Century Child

As the opening track, Bless The Child slowly fades in, I'm sure I hear angels singing! Emerging from the choirs of voices is the beautiful and silky soft voice of Tarja Turunen, announcing the arrival of the new Nightwish album! The classically trained vocalist has a wonderful and angelic soprano voice and sings in a vocal style which is normally found in classical music or opera. Combining a Power Metal style, and even some Metallica -like crunchy heavy riffs with female operatic vocals, this band has created a truly unique sound and is one of the true gems to emerge in recent years from the heavy metal scene. The blending of classical music influences and operatic elements with a heavy metal sound has been done many times before but rarely to this degree of perfection. The heavy metal elements are really softened by Tarja's voice and the contrast of the sometimes pounding heavy guitar/keyboard riffs with her angelic voice creates a truly amazing sound. The song arrangements, with a mixture of power metal guitar and symphonic keyboard sounds, are stunning and unite to create a very thematic atmosphere throughout. Each song has a hook, riff, or melody that will easily grab you within the first minute or so resulting in an exciting and very enjoyable listening experience. This release features more use of real choirs and orchestration than before and the result is an even richer and dynamic sound than they've ever had. The vocals of Marco Hietala, bass player (formerly with such bands as Tarot and Sinergy) are used on a few tracks to enhance the overall operatic feel with the use of male/female vocal duets. This is especially effective in their version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom Of The Opera, the title song from the famous broadway musical. This is a great heavy metal version of the track complete with the song's trademark eerie pipe organ passages and the vocal duet between Marco and Tarja has all the flair and drama that any version heard on the stages of the world ever had. This album opens with two killer tracks destined to become Nightwish classics. Bless The Child, as previously mentioned, opens with some nice angelic vocals and a pounding heavy orchestrated sound. Narration is used in the opening minute of the track to create a wonderful dramatic atmosphere and you get the impression that you are about to embark on a musical journey. What a journey it is! Tarja's voice really soars and at times has elements which remind you of such wonderful female vocalists as Judy Collins and others who sing with such an inspirational style. A classic Nightwish track in every sense. End Of All Hope is a heavier and even more operatic track and uses a faster Power Metal guitar riffing style with very fast double-bass drumming. The vocals are very theatrical with a classic sounding chorus. The tightness of this band really stands out on this track......simply jaw-dropping! Ever Dream, the first single released from this album, contains a nice piano with voice intro and is a very spirited mid-tempo song with more thematic riffs and another classic Nightwish chorus. One of the heavier tracks, Slaying The Dreamer, uses a very classic almost Accept, Saxon type of power riff and has a classic 80's fist-pumping metal style to it. Tarja's voice proves again that this is no ordinary band that you're listening to! This track also uses menacing male vocals over a rhythm track which reminds me of part of Wake Up Dead by Megadeth. Some wild and fast speed drumming whip this track into a frenzy. This has to be one of the heavier Nightwish songs I've ever heard, hopefully silencing those that claim this band is too soft!! Ocean Soul, a track linked lyrically to a line from Dead Boy's Poem from the Wishmaster album, again features an amazing vocal performance and really highlights the drama and excellent songwriting structure that is so characteristic of this band. This album contains a very touching and beautiful ballad called Forever Yours. Tarja'a voice almost weeps with emotion and the chorus gives the song a very familiar and traditional feel to it......simply amazing! The final track, Beauty Of The Beast, is a 3 part epic featuring some Yes -style keyboard arpeggios and has a more progressive tone than the rest of the album. Very theatrical interludes and tempo changes really drive this song and it finishes with a reprise of the Bless The Child main riff with the choir vocals. A male voice again provides narration to the final conclusion of this track and it's evident that the whirlwind musical journey is over...... There's not much lead guitar playing on this album. Instead, the band prefers to use the voices and overall instrumentation to drive their sound. Overall, this band has a lighter metal sound to it than most bands but with the vocals and song arrangements, they still manage to create a very dramatic and energetic sound. With each release, it seems that they are becoming a more song-oriented band and are moving in a direction where they are becoming a showcase for Tarja's vocals. Like fine wine, this band improves with age and with each release, this band just keeps getting better. There have been rumours that Tarja is going to leave Nightwish sometime soon to pursue a career as a professional classical singer. From their official web site, it states that she plans to return to school this September to further her voice training and studies and return to the band in 2003. We may not hear or see anything new from this band until the end of 2003 or early 2004. After another year of professional voice training, I can only imagine what the results will be for the next Nightwish album!! Until then, they leave us with an absolute gem of an album, one that I'm sure is going to be on my Top Ten list of 2002. Tarja........she is my sin!!!