of the band and of the artists. I even prefer the albums with Anette, that's how bad this is.

My opinion, typing out as I'm listening to it for the first time;

Part I -

Music, the opening song is AWFUL, and sincerily I hope it's the worst song on the whole album. So boring, bland, soulless, repetitive, makes me dizzy in a bad way. Has nothing that stands out to me. I wonder why they chose it as the opening one. It's a great first track to skip every time, lol. (1/5 stars)

But Noise, the second song is much more decent, reminescent of the older songs, very good instrumentally, and Floor's high-pitch screaming is amazing here . Might be the best song on the album...? (5/5 stars)

The Shoemaker it's not bad, I like it... very varied composition. (4/5 stars)

Harvest, the beginning reminds me of a few other songs fused together... it's cool, tho so far from Nightwish style. The switch to heavier style is very welcome, not bad, not bad. (4/5 stars)

Pan The singing at the beginning makes me nauseous, omg so drunken and fiabesque... kinda revolting. Second part better, the third part is pretty good. The outro is pretty solid. (3/5) stars

How's The Heart... The beginning is boring. Chorus is kinda bland, after chorus pretty awful. But the rest of the song is decent. (3/5)

Procession, another of those boring beginning that kinda gives you nausea. Why does she have to sing like that?! Interesting piano insert... here we go with the boring singing again... oh, do I hear distortion? Nice. At least there is some distortion. (2/5) stars

Tribal, stands true to its name, not bad... kinda like (4/5) stars

Endlessness... pretty boring, has some nausea-inducing parts. A + for Marco's vocals (I missed him) (3/5) stars

Part II -

Vista, oh god this fairytale movie music bullshit... Yes it's boring. AF. So another pretty awful opening track, well at least is instrumental only. (1/5 stars)

The Blue, pretty much an extension of Vista, but a bit less boring. Has hints of epic melodies here and there. Kinda meh (2/5 stars)

The Green, more fairytale movie music bullshit, very boring beginning. Now I get it,... the second CD is all about Tuomas' wet dream of making another movie score, ...right? I'm not fan of this kind of stuff. Pretty meh. (2/5 stars)

Moors, second half is much more decent than the first... gives you a bit of a nostalgic vibe along with a kind of mysterious atmosphere. (3/5 stars)

Aurorae, super boring, yawning-inducing beginning, but soon after battle music ensues, but it doesn't exactly save the day (2/5 stars)

Quiet as the show, sleep-inducing with nausea, boring and awful experiment. Oh god! Although the violins sounds are kinda cool, do not save it either (1/5 stars)

Anhropocene, meh, at this point Tuomas should go writing church music with all those angelic quire voices... (1/5 stars)

Ad astra, the last song (thank god) is ... Awful. I don't even need to listen to it, at this point I know it already. Ok but I will, just for the sake of trying to be objective. Ok, it actually gets better it's (kind of) a good song to end it all, IMO. (kinda 4/5 stars)

In conclusion, there is definitely too much of Tuomas' movie/church wet dreams score vibes and definitely too much fairytale flute in the songs on the first CD. Floor singing is half-boring, half-decent, oftentimes nausea-inducing. There is not enough of Marco!! There are no solos! Bland, quite boring, definitely overrated album. Musically, I'm pretty sure overall, it is the WORST Nightwish album up to date. There is litle to no dinamicity to it. And the second CD is full of absolutely boring music as a whole. One to skip...

Now that being said, I must say, I was a huge fan of Nightwish's music from Angels Fall First to Once, and then after Tarja left, it all went gradually downhill. Now, I'm not a Tarja fanboy. However, I think her operatic vocals, coupled with the extremely wild and dynamic, fast-peaced METAL music, were a majestic combination. Of course they had their amazing ballads and parts of songs that were not so wild, but as a whole they were just an exceptional band. And we should not forget about the addition of Marco's back and sometimes main vocal's rage! These were the elements that made this band stand out so much, so ahead of it's time, but now sadly... these days seem to be gone forever.

I mean, can you (truly) believe this is the band that made songs like..., oh I don't know, there is literally so many amazing songs they've done in the past, when there was still passion...
Edit: After listening to this new album, I immediatelly had to put on Bless The Child album to fix the awful "taste".

Wow... reading these comments i feel everyone here has been listening to another album than i have.

I had goosebumps beginning to end. Every song is so emotionally provoking, its insane. Hows the heart guys? Lol.. But no seriously

A new Nightwish album even takes me a few listens to get into. With this one it took me exactly 3 full listens to be completely enchanted, faster than any other. Imo theyve grown up as a band so much, along with me. They were the band to get me into metal when i was 13. Ill never deny the brilliance of Oceanborn/Wishmaster etc. in their own time. But that was then, this is now. I love the folky additions, i very much disagree with some people sayin its overused.

The song structures were different and interesting. The lyrics deep and meaningful like we're used to, if you bother to listen what its actually about.. Floor vocals were simply breathtaking. The vocal lines in most of these songs were so difficult, still she made everything sound so light and bright. The operatic vocals at the end of Shoemaker is one of the best thing ive ever heard come out of her mouth. Cant wait to hear them performed live.

Edit: The acoustic version of Hows the Heart on youtube ... Fml, its beautiful. Check it out.

Written by Furiator on 11.04.2020 at 17:16

Written by RaduP on 10.04.2020 at 21:09

Crazy how Floor is the best vocalist that they've ever had, but the albums with her are their worst.

Funny because I think she influences the way this album feels a lot. Obviously, I think Floor is one of the best vocalists, puts a hell of a show live, BUT I can't help but feel that this album would be better with Anette as a vocalist xD Don't kill me. With her voice, perhaps the same songs would sound less generic, and more magical, like for example Eva. What do you guys think?

Yes, absolutely. I prefer Anette to Floor in Nightwish any day. Although, I have listened to Anette's band recently, called The Dark Element, I was excited at first, when I heard of this, but when I heard the whole album, to me, it sounded surprisingly boring and bland overall. I'm sorry for her 'cause she was so excited and dedicated about it in an interview I watched beforehand... Here is the interview if you are interested: https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/anette-olzon-would-never-reunite-with-nightwish-they-treated-me-so-badly/

I don't get this... it all feels so mediocre overindulgent and pretentious. It's not like some of these ideas are bad or anything, but honestly as a metal album? It just often feels like the "metal" part is thrown in there because they feel like they have to. And I feel like most of the ideas in this record would work better if they didn't have any metal elements added to them or if they went full-on with them.

This just sounds like "let's keep it a bit inbetween". If you want a completely symphonic album... Great! go for it! But please do it like Blind Guardian then and just say right from the start that it's going to be a symphonic album. I'd be interested. However the record I gave 2 listens to today doesn't excite me in the slightest.

It's simply put an album that doesn't know what it wants to be. No clear personality or direction.

Can we talk about how pretentious the lyrics come across on some of the songs, the opener especially.

Written by Etaín on 11.04.2020 at 23:44

Wow... reading these comments i feel everyone here has been listening to another album than i have.

Hows the heart guys?

Beating and fucking healthy.

Let me tell you something about "Human. :II: Nature" - it is absolute groggy. I really wish band should get a time off to curate new directions for its legacy as slowly it's heading towards absolute decaying. To be brutally honest, Nightwish was active til' "DPP".

And you doling out 10s shows your loyal ejaculation to NW.

I don't care about Nightwish, but I tried couple of songs (Shoemaker, Tribal, I think), because I've got respect for talented Floor Jansen. Hell, this was painful! Lifeless, dull and pathetic. And I read, that those are better songs from the album. Poor Floor! Why is she wasting her talent in this project of that self-centric douche Holopainen? Money?

Written by Aries Rising on 12.04.2020 at 06:31

Can we talk about how pretentious the lyrics come across on some of the songs, the opener especially.

Yes, we can. Let's see. A snippet from Procession lyrics:

We remember, father Pikaia
Gave the way, as along came Sapien
The cradle Earth, welcoming it's newborn
Aeons since that very first acorn

Together now, in this timeless parade
The living lie, dead afraid
Then they saw the moon, and found caring
We remember, as along came writing

Such worlds were there, zoos dead again
After all, we should've never appeared
Spaceship Earth, through the fields of time
They understood, as along came wisdom

We have been here a while
At the end of Pi, as along came harvest


What...the fuck?

Sadly this feels like a waste of Jensen's voice. I'm quite disappointed. Maybe because I was expecting something similar to Bless the Child and Once, or at least as catchy as Dark Passion Play.

The best I could say about this album is: it's a grower.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 12.04.2020 at 09:07

And you doling out 10s shows your loyal ejaculation to NW.

No, it shows that i am fuckin loving this album and just happen to disagree with your opinion. Which is allowed, yes?

Endless Forms took me a lot longer to get into than this one for some reason. DPP has amazing songs, but as a whole album i mostly skipped over it till Floor literally brought them to live during shows. I forgot how ppl love to stick labels on everything around here, i see not much has changed in that sense. They need to be more metal, they need to be more this, they need to be less this. Seems to me they are perfectly creating just the thing they love instead of trying to shuv their own music in a certain box.

Written by Etaín on 12.04.2020 at 17:33

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 12.04.2020 at 09:07

And you doling out 10s shows your loyal ejaculation to NW.

I forgot how ppl love to stick labels on everything around here, i see not much has changed in that sense. They need to be more metal, they need to be more this, they need to be less this. Seems to me they are perfectly creating just the thing they love instead of trying to shuv their own music in a certain box.

Let me shove metal chauvinism saying that we are more metal one metal community could ever be. And you're part of this most beautiful family.

As for labels, just because folks taking rounds on your most fav toy doesn't mean we throw unwarranted labels around.

Written by Etaín on 12.04.2020 at 17:33

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 12.04.2020 at 09:07

And you doling out 10s shows your loyal ejaculation to NW.

No, it shows that i am fuckin loving this album and just happen to disagree with your opinion. Which is allowed, yes?

Endless Forms took me a lot longer to get into than this one for some reason. DPP has amazing songs, but as a whole album i mostly skipped over it till Floor literally brought them to live during shows. I forgot how ppl love to stick labels on everything around here, i see not much has changed in that sense. They need to be more metal, they need to be more this, they need to be less this. Seems to me they are perfectly creating just the thing they love instead of trying to shuv their own music in a certain box.

By the same token we are ALLOWED to disagree and state reasons why we think it's bad...
What you are doing is BLIND devotion by spouting we are using labels and the like because you can't take the criticism.

Written by Irritable Ted on 12.04.2020 at 20:51

This has been a great debate. One of the best on here for a while. Both sides giving valid reasons for their point of view. Let's not spoil it by adding mild insults (so far).

Yeah, I thought it's been relatively civilized for once until the last couple of posts, it'd be nice to keep it that way for now (I'm reviewing this - haven't heard it yet, but excited to see which group I'm going to disappoint)

I would like to add that anyone who disagrees with me is wrong and should be ashamed of themselves.

Hey i never said people arent allowed their opinion, not at all. Didnt write that anywhere :/ Im just really surprised at all the reactions. So often it seems anytime a band moves a bit away from what they originally started out doing, people give them shit for it. Just seems to me theyre finally beautifully evolving, and im loving the way theyre heading. Its not blind devotion at all. I do not love every single thing they ever did. Did not like where they were heading with Once and DPP. They were still good albums, but .. The way theyre heading now is much more my thing at this time in my life.

This sure is a lot of attention for such a mediocre album.

Written by Etaín on 12.04.2020 at 23:02

Hey i never said people arent allowed their opinion, not at all. Didnt write that anywhere :/ Im just really surprised at all the reactions. So often it seems anytime a band moves a bit away from what they originally started out doing, people give them shit for it. Just seems to me theyre finally beautifully evolving, and im loving the way theyre heading. Its not blind devotion at all. I do not love every single thing they ever did. Did not like where they were heading with Once and DPP. They were still good albums, but .. The way theyre heading now is much more my thing at this time in my life.

That's fair, thanks for explaining some more - sorry if my post came across as extreme. I just find it a bad argument when people use the "stop labelling" card when defending something - alot of what is in this thread are valid points and add to the debate.

For the record I agree with sound changes and bands should evolve, however I don't think it's an evolution when most what I liked about Nightwish is now missing. I actually think it's the opposite and a huge leap of faith in the wrong direction.