Nightwish - HUMAN. :II: NATURE

New double album April 20th. 

http://nightwish.com/en/news/2020/01/200116-human-nature


 "double album containing 9 tracks on the main CD and one long track, divided into eight chapters on CD 2"




A good preview/review:

https://www.impe.fi/articles/1/2905

They are very popular around here.

Not my favourite style though.

Yeah I never got too into this band. I bought a couple CDs back in the early 00s--Wishmaster and Century Child, and they weren't bad but I never felt hugely inclined to spin them often.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

Yeah I never got too into this band. I bought a couple CDs back in the early 00s--Wishmaster and Century Child, and they weren't bad but I never felt hugely inclined to spin them often.

I only own a best of cd. It's more than enough for me. But I haven't heard it in years.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

Yeah I never got too into this band. I bought a couple CDs back in the early 00s--Wishmaster and Century Child, and they weren't bad but I never felt hugely inclined to spin them often.

You picked two pretty good ones. And two pretty different ones.

Go spin them often now

Gilbert wrote:

They are very popular around here.

Not my favourite style though.

Steve Harris named them the most likely band to reach global success comparable to Iron Maiden.

If you read the review in the OP, you'll see some high praise. 

"It’s hard to depict HVMAN. |: NATVRE. as a heavy metal album. It’s way beyond that. In 2020, Nightwish runs on a lane of their own. They are, now, even more than before the Vehicle Of Spirit that can do anything they please and yet always sound like Nightwish. Even for a fan, this is all new but at the same time, like coming home. After chucking the orchestral pomposity, the band still sounds as big as life. The voices of the three singers fill the gaps and the result is, well, more HVMAN. More organic, and due to Emppu’s guitars, at times also more metal"


There will be a video for the song Noise, out soon.

Now with official video:

Really dig the new song, but...that's probably because I dig the other Nightwish songs that it copies. Haha.

Interesting, though, that Floor seems to be channeling Tarja on this one. That's different.

Eyesore wrote:

Really dig the new song, but...that's probably because I dig the other Nightwish songs that it copies. Haha.

Interesting, though, that Floor seems to be channeling Tarja on this one. That's different.

I noticed the "channeling" too. Good song.

I am SOOOO over this band.   And crap like this is why:

Quote :

and one long track, divided into eight chapters on CD 2"

 Oh puh-leeze!!!!  Get over yourself already.  I've said it a million times before but Tuomas' songwriting has just gotten way too bloated AND self-indulgent for my taste. 

Bring back the songwriting style of Wishmaster or earlier and I might give them another shot but otherwise forget it; this is just like female-fronted current day Blind Guardian for my money.

I only own Nightwish's Highest Hopes, a best of compilation. I will give it a fresh spin on my way to work tomorrow.

If I recall correctly, I also own a compilation by another similar band, Within Temptation.

Within Temptation was never power metal. While Oceanborn & Wishmaster were pure unadulterated euro-power in the vein of Stratovarius & Sonata Arctica.

Lari wrote:

Within Temptation was never power metal. While Oceanborn & Wishmaster were pure unadulterated euro-power in the vein of Stratovarius & Sonata Arctica.

Man that reminds me. I lost track of Sonata Arctica so long ago.

Gilbert wrote:

Lari wrote:

Within Temptation was never power metal. While Oceanborn & Wishmaster were pure unadulterated euro-power in the vein of Stratovarius & Sonata Arctica.

Man that reminds me. I lost track of Sonata Arctica so long ago.

Same. I only have the first two.

Great CD's!

Lari wrote:

Gilbert wrote:

Lari wrote:

Within Temptation was never power metal. While Oceanborn & Wishmaster were pure unadulterated euro-power in the vein of Stratovarius & Sonata Arctica.

Man that reminds me. I lost track of Sonata Arctica so long ago.

Same. I only have the first two.

Great CD's!

I own the first three studio albums. Awesome stuff. Their debut is so memorable. I need to spin it again.

Never bothered checking their later stuff. Maybe I should?

Second song released, Harvest:

Lari wrote:

Second song released, Harvest:

Garbage. Ew.

Yeah, I don't know. Celtic stuff doesn't work for me usually. I never liked the Islander either.

But what bugs me the most is that Nightwish has two AMAZING lead singers (who I loved both before they joined Nightwish) in Floor and Marco Hietala, yet they let their piper/whatever, who is a mediocre singer, handle lead vocals here. To me this would be an interesting bonus track, but I'm not loving it as an album track.

I also wouldn't recognise this as a Nightwish song if I happened to hear it on the radio.

Anyway, new song:



World music stuff happening here. Save the planet etc.

Lari wrote:

Yeah, I don't know. Celtic stuff doesn't work for me usually. I never liked the Islander either.

But what bugs me the most is that Nightwish has two AMAZING lead singers (who I loved both before they joined Nightwish) in Floor and Marco Hietala, yet they let their piper/whatever, who is a mediocre singer, handle lead vocals here. To me this would be an interesting bonus track, but I'm not loving it as an album track.

I also wouldn't recognise this as a Nightwish song if I happened to hear it on the radio.

Yeah, the weirdo with the flute has no business being in the band. Go off with Tuomas and write soundtracks for National Geographic documentaries or whatever, but this is getting silly. Especially that new song. WTF? It literally belongs as the backdrop to some African safari interlude on Discover Channel or something. =(

Got it today with a nice big poster. First listen of the first disc was actually surprisingly pleasant. Nice big melodies and not as boring as I had feared.

It's not power metal and it's not aggressive or pounding heavy. But there's some potential. I doubt it's going to rank too high among my Nightwish favourites, but yeah, definitely interesting. It goes way beyond just heavy metal, for sure.

I'll get into the lyrics and the concept later.

It's boring! I never have said that about a Nightwish album until now. The last album was very enjoyable and I had high hopes for this one. However, this one finally has me agreeing with Toho on Tuomas' songwriting being too bloated and self-indulgent. It's like he no longer has any interest in metal music. It's like he indulged in his other musical interests and added some heavy guitars just to appease the fanbase. The bonus disc is even worse and I could barely get through the entire thing.

Unless something changes with the next album, I'm probably off the Nightwish train.

DallasBlack wrote:

It's boring! I never have said that about a Nightwish album until now. The last album was very enjoyable and I had high hopes for this one. However, this one finally has me agreeing with Toho on Tuomas' songwriting being too bloated and self-indulgent. It's like he no longer has any interest in metal music. It's like he indulged in his other musical interests and added some heavy guitars just to appease the fanbase. The bonus disc is even worse and I could barely get through the entire thing.

Unless something changes with the next album, I'm probably off the Nightwish train.

Thanks for reinforcing my fear of this band that sadly at one time was one of my favorites.  I haven't listened to any Nightwish in probably 7 or 8 years. Recently, I tried to give Wishmaster a spin just to see if I had changed my opinion but it just didn't click anymore.  

I realize probably 80% of that is because my music tastes have changed; I'm no longer into the whole "power metal" sound at all.  But oddly, the operatic metal sound (like Blind Guardian's "Nightfall" and especially Therion - no one has ever done the style better IMO - still appeal to me).

But given Tuomas' recent penchant for writing these overwrought, symphonic, operatic compositions, then I'm still out on Nightwish.  Which is sort of a shame because I really used to admire Floor's vocal work with After Forever (though I didn't like all the growling parts) and she has a great voice that really fits the sound Nightwish used to have with Tarja.  But now Tuomas is so full of himself that he's totally changed the band's sound into something I have zero interest in.

It's actually kind of similar to the debut Nightwish album, Angels Fall First. The band is coming full circle in some ways.

I like the second disc better than the album proper. It's all pretty powerful music when you get into it. I still rank it low among Nightwish albums, because generally I prefer faster and heavier music. But I get enjoyment out of this.

There's so much music here that I'm still kind of digesting it all. I might change my opinion later.