Nightwish Reloaded
Don’t know what made me check Nightwish’s official site a few days ago, guess I was simply bored, but I seem to be rediscovering them right now. Quite fitting, I’d say, since they’re just starting to get back on track, having released their first truly new material in three years a month ago. They have also revealed the identity of their new singer (and here is an interview taken before her identity was revealed) and the release date of their next album, not to mention that they seem fully booked for this year.
Listened to the new song and… I think it sounds Within Temptation-y… Anette’s voice just seems to go along that line. That’s not a bad thing in itself (especially since Within Temptation decided to start sounding like Evanescence on their latest album), but it’s simply not Nightwish. Of course, judging by a single song is a bad idea, but the difference is too noticeable. Sometimes I wonder how will their old songs sound when sung by Anette, but then I realize I don’t really care to know.
Also saw the link to the song Marco, Tuomas and Jukka recorded for a Finnish movie. Wondering why can’t Marco use that voice in Nightwish songs as well, instead of growling like he does. He might get to sing more on the new album, though, so we shall see.
Nightwish was my first contact with metal, back in 2001 or 2002, when I happened to bump into their “Over the Hills and Far Away” video on MCM. Felt quite guilty for liking it, but I kept looking for it after that moment. Guilty pleasures, eh?
You can say there were my second contact as well, when Andra had a 2-month metal phase during which at some point she asked me to sort the Nightwish songs she had downloaded. That didn’t really have any immediate effects, but then I also got their last album and “Wish I Had an Angel” immediately became my song for sadness/anger/fear/any-other-negative-emotion, despite Marco’s parts that still make me wince. Of course I felt even weirder for liking this than I did concerning “Over the Hills and Far Away”, but there it was.
Guess that’s why I find myself still interested in the band itself and not just their songs, as is the case with nearly all others that I listen to.
I might be missing something, but I think they were also the first metal band that had a concert in Romania while at their peak, including Bucharest in their mammoth 2004-2005 world tour.
I still wasn’t really listening to other such things when they fired Tarja, but by then it was mainly because I didn’t know what to look for, which meant I was quite interested in them. That interest translated in me seeing their open letter to her hours after it was posted, so while their site was still able to manage the number of visitors, albeit only barely, and in reading posts on their forum just when Tarja posted her reply (seems to no longer be available on her official site) and therefore seeing it almost immediately, as soon as somebody posted the announcement, and being able to read it, as her site crashed about 20 minutes later.
On that note, look at Tuomas face at the end of the last concert of their world tour, so just moments before they gave her the letter. Being somewhat emotional at such a moment is to be expected, but he looks utterly devastated, and you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out why.
Remember saying that they’re history without her back then. Ok, Tarja might have just been their voice, Tuomas being the writer and composer and therefore the only one truly indispensable, but the vocalist is a major loss, and one as good as her even more so. However, if I’d believe their side of the story, as I actually do, they would have been history with her just as well, so it was what had to be done. Sad story, and just to show once again how many good things, and people, are ruined by fame and money.
Still doubt they could be anywhere near what they were with Anette, though, but if they have decided that she’s good enough to go on with then why not at least give them the benefit of the doubt until the new album will be released and everyone will be able to make up their own minds after knowing all the facts?
PS: Sure this is Tarja singing this song (feel free to skip ahead to about 2:10 to get to her part)? Doesn’t sound like her… And many of those pictures don’t really look like her either…
PPS: Q&A with Anette!
Anette’s voice is to soft / warm for my idea of Nightwish. Too bad Tarja is getting just ordinary too.
I find the “open letter” to be quite idiotic. Stupid little people!
September 22, 2007 @ 1:19 AM
Haven’t listened to what Tarja’s coming up with now… As for Anette, yeah, her voice doesn’t fit, but Tuomas somehow managed to make all that irrelevant. I was completely blown away by the new album after listening to it in full.
As for the open letter, I REALLY like that they did it like that. SO pissed at things going on “behind closed doors” and all the “Oh, it was a difference of opinion and we have decided to each go our separate ways.” How much of the truth is in there we’ll probably never know, but at least it was something.
Btw, shouldn’t you be studying or doing whatever boring thing you’ve been avoiding by reading my entries? :p
September 22, 2007 @ 2:46 AM
“Oh, it was a difference of opinion and we have decided to each go our separate ways.” – is honest and polite! The letter was “Let’s try to look like the innocent victims of a mean cruel woman “.
Didn’t listen to the new NW album. Does it sucks?
Don’t you start too with the studying! Mom! :P
September 22, 2007 @ 3:19 AM
It’s not honest, and politeness is overrated. Well, diplomacy is at least, if you make shit smell and look pretty it’s still shit, so might as well stop trying to make it seem to be something else and spend that time either taking it away or warning people not to step in it… (And they’re actually accusing him all the way, the only thing aimed right at her is that she let him influence her.)
And it doesn’t suck at all, that “blown away” was in the positive sense. Most songs taken separately might not impress, but once you listen to all of it it’s an entirely different picture. Of course, it’s a matter of taste, but I thought it was awesome, despite the… wrong vocals.
September 22, 2007 @ 3:33 AM
“Oh, it was a difference of opinion and we have decided to each go our separate ways.” was the truth, not with all details, but the only truth you should care about. “She was mean because she didn’t help up do that and that and… ” is subjective and therefor a lie. Why does everybody needs detailed information about other peoples lives I’ll never get it. Yes, I am curious to know what kind of people they are, but that open letter didn’t show anything. If you say the new album is good I’ll look into it. But I doubt I’ll buy this album.
September 22, 2007 @ 9:45 PM
A half truth is the worst kind of lie… And there usually isn’t an absolute truth, so they gave their version of it (very likely not in it’s entirety, but certainly way more than is usually given, thankfully) and never stopped her and her husband from doing the same (which he eventually did, uh, lemme see if I can dig that up again… here, if you haven’t bumped into it before and you’re either really bored or really patient lol).
I only specifically care about others’ personal lives if I care about them. I’ll also never understand those who make tabloids sell so well, those who care about the personal lives of stars in general, BUT in case of those whose professional lives interest me, I’m also interested in those aspects of their personal lives that affect their professional ones. If some more or less personal problems caused the break-up, damn right I wanna know exactly what they were. “Difference of opinion” gives no information whatsoever.
September 22, 2007 @ 11:22 PM
Not really interested! It’s just to much like public laundry!
September 23, 2007 @ 12:06 PM
So! I bet you didn’t miss me!
Just wanted to say I went to a Nightwish concert at a rock festival. Anette’s voice is annoying, but she managed to do a good show. She destroyed “Nemo”, got away reasonable with “Wish I had Angel”, the rest were OK. I do believe she can be great with a little practice. She has a voice, just needs some power. And I just might buy their album.
The public was amazing.
June 17, 2008 @ 2:18 AM
Kinda did actually, who else actually said something around here? :p
WIHAA is kinda pointless without Tarja, for reasons that have nothing to do with voice.
As for buying albums, meh…
June 17, 2008 @ 3:31 AM
And I was expecting for you to say that concerts are not your thing!
I like having the original CD, in order to separate what is special for me, from the rest of the crap I have on my computer. Yes, I could use other systems like: like cleaning up and organising, but that requires qualities that I don’t have. I also like to have this special things at best quality, which would require more storage on my computer, and eventually a better computer or an external hard drive. Then I’m gonna be paranoid that my external hard drive (that I don’t have) is going to brake down on me and I’m gonna loose all those data, so I’m gonna make safe copies on DVDs, which makes the “don’t buy disks” useless.
And since you kind of… sort of… don’t mind me looking around, I gonna try to bug you on on other pages.
June 18, 2008 @ 11:57 AM