Nightwish - Human. :II: Nature.

Although doom is my burning passion nowadays, I got into the metal realm with Nightwish on Wishmaster. The band never was and Tuomas is very clear about it - won't be about pure metallish sound. Had Tarja Turunen never crossed paths with Tuomas, Jukka and Emppu and Nightwish would be an acoustic project. They only decided to play metal because it was a very good time for it - because of Children of Bodom and alike - but mainly because Tarja's voice was not suitable for acoustic at the time (she was studying classical music). Human Nature recovers much of that initial purpose, when the band was still trying to find its place by having to choose a more specific style to define itself, and failing from alien's perspective. Nightwish is mostly about composition. And this album delivers it in a master level.

Here is the good thing about Human Nature: Nightwish is branching out. They explored the shit out of the Once concept with Dark Passion Play and Imaginareum. Endless Forms was a bit of transition album the same way Century Child was. While in Century Child the band became less power metal and more symphonic, Endless Forms became less symphonic but proggier and folkier.

Human Nature kicks the prog and folk elements another notch. The band exploring a different sound to me is a positive, even if I don't like the album.

Now the negatives can all be pinned on Tuomas. The songwritting just isn't fun. I recognize that this is perhaps their most ambitious album, but it's just not an enjoyable album to listen to. It's too pretentious in theme and song writing, it's complexity for complexity sake rather building to something enjoyable. For example, Floor cameout saying this is the most demanding album she has ever worked on from a vocals perspective, but honestly who cares? I rather listen to her on a straight forward song like Monolith of Doubt, than the technical masturbation that is Tribal.

My personal raiting is 6.5/10 since there is some really good moments like in Music, Pan is fantastic song, and the opening of Endlessness gives me some serious Death/Doom vibes that I would NEVER expect from nightwish. And this is coming for a lifelong fan, and someone who gave Tarja's In the Raw an 8.5.

Ultimately it feels like Nightwish is moving away from their Disney phase and migrating to the Discovery Channel. Whatever the fuck that may mean.

Lot of complaints about proggier and folkier direction (aldough I don't relly hear much prog here), but I was actualy hoping for even more folk album. Troy's adition to the band and gradual increase of folk elements from DPP onvards was something I really enjoyed. I like almost all Nightwish albums and I tought more folky direction was a good way of exploring different ideas since it's obvious Tuomas is not going heavier or anything like that. Human Nature is not exactely what I was hoping for, a few songs has that overtly sentimental almost poppy feel to them, but overall it's still ok. The thing is I don't nesecerally think of Nightwish as a metal band anymore, and inclusion of a more folk sounds, something along the lines of Elvenjig from Decades tour could be the way of further reinventing their style and staying frash and interesting. Unfortunnately, Harvest and How's the Heart, two songs that are most in that vain are also most poppy and bland. But outside of those two, all the others are at least very solid, and there are few great ones. Second disc I consider a bonus and not really part of the album. It's bottom tier Nightwish but still decent one.

Okay, the album is not that BAAAAD at all! The only song that I don't like is 'Harvest', just because of Troy's vocals.

Written by [user id=318009] on 02.07.2022 at 19:18

Okay, the album is not that BAAAAD at all! The only song that I don't like is 'Harvest', just because of Troy's vocals.

Yeah, but it's not great either. I used to really like Nightwish, but looking back, none of their albums are really worthy of a 9 or higher, I think the highest I've given is like 8.3 or something on Once.

So it's ok. It sits in the middle for me. Some good melodies here and there, but overall... meh.

Most songs are pretty dull, with a few good moments, and the first two tracks being quite good. But alas it drops in quality dramatically after that. The second CD is a nice listen, spoken sections are meh, but not as awful as the previous album at least.

Not my cup of tea. It doesn't get any momentum and most of the tracks somehow feel "underwritten", or maybe it's just the song ideas are not strong enough to begin with.

Written by ickoriss on 09.04.2020 at 09:38

Listened to the record. I like it quite a bit, but I'm sure it'll grow on me even more over the coming months like the last one did.

It didn't grow on me. I kind of hate it now lol.

There are two songs on this album that I like, music and pan. Other than that I found the songwriting to be very generic and average.

Another underrated album - I don’t mind catchy or more heavy Nightwish but I enjoy more when it’s not so obvious - and this one is not obvious. You get a bit catchy a bit heavy but it’s a concept album a little proggy and I enjoy it much more than their other albums. Actually for me - this album is perfect and musically it’s their peak imo

This was a very inconsistent release for me. On one hand, I liked it A LOT more than the previous one, and 3 songs from the album proper ended up among my long-time Nightwish favorites (Shoemaker, Endlessness, Procession), and I also like "How's The Heart?" a lot. On the other hand, I can barely remember the other tracks (and I can usually recognize 99% Nightwish songs instantly, regardless of whether I like them or not).

But the second CD (All The Works...) was a shocker. It's not metal, but it's SO good that if it was released as a separate album, I'd give it a 10 without a second thought. Experiments like that are one of the things I love the most about Nightwish. In the end, my rating is more of an average between the two CDs.