Nightwish - Wishmaster

For non-Europeans, the band Nightwish is brand new and something of a curiosity. Not so in Europe where Finland's Nightwish has been attacking the charts since 1997 with their debut Angels Fall First. In 1998, they followed it up with Oceanborn which climbed to Number 5 on the official Finnish album chart (staying on the charts for over 30 weeks) and springing off three Top 10 singles. After touring Europe playing clubs and large festivals, the band entered Finland's top recording facility, Finnvox Studio (Sentenced, Stratovarius), to lay down their third full-length album entitled Wishmaster. It was released in Europe in May 2000 and immediately hit Number One on the Finnish charts and eventually went gold. The album is now available in the US via Century Media.

Nightwish originally began as an acoustic project by keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen who wanted to create something different and unique from what he had been playing before. The first three songs -- all acoustic mood music -- were recorded in late 1996 and consisted of keyboards, acoustic guitars and the female vocals of professionally trained opera singer Tarja Turunen. After that, drums were added and an electric guitar was used instead of an acoustic one and the modern day version of Nightwish was born.

Wishmaster is a high-energy disc that will appeal to fans of Sinergy because of the musical similarities, and to fans of Aghora because of the singing similarities. Tuomas pens most of the music and all of the lyrics and entrusts the vocals to the lovely Tarja Turunen. His trust is well-placed as Tarja sings beautifully and passionately consistently throughout the disc.

One of the more interesting tracks is "The Kinslayer," where the band's operatic influence is most evident. If you deleted the drums and replaced the electric guitars with violins, it could easily be something you might expect to hear in an Opera House and not a club. Many of the lyrics to "The Kinslayer" are also intriguing:

- 'Drunk with the blood of your victims / I do feel your pity-wanting pain, / Lust for fame, a deadly game'
- 'Cursing, God, Why? / Falling for every lie / Survivors' guilt / In us forevermore'

It is only a matter of time before Nightwish become something more than a curiosity to non-Europeans. For many Metal fans, I have a feeling that Nightwish will become something that they didn't expect -- their favorite band.