Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful review
| Band: | Nightwish |
| Album: | Endless Forms Most Beautiful |
| Style: | Symphonic power metal, Symphonic metal |
| Release date: | March 27, 2015 |
| Guest review by: | Metren |
01. Shudder Before The Beautiful
02. Weak Fantasy
03. Èlan
04. Yours Is An Empty Hope
05. Our Decades In The Sun
06. My Walden
07. Endless Forms Most Beautiful
08. Edema Ruh
09. Alpenglow
10. The Eyes Of Sharbat Gula
11. The Greatest Show On Earth
12. Sagan [bonus]
Some bands keep evolving and some don't. Those bands that change their style or genre or - most importantly - change their approach towards songwriting itself are sometimes heavily criticized, and at times rightfully so. Not all change is good and change for the sake of change is pointless for obvious reasons.
However...
Doing the same thing over and over again for five albums is even more pointless. How ironic is it that Nightwish's least original album is inspired by the writings of the father of evolutionary biology? And how unfortunate is it that the inclusion of two new capable musicians to the band has left Holopainen so uninspired?
I'm going to break it down for you lovely symphometal fans: if you like overly-simplistic dun-dun-dun-dun basslines and riffs that a 10-year-old guitar student could come up with, then you will enjoy this album. If you are anything like me however, and only appreciate symphonic metal when the guitars are actually doing something interesting and the symphonic elements complement the riffing rather than get on your nerves, then there isn't much to be enjoyed here.
Perhaps the only song on the album that received the negative reaction from fans that the entire album deserves is "Elan," the first single. The problem with "Elan," or the rest of the album, is not that it is too soft, it's that the songwriting is fantastically weak. If you ask me, Nightwish's cinematic sound peaked with "Ghost Love Score" from Once and "The Poet And The Pendulum" from Dark Passion Play, and the unimaginative Imaginaerum and the endlessly boring Endless Forms Most Beautiful add nothing but disappointment to the band's legacy. Unlike Floor Jansen's former band After Forever, it seems that Nightwish and Holopainen weren't wise enough to stop when they still had great music to offer.
Speaking of Floor Jansen, she doesn't truly demonstrate her vocal abilities on this album either. Her performance is acceptable, but nothing mind-blowing. Then again, nothing about Endless Forms Most Beautiful is mind-blowing, except for how Tuomas isn't yet bored with his own songwriting.
The only song that didn't bore me was "My Walden". Even if one is not a fan of Nightwish or symphometal in general, that song might be worth a listen. The rest of the album, not so much. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go listen to Oceanborn to recover from all this mediocrity.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 6 |
| Originality: | 3 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by Metren | 10.10.2015
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
8.5
8.5
|
Rating: 8.5 |
Short answer: Yeah, it's really great. Long answer: Read more ›› |
Comments
Comments: 14
Visited by: 263 users
| TheMAGAmvm Soycrusher Posts: 1086  |
Finally a review that truly represents this album. When I read the other one I thought that I listened to another album. 8.5? Then Oceanborn would get 15. Even a 6 is too lennient for this garbage.
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| AngelofDeth Cyborg Raptor Posts: 1183  |
I agree with some of your statements, especially about how simplistic the album is and that Once was definitely their peak when it comes to cinematic symphonics. But even so, this is still simple music that sounds good so I can't complain too much. It's definitely not the best Nightwish album but it's still better than the majority of output in the genre at the moment, plus it's catchy and has a cool atmosphere despite the lack of complexity. That said, I'll take it as a one-off but if they repeat this album and keep to the simple style on the next record I'm probably not going to be as forgiving.
---- pewpew.. gotcha
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| ScottyM Posts: 214 |
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| Dracoil Posts: 146  |
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| Shmyt Posts: 84  |
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| andreosokin SOUNDERY Posts: 227  |
Good review! The total score is a bit underrated, but understandable 
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| moe5512 Posts: 502  |
I wouldn't say that Nightwish has ever been that technical regarding riffs, well every now and then but not in a whole. What kinda destroys the album for me is actually Floor, she sounds so dull and this is supposed to be the same woman that sang Ghost Love Score at Wacken? meh not bad, not good
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62002  |
I have told this and I will do it again, only interesting and kick ass album after Angels Fell First ... between its just boring , whit songs, here whole album is hit, its made for album people not hit lowers
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| BlackMetalDay Posts: 95 |
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| Creativinity Posts: 79  |
When I heard Floor was going to sing on a Nightwish album I almost fainted. Now that I heard the album, I almost fainted...from boredom. - The promise of what was to come was supposed to be manna for earth. -
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| mariano Posts: 372 |
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| The Evergreen Posts: 241  |
I like this album, not as much as... well, any of their other ones... but I like it okay. You, all of you, have made realize something, though: I think Emppu needs to go or needs a break. Jari Mäenpää could fill in for a while. He's not doing much at the moment, and Kai is already there. That's my evil pan, anyway.
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| AnGina-- Dark Phoenix Posts: 3555  |
This is thes most interesting review I've read on MS in ages. Seriously. Unlike the totally-not-funny-and-boring-sarcasm use I see in some reviews, this one is just so fundamentally honest, it's funny beyond everything. Bravo.
---- You think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was a man. But it was nothing to me but blinding.
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| Metren Dreadrealm Posts: 1410  |
Written by mariano on 13.10.2015 at 18:22 So I revisited this review of mine to read the comments and I agree with you. I think the expression about the ten-year-old guitar student was perhaps the wrong one to use. It is not the lack of experience that makes the riffs (and pretty much everything else on this album) a total bore, it is indeed the lack of creativity. Also, I shouldn't insult 10-year-olds, who are guitar students, most of them can play better than I can  . A better way of putting it would have been: "Riffs that are inspired by the winners of the annual most boring and lifeless riffs ever contest" or something like that.
---- My one-man project's Bandcamp with free downloads: https://dreadrealm.bandcamp.com/
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