:: Nightwish - Dark Passion Play

Nightwish

It was a slow rise to the top, but with the release of their fifth studio album, ‘Once’, in 2004, Finnish act Nightwish had firmly established themselves as the leaders within the symphonic/power metal scene. But towards the tail end of 2005, tension within the band came to a head, with the band dismissing vocalist Tarja Turunen via an open letter. The news came as quite a shock to fans, as too did the trading of insults between the two parties in the period that followed, leaving many wondering just what the future held for the band. Wasting little time, the band immediately set out on a lengthy search for a replacement for Tarja, all the while recording a new album. After much rumour and speculation, the band finally announced that Swedish vocalist Anette Olzon (ex-Alyson Avenue) was the new vocalist for Nightwish, and that ‘Dark Passion Play’ would hail a new era for the band.

In a lot of ways, ‘Dark Passion Play’ is indeed a new era for Nightwish. There are a lot of new sounds within the band that were non existent in the band’s sound in the past. Having said that, fans can rest assured that this new look Nightwish still holds a lot in common with the Nightwish sound of the past few years. In a bold move, the band opens up the album with the fourteen minute epic ‘The Poet And The Pendulum’. The trademark orchestration and choir elements are very much present from the past, but obviously it’s Olzon’s performance that really brings a different feel to the band’s sound. Unlike Tarja’s operatic abilities, Olzon has more of a melodic hard rock voice, which allows the band to try out a heavier sound within the song, which actually works really well. Another significant change for the band is the greater role Marco Hietala has on the vocal front. His co-lead vocals provide a little more aggression and power on almost every track on the album, with tracks such as ‘Bye Bye Beautiful’, ‘7 Days To The Wolves’ and ‘Master Passion Play’ the best examples.

The album is once again quite a varied one for Nightwish, with a mix of the symphonic enhanced power metal (‘Amaranth’, ‘Sahara’ and ‘Whoever Brings The Night’), folk inspired efforts (‘The Islander’ and ‘Last Of The Wilds’) and sweeping ballads (‘Eva’ and ‘Meadows Of Heaven’). But the album also features some more straightforward hard rock numbers too, such as ‘Cadence Of Her Last Breath’ and ‘For The Heart I Once Had’. Although working well, they tend to get a little lost in amongst the other songs, giving the impression that they’re all good, but ultimately forgettable. Olzon’s first effort with the band, and Nightwish’s first album without Tarja Turunen, is for the most part, a success. Apart from being a little too long and bland in places, ‘Dark Passion Play’ is a bold new direction for the band, and one that will see most fans follow without too much coaxing.