Metal Reviews

So they take the worst of the three samples... and make a single out of it. Oh, and then there was the god-awful "Eva".

Plus 13 songs (virtually all around 4 minutes I wonder?) and a title like that. Sorry, but I'm not optimistic. But we'll see...

-Tyrion

The first song on the album is 14 minutes long.

EDIT: But yeah, the name of the album is pretty stupid as is the cover, but its the music that counts and they are 5 for 5 with me in the album department so I still really look forward to this.

I like it a little more than Master Passion Greed.

The Poet And The Pendulum is 14 minutes long and I have no idea why it's the first track....

Edit: Wow, beaten to it. I love the cover.

"Bye Bye Beautiful"?!

Amaranth? They named a song after a cereal?

Yeah, I had heard that the first song was an epic track, so I was mainly referring to the rest of them. But it seems a little odd to put that one as the first track, I think. And as Zad pointed out, a few of the songtitles are suspect.

-Tyrion

The first song? 14 minutes?

Helloween did it 2 years ago, remember?

But in the past the big epic NW songs have been either at the end or towards the end of their albums (Ghost Love Score, Beauty Of The Beast, FantasMic, etc). I have no doubt the song itself will be great but I don't like it being the first track. It's like you're making a movie and you decide to put the big climactic battle at the beginning of the film.

Whatever, I'll get over it.

So yeah, the whole album has leaked but it's the promo version and not the final mix.

Well I listened to it. It's VERY symphonic ( Rhapsody-like), but it still has all the elements Nightwish are known for. It's not a "WOW I shit my pants" album, Emppu is still holding back, overall ONCE is better IMHO. And now about the Olzon girl: she has a nice voice (reminds me of a combination of Anneke (ex-The Gathering) and Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), without the last one's operatic qualities, and more "standard" female vocal type-ish.) The vocals on the album are layered and interesting. The quality of the promo is weak, but her voice doesn't come over as extremely "strong",and seems pretty "standard" and I don't know how she'll manage to sing Tarja's songs.
Still it's a solid album. I'll wait for the official release to make up my mind

"The Poet and the Pendulum" is absolutely amazing. The rest of the album is a bit average.

The music video for Amaranth has been uploaded on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwn5JzumGjg

That was odd. Not bad, but odd. The album'll be interesting...

I quite like it. Much much better than Eva, which I initially liked but lost interest in pretty fast. I'm really excited for the album but nervous for it at the same time.

I like it too

Here's an even odder music video with just Marco singing. I believe the song "While Your Lips are Still Red" is on the Amaranth single only, if I'm not mistaken:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHQcN5KVZcs

Nice song.

Same here it's actually quite good, Annette's voice sounds better (probably due to the mix) than on previous samples.

I pleasantly surprised, and I'll most likely grab this when it comes out.

Also would like to add that from the video Annette seems to have tons more charisma than Tarja, and I like the way she moves which will make for an interesting aspect during a live show.

Someone's never seen a Britney video! I can see the points of some people that compared to Tarja's more graceful style it's weaker, but I thikn it fits in with the band's new sound.

I'm disappointed by both songs/videos that I've heard and seen. I'm not a fan of the new direction that Nightwish is taking. So, I'm officially sticking with the Tarja material. To me this is nothing more than power pop with orchestration. I'm sure that I'm being overcritical but this is not "my" Nightwish by any stretch of the imagination.

I have a few other observations as well.... at what point did Toumas become Captain Jack Sparrow? He wears more eyeliner than a HotTopic mallgoth. Also, when did his need to share his spindly chest take place? Button those shirts Toumas and stop wearing "wife-beater" tees. Emppu has got to stop stooping into that ridiculous stretched leg thing he does. He's not lighting the world on fire with his playing and the music just isn't that heavy to warrant that pose. When did Jukka change his name to Julius? Nightwish has become a joke. I'm sorry...there I've said it.