I have been keeping up with the band recording this album on various social networking sites, viewing many pictures of large orchestras, choirs, big mixing
desks and a lot of alcohol!
Needless to say I was excited about its release, to the point that I actually downloaded it on iPhone when it came out and then received the album for Christmas as well.
So my first thoughts when I played it for the first time were WOW, the production was just amazing.
Track 1 “Taikatalvi” was actually sung in Finnish which I thought was a good move, maybe a bold one as it’s the first thing you will hear, but it just seemed to work. The backing gave an eerie feel which set the mood for the rest of the album. Think Danny Elfman style strings and swells and you will be on the right lines. A child’s music box plays the introduction to the song which I love especially as they begin to introduce child vocals later on in the album. The song went on for about 2:30 building, with well placed ambient percussion driving it in the background and brilliantly harmonised choir styled “ahhs” continuing the feel throughout and then song 2 “Storytime” which is gap-less kicks in.
Storytime has the signature Nightwish riffs starting it off on piano and the heavy stabs following it along as it builds up into a headbanging paced instrumental full with orchestra, drums, guitars etc until the vocals drop in.
Now this is where my first criticism comes in, the vocals… in my eyes they sound weak, and if i’m honest I haven’t been a great fan of Anette Olzon since she joined, don’t get me wrong I think she has a great voice but I was so disappointed when I first heard her vocals on Dark Passion Play after having all the previous Nightwish albums with Tarja Turunen singing. I personally feel the vocals were one of the things that made the “Nightwish” sound and since the dismissal of Tarja feel they have lost a major aspect of their music.
But saying this, what they have lost on the vocal front they have certainly made up for in musical talent. The rest of the album was just as pleasing.
Track 5 “Scaretale” is one of my favorites starting off with the old nursery rhyme “Ring Around The Roses” being chanted by a group of young children, the eerie ambient swells and odd percussion along with violins building into a crescendo of guitar and drums stabs and as always a catchy riff being played on strings… the difference with this track is the way it evolves into more of a musical than anything. I mean I feel a lot of their music has musical threads but this piece in particular really takes you into a completely different place. Half way through the song the pace and feel changes again from a horror inspired piece into something that in a way it reminded me of Moulin Rouge. I won’t spoil it to much as I really think it is worth hearing for yourself.
The thing I feel that really made this album for me was the production, and the amount of effort that must have gone into each song. I mean really each song is as complex as the next musically and production-wise.
Each instrument is placed in exactly the right place making it easy to hear every little bit of detail of each instrument, even down to something as small as a glockenspiel hit, and when you have that many instruments in one song playing a hundred different things, its very easy to misplace them ending up in more of merge of sound than anything else, but this is certainly not the case!
One thing that may have let it down a little for me was the amount of “Dark Passion Play” there was coming through on this album. In Scaretale there were a few times when I felt maybe they had run dry on ideas that day so stole a snippet from the previous album, don’t get me wrong I loved the previous album, but preferred it in that album and not this one. This is their 7th studio album now though so appreciate it must be hard trying to still get their “sound” but without recreating a previous composition, but still, playing a previous piece note for note in my eyes indicates they may be low on new ideas.
This aside, I loved the album, the feel, the production and think its well worth the money. It can be hard listening at times but enjoyable all the way through.I especially like the fact you get the Instrumental versions with the Deluxe edition as the music in my eyes outweighs the vocals.
Go and grab it now!
