Nightwish...

[Evermind]

Yeah, I'm really liking the Disc 1. Feel fairly fresh after EFMB which felt a bit by the numbers.

[CrimsonSunrise]

For anyone into interviews I thought this livestream from Floor was 10x better than an interview!!  Some great lil nuggets in there!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32kyXv9ZSaU&fbclid=IwAR1X3ZZi0bkhJmmQ_2LTJRtBMmXD0Bv20FUfGMwSYDb4nA_ymMceE1D33hw

[MirrorMask]

Yeah, I'm really liking the Disc 1. Feel fairly fresh after EFMB which felt a bit by the numbers.

I kinda see a pattern with new vocalists.

Annette came on board and they made an album with "normal" (for lack of a better term) songs, carried by the huge long epic. Then she settled in and they pulled no stops with Imaginaerum which is for the record my favorite Nightwish album.

Then Floor came aboard and once again they concentated on "classic Nightwish" songs (and the long epic), and then they finally realized they have Floor goddamn Jansen on board and went fully wild with this new album, having her do unreal stuff with her voice.

Now Floor will get in 4-5 years what Annette didn't, a third album, who knows what it will be like!

[cramx3]

Speaking of Imaginarium... Endlessness really reminds me of Rest Calm.  I'm a big fan of these 9 songs on disc 1.  If I judge the album just for this disc, I'd rate it very highly at a 50 minute album.  Definitely a bit of a progression in sound while still being very Nightwishy.  Man I hope that show in September happens

[CrimsonSunrise]

  Man I hope that show in September happens

Me too!  They took a poll of NFL fans, 77% said they wouldn't go to games in Sept. without a vaccine.  I guess we just have to be super optimistic!

[Adami]

Listened to it all today.

I like it! It doesn't have quite the energy of earliest stuff and is much more mellow (for the most part) but it's much fresher than EFMB, which is nice.

I also really dig the last song with the super long pretentious title I won't type. It's not something to blast while driving or to listen to a ton, but it's really pretty and very relaxing.

[fadetoblackdude7]

I listened to it once and I really like it! Music, Shoemaker and Pan were the standouts. The second disc is awesome too, especially The Green. Don’t understand why some people find it boring.

[jingle.boy]

One listen in. I’m with Marc and RJ - disc two was limp as shit. Not into it. I don’t want to say disc 1 was ‘by-the-numbers’, but nothing jumped out at me right away (tho admittedly I was multi-tasking).

[CrimsonSunrise]

Man, I'm always seemingly slow to the party.  I just started watching the BA show from 2018 on youtube that I guess is going to be the next blu ray?  Couple real good performances on there.  Definitely my favorite performance of TGSOE to date.  Parts of Ghost Love Score are also epic, especially the vocal crescendo which for me surpasses Waken 2013, Wembley, Tampere,  and BA 2012's performances!

[cramx3]

Man, I'm always seemingly slow to the party.  I just started watching the BA show from 2018 on youtube that I guess is going to be the next blu ray? 

about being late to the party... that blu-ray/cd has been out for quite some time.  It's a really awesome concert to have on CD for sure as it's the current band doing lots of older and rarer songs.  It's so well done.  I was watching a bit of my blu-ray over the weekend.  The video isn't as good as their previous releases IMO, but it's still an awesome package of the blu-ray/cd and highly recommended for a fan of the current form of the band.

[CrimsonSunrise]

Man, I'm always seemingly slow to the party.  I just started watching the BA show from 2018 on youtube that I guess is going to be the next blu ray? 

about being late to the party... that blu-ray/cd has been out for quite some time.  It's a really awesome concert to have on CD for sure as it's the current band doing lots of older and rarer songs.  It's so well done.  I was watching a bit of my blu-ray over the weekend.  The video isn't as good as their previous releases IMO, but it's still an awesome package of the blu-ray/cd and highly recommended for a fan of the current form of the band.

  I'm telling ya, Marc... getting old aint for the feint at heart    It's already out?  How the hell did I miss that?  Yeah, I watched some of the older songs today also.  I must admit, I don't really listen to a lot of pre-Once material.  Matter of fact I don't even have Wishmaster.   That being said I liked Carpenter and Gethsemane's performances.  OK... off to order the Blu-ray.....   Thank's for the heads up!

[cramx3]

  it's all good, The Carpenter is one of the songs they really brought to life with this line up.  I had mostly thought it wasn't very good on their first album, but I really enjoy the Decades version

[MirrorMask]

I've come to the conclusion that this album is.... fantastic!

At first I was "what?", but then it fully conquered me. Yeah, it's weird, it's not that heavy, it doesn't have the killer classic song like Nemo, I Want My Tears Back or even Elan, but damn it's good! and Floor does UNREAL things on this album, she kicks ass!!!

Some brief thoughts on the songs...

MUSIC: Weirdest opener ever, what's up with two intros in one? anyway, the vocal melodies are superb and Floor already on the first song starts to shine. Bad opener, wonderful and amazing song.

NOISE: Feels like the "Mh, guess we have to have a single" kind of song. It's not bad, but it's the least good leading single off the last three albums, possibly four.

SHOEMAKER: Once again clever and unusual melodies are put at Floor's service, and she does amazing things especially in that operatic final part. WOW!!!! JUST WOW!!! 

HARVEST: We all know it by now, cute little folky song, I don't mind it at all, but I still think Floor should have sung the final chorus for a change.

PAN: I was sure that this song was called "Pain", not Pan  once again, I have to praise Floor for the delivery of the interesting vocal lines, this song gives me a "weird dream" vibe.

HOW'S THE HEART: The other single-y song, this is gonna go down so well live. Spiritual sequel to Elan, check the lyrical callback to the cliff meeting the sea.

PROCESSION: Wonderful ballad, half elegy half celebration of the grandiose complexity of life. Who knew a crash course in biology could have been so haunting and beautiful?

TRIBAL: I've seen a lot of early praise for this, but to me it sounds like a "damn, we don't have enough heavy stuff on the record" kind of song. Short and underdeveloped, Marco going Planet of the Apes isn't enough to save the song.

ENDLESSNESS: Now this is more like it! a doom-ish and majestic celebration of the universe, with a great chorus and awesome finale, and Floor's small part really shows how well you can use different vocalists. I wish they had more occasions like this on the album, where someone's song has a perfect and limited partecipation of another singer.

OH MY GOD, NATURE IS FUCKING AWESOME OR WHATEVER IS THE TITLE: Well, all in all I like it. Not love it, but I like it. Favorite movements are The Blue, which is absolutely majestic, and the ending Ad Astra, whose theme surfaces again in The Moors. I don't mind listening to it now that the album is new, but I don't plan on going through it every time in the future. I'm already planning an edit version where I keep Vista (the beginning after all), The Blue, the second half of The Moors and then Ad Astra, that should make it 10-15 minutes long at worst and make it more listeneable.

Maybe it's not a composition that will go down in history, but I like how after all it's just little vignettes here and there inspired by various aspects of nature (someone should make a video for all these others pieces however, it would be trippy to see the corresponding landscapes while listening to it), and how Tuomas didn't try to write the most majestic and solemn and glorious and whatever piece of music ever composed, aiming to end it all with the grandiosest grandiose finale of all time with a thousand choirs and stuff like that. He kept it kinda simple, it makes for an easier listening experience, but as I said I already know I won't keep to listen forever to the second disc whenever I'll listen to the first.

[Evermind]

What did you think about Procession though?

[MirrorMask]

What did you think about Procession though?

 

Fixed 

[CrimsonSunrise]

I've come to the conclusion that this album is.... fantastic!

At first I was "what?", but then it fully conquered me. Yeah, it's weird, it's not that heavy, it doesn't have the killer classic song like Nemo, I Want My Tears Back or even Elan, but damn it's good! and Floor does UNREAL things on this album, she kicks ass!!!

Some brief thoughts on the songs...

MUSIC: Weirdest opener ever, what's up with two intros in one? anyway, the vocal melodies are superb and Floor already on the first song starts to shine. Bad opener, wonderful and amazing song.

NOISE: Feels like the "Mh, guess we have to have a single" kind of song. It's not bad, but it's the least good leading single off the last three albums, possibly four.


PROCESSION: Wonderful ballad, half elegy half celebration of the grandiose complexity of life. Who knew a crash course in biology could have been so haunting and beautiful?

Definitely agree on "Music" .  It's a weird track for the intro to the album.  Personally, I really like Noise.  I would put it at the same level/category/quality of say... Ghost River.  Especially love the transition in it.  Procession... every time I hear around the 1:00 mark all I hear is "Dead Gardens"  (Which is awesome).  It really sounds like something that could've been on "Once"

[ariich]

I'm really, really digging How's the Heart. The main melody is so damn good. The first disc is generally pretty great all round, really solid stuff.

The second disc is also pretty good in a film score kind of way, but it's not exactly a standout example and on its own it doesn't feel like there's a narrative that it accompanies (though I don't doubt there is one underlying it). So it's fine but I think I'll be treating it as a completely separate thing that I rarely listen to, while the first disc will probably me my go-to Nightwish album for a little while.

[cramx3]

Hows the Heart has been tough to get out of my head.  I love that last verse when it gets a bit heavier too.

Also, lots of people say this album isn't as heavy.  If you take out disc 2, I don't feel at all that disc 1 isn't as heavy as usual.  It just doesn't start with that banger like their other albums do, although I absolutely love Music.

[MirrorMask]

The second disc is also pretty good in a film score kind of way, but it's not exactly a standout example and on its own it doesn't feel like there's a narrative that it accompanies (though I don't doubt there is one underlying it).

There are two themes I recognized - the main one of Ad Astra surfaces in the end of The Moors, and a bit of The Blue comes back for the movement with the ancient hymn or so. Maybe there's more, but I think they're just vignettes put in sequences - here's some music inspired by the sea, here's some inspired by the snow etc...

[Adami]

Hows the Heart has been tough to get out of my head.  I love that last verse when it gets a bit heavier too.

Also, lots of people say this album isn't as heavy.  If you take out disc 2, I don't feel at all that disc 1 isn't as heavy as usual.  It just doesn't start with that banger like their other albums do, although I absolutely love Music.

I said it wasn't as heavy, and I still think so. That's not to say it's not heavy at all. It's probably pretty close to EFMB in that regard. Nightwish has just gotten less heavy over the last few albums. Still moments, but much less. Even a lot of the stuff with heavy guitar and drums is still pretty low key. Not an insult by any means, just an observation.

[cramx3]

Hows the Heart has been tough to get out of my head.  I love that last verse when it gets a bit heavier too.

Also, lots of people say this album isn't as heavy.  If you take out disc 2, I don't feel at all that disc 1 isn't as heavy as usual.  It just doesn't start with that banger like their other albums do, although I absolutely love Music.

I said it wasn't as heavy, and I still think so. That's not to say it's not heavy at all. It's probably pretty close to EFMB in that regard. Nightwish has just gotten less heavy over the last few albums. Still moments, but much less. Even a lot of the stuff with heavy guitar and drums is still pretty low key. Not an insult by any means, just an observation.

That wasn't directed at you, I've seen it all over in different places of people generally saying this is a softer album.  If you take the last track into account, yes, it really is.  If you look at disc 1, it's similar to EFMB I agree.  It's not AS heavy, but it's still pretty heavy.  Even a song like Harvest, the back half is pretty heavy.  Hows the Heart gets heavy, Procession even gets heavier as it goes.  It kind of reminds me of DT's TA album where everyone said it was soft, and yes, it was softer and a lot of songs started soft, so I get why people feel that way, but to me, it just feels a bit incomplete of an observation.  Once again, not directed at you, just kind of saying how I feel about that observation. 

Having said that, I've been thinking how to rank the songs.  I've listened plenty now and with all the lyric videos, I even know a lot of the lyrics now.  So here's my initial track rankings:

Pan
Music
Hows the Heart
Noise
Tribal
Harvest
Endlessness
Shoemaker
Procession
....
All the Works of Nature Which Adorn the World

should note, disc 1 doesn't have a bad song, there's not much difference between shoemaker and hows the heart

[Adami]

Oh I know, but since I made that statement, I figured I'd back it up.

And we might be using the word heavy differently. I don't consider any part of Harvest heavy. Rocking, 100%, but not heavy. Simply having a thumping drum beat and distorted guitars doesn't make something heavy for me. Noise has a lot of heavy (Nightwish heavy at least) and so does stuff like Tribal and I think Pan, but a lot of the album is much more rocking/relaxing than heavy. Which is cool.

[kaos2900]

Loving the album. Endless is really the only disc 1 song that hasn't clicked with me. Feels like a weak way to end the album.

[The Curious Orange]

Amazon is now giving a delivery date of April 22, still a week away. I'm trying not to listen to it online until I get the CD in my hands, and I do understand they have to prioritise other deliveries, but man...

[ariich]

I'm really, really digging How's the Heart. The main melody is so damn good.

I have moved on to being completely obsessed with this song. I just can't get enough of that chorus and Floor's performance.

[cramx3]

I'm really, really digging How's the Heart. The main melody is so damn good.

I have moved on to being completely obsessed with this song. I just can't get enough of that chorus and Floor's performance.

Love the call back to Elan, and also just after the 3 minute mark where it gets a bit heavier and Floor sings "How IS that heart?" gets me every time.  One of my favorite parts of the album.

[ariich]

I'm really, really digging How's the Heart. The main melody is so damn good.

I have moved on to being completely obsessed with this song. I just can't get enough of that chorus and Floor's performance.

Love the call back to Elan, and also just after the 3 minute mark where it gets a bit heavier and Floor sings "How IS that heart?" gets me every time.  One of my favorite parts of the album.

Yep, also that final chorus.

[MirrorMask]

And especially the very ending! how Floor and Troy softly whisper "Come in, the fire's warm, burn the rope and dance some more" seems like a dream or a fairytale where you enter into a cozy cabin with a fireplace.

[MoraWintersoul]

I'm surprised by the warm reception on the forum, in other places I've read it's been criticized a bit more.

I enjoy it just as much as I did EFMB, which is to say, quite a bit. Love most of the individual songs on both, and this album's segmentation between the epic/symphonic side and the pure Nightwish side suits my tastes a lot more, so overall it will have a higher ranking in my heart than EFMB.

[The Walrus]

What does it mean to burn the rope?

[cramx3]

What does it mean to burn the rope?

 

[The Walrus]

Smoke 'em if you got 'em! 

[cramx3]

I actually have no idea, never heard that phrase before but it could mean that

[ariich]

Could well be, I assumed it was about candles.

[cramx3]

Could well be, I assumed it was about candles.

That makes a bit more sense  , but with all the nature lyrics and themes, plus Toumos literally hugging a tree in the Noise music video, kind of makes me think he smokes a bit of the herb.