Metal Reviews

Yes, it's a fresh change from when Tarja was in the group and everyone would only discuss the merits of their production

Tarja was NOT good looking. Bleah.

Who cares how good or bad she looks shes going to sing not model for crying out loud!! Anyway I just hope her English is better than Tarja.

I had her "other" bands cds. If I remember correctly...perfect English. She does have a great voice...not as high as Tarja...but a great voice none the less.

Never heard of her, I have many doubts that she's as good as Tarja, but this change also means that Nightwish will have to change a bit their musical direction to a less Operatic style (which seems bad), anyway I hope not to see Tarja's superstar-I-have-my-own-bus-and-manager attitude in her.

With or without Tarja, NW were heading in that direction anyways. You can tell that as they progressed, their music became less operatic and more symphonic.

I totally agree with you. They've slowly been changing their sound since Wishmaster and since Century Child, Tarja had been using her operatic vocalcs less and less. Honestly, her non-operatic vocals were not all that impressive, and definitely not unique.

Anette might not have the unique, operatic voice that Tarja had, but I think her regular singing voice is better than Tarja's. Since this is the direction Nightwish is going, it should be a good move.

Thinking about it now, I believe you're right. I just wish they don't lose their grandiose and epic symphonic metal roots to become something like Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil or even Evenascence.

I'm thinking all these bands are heading in that direction and will eventually sound exactly the same. I mean, if you pick what essentially is a pop vocalist to front a metal band you are left with two options. Either you push her beyond what she is comfortable with and can perform (older material), or you take the music down a few pegs and push it into the background where it doesn't threaten to overwhelm her.

I hope I'm wrong, but I fear that we will be left with a goth-pop album with stereotypical "symphonic elements" pushed into the background where you can barely hear them. Mostly containing ballads as those are popular and radio friendly. And then one mediocre Metallica rip-off "heavy song" just to prove to the metal crowd that they are still heavy dag nab it!

Have you listened to the three new song samples on their website?

I'm guilty. But I'll listen to them right away

After hearing it: I liked 2 of them, but they are losing the epic feel, one of the songs reminded me alot of Within Temptation (the one I didn't like). Eva also sounds very commercial.

Meh, they sound epic enough to me. But of course they're only samples and we should wait for the album to come out.

im going to listen to the samples or songs now, but the last nightwish cd didnt have much if any operatic vocals which were one of the best parts of nightwish, so if the new singer doesnt sing 'operatically' then its probably no different than the new cd woulda been with tarja in it. just hopefully the new cd will be something close to wishmaster or oceanborn.

and also, im sure this new single wont sell a ton anyway, but how rich are nightwish that they are donating all the sales to charity? maybe theyre big/huge in finland, but thats not a big country!

after listening to the myspace samples, it definitely sounds like the vocals are too low in all the songs except for ava, but i would assume that is just because its not the final cd, i cant imagine theyre going to have the actualy cd sound like that. but i thought the songs were good from what we can hear so far, i think ava was probably the worst, but the wolves song sounds like it has elements from oceanborn and the other 2 are catchy too. it sounds like itll be a good cd, just with regular female singing instead of operatic.