Peter’s Blog

A couple of years ago Nightwish for several reasons sacked their singer Tarja Turunen. Many believed this to be a bad move. With the release of Dark Passion Play comes the bands first full release (not including the Amaranth single) with their new singer Annette Olzon. Now we can truly judge whether it was a good move or not.

Unfortunately I ordered Dark Passion Play from the official website (the 2 CD version that includes the instrumentals of all the songs) . Why do I say unfortunately, well it is simple. As you are probable aware the album has been out for over a month now and I have only just received it. Now postage from Finland to Scotland should not take that long (even if I did choose economy class postage, I didn’t see why normal postage should almost double the price). However now that I have received it I can give it a good listen and convey my thoughts about it.

The track listing for the standard album is as follows:-

1. The Poet And The Pendulum
2. Bye Bye Beautiful
3. Amaranth
4. Cadence Of Her Last Breath
5. Master Passion Greed
6. Eva
7. Sahara
8. Whoever Brings The Nigh
9. For The Heart I Once Had
10. The Islander
11. Last Of The Wilds
12. 7 Days To The Wolves
13. Meadows Of Heaven

Several tracks really stick out on this album. The 1st that sticks out for me is Bye Bye Beautiful. The song is about the sacking of Tarja Turunen and is blatantly obvious with such lines as :-

“Did you ever hear what I told you. Did you ever read what I wrote you. Did you ever listen to what we played. Did you ever let in what the world said. Did we get this far just to feel your hate, Did we play to become only pawns in the game. How blind can you be, don’t you see. You chose the long road but we’ll be waiting.”

Before the album was released I was aware that a particular song was about the split with Tarja Turunen but on hearing the album it is a bit shocking (and a bit of a kick in the teeth) the song is. However that being said it is 1 of the best songs on the album, the emotion certainly flows, the differing of voices really come out and the aggression in the male voice really comes to the forefront.

Another song that comes to the forefront is the Amaranth, when I first heard this song (when the video was released) I did not really like it at all. I was not that keen on Annette Olzon but I really liked Tarja Turunen’s voice. However after a few tries I really did get into it and the voice certainly grew on me.

The last song that really sticks in my mind (and is the song I have played the most) is Last Of The Wilds. It is of course not actually a song but rather an instrumental. I cannot really explain my love for the music but it does contain a myriad of instruments and at times has a very Celtic feel to it.

Other songs such as Meadows Of Heaven and Eva are very beautiful songs in their own right and by all means if another band had come along and released them they would probably be receiving great praise from me however as Nightwish songs they are not the best. I suppose in a sense Nightwish are a victim of their own success and people such as I expect so much more from a band of this caliber.

As a whole I would say that this is an above average album and probably deserves a 7/10. A bit disappointing from a Nightwish perspective but a good album in its own right. The success this album has achieved around Europe is astounding but I hazard a guess it is more due to the fact of who they are as opposed to the merit of the album.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 3:30 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.