Aki's Blog

“People have this strange idea that everything can be solved just through talking”

- Tuomas Holopainen

Things are getting more and more certain that I’ll see Finnish progressive power metal act Sonata Arctica live at the 31:st of October this year, in Huskvarna, Sweden. I’ve never seen them live before, but I know people who have and they’re supposed to be a great live band. Wish me luck.

Today I realised how similar the lyrics to Nightwish’ song “Creek Mary’s Blood” and Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” are. Ofcourse there’s the first similarity that both of the songs treat the extermination of Indians from the Indians’ point of view, but there’s actually more.

Creek Mary’s Blood
White man came
Saw the blessed land
We cared, you took
You fought, we lost
Not the war but an unfair fight
Sceneries painted beautiful in blood

Run to the Hills
White man came across the sea
He brought us pain and misery
He killed our tribes, he killed our creed
He took our game for his own need

We fought him hard we fought him well
Out on the plains we gave him hell
But many came too much for cree
Oh will we ever be set free?

These similarities are clear, certainly. More far-fetched are the choruses:

Creek Mary’s Blood
Wandering on Horizon Road
Following the trail of tears

Run to the Hills
Run to the hills
Run for your lives

Haha, okay, that’s a bit worse than the first example. But Creek Mary is after all  a mountain (or hill…). xD Okay, I admit, I’m just bored. :D

Dutch symphonic metal band Epica will be performing a classical show with symphonic orchestra and choir in the Miskolc International Opera Festival, in Hungary on the fourth of June 14, 2008. On this concert, which they call “The Classical Conspiracy” (from their latest album’s title), Epica and the orchestrea will perform classical pieces from Mozart, Dvorak, Verdi, Orff, Prokofiev, Grieg, Vivaldi in new metal adaptions, as well as symphonic versions of Epica songs. They have also promised “other surprises as well”. Seriously, if you can, GO! Please? Just to film the whole shit? I wish I could but since this is in Hungary and I live in Sweden I guess it’s too far. They will probably film it for a DVD release though… Hihihi…

More information: www.epica.nl

For My Pain… is a Finnish gothic metal band which I got to hear of mainly because their keyboardist is Nightwish’s lead member Tuomas Holopainen. They released their debut album, the masterpiece “Fallen”, in 2003, and they released a following single with three new songs, called “Killing Romance”, in 2004, but since then, they haven’t released anything. A shame, that’s what it is.

The album opener is “My Wound is Deeper Than Yours”, and according to me the song doesn’t quite work as an opener. It’s too boring. You simply can’t make someone understand the potential of Fallen by a song like this one. Sorry, but frankly… fail.

Something I like loads about For My Pain… is that they combine so many different music genres and styles. They can play sad, depressive songs, hard, heavy songs, and happy songs. An example of the latter is the second track, “Dancer in the Dark”. It’s a soooo good feel-good song. Wohoo!

“Queen Misery” is one of the greatest highlights of the album. It’s like good FMP songs are, it’s sad and happy at the same time, depending on how you see it, what you listen for. That’s cool. And you just HAVE to love that chorus.

“Sea of Emotions” is not very high up on my plays, yet it is a good song. I think, though, that it’s too predictable. I like the whispering before the chorus, and the keyboard in the chorus. It’s a very experimental song, I’d say.

The fifth track, entitled “Rapture of Lust” has a really cool guitar intro and chorus (it’s about the same notes on vocals instead). I also like the vocals on this song, very experimental (like all their music, heh). This is another song that can be both sad and happy. Me like. The guitar solo at about three minutes is… really cool.

“Broken Days” is probably my favorite of the album, and every time I listen to it I really recognize my life story among the lyrics… Sad, isn’t it?

According to me, “Dear Carniwhore” is the worse song of the album, way worse than the other songs. I guess every album needs a really heavy song though, and that’s good. It makes me think of some Metallica song, can’t recall which one. Maybe the end of the chorus of Enter Sandman?

“Bed of Dead Leaves”… there’s nothing wrong about the song… it has never succeeded to get through to me though. I can’t understand why. I guess I would count it as neutral. A five if I had to grade it 1-10. I can at least say I like the drums on this track, they’re cool, especially at around 3:30 where it’s a short drum solo.

Okay, I’m going to be honest now. I downloaded the next song (“Autumn Harmony”) at first an hour ago, so I really don’t want to review it yet. Okay? Sorry. :/

At first, “Tomorrow is a Closed Gate (Dead For So Long)” was my favorite track off the album, but now I don’t know. Maybe I played it too much. I’ve started to get annoyed with it. The chorus is good, though, and the lyrics reminds me of Kamelot’s “Don’t You Cry”. It’s a good finale.

That’s all, folks. Thanks for the time.

Symphonic metal band Epica’s singer Simone Simons is infected with MSRA, a difficultly treated disease, and they have been forced to cancel all the February shows. This is nothing that affects me as I had no plans in seeing them during February, but I’m still worried to death for the sake of this beautiful singer’s health. I hope you get better soon, Simons!

Source: Epica’s official site

On June 5, 2007, American power metal band Kamelot released their eight studio album entitled “Ghost Opera”. I downloaded (I am ashamed, please forgive me) the album the same summer.

Since I first heard Kamelot (with first loves like “The Haunting (Somewhere in Time)” and “The Black Halo”) in the summer of 2006, I’ve loved the band. There is something special with their ability to combine some of my favorite genres in metal: symphonic, progressive, power and (on later albums) gothic. My love for the band is nothing that changes with this album, not at all. As a first comment on it… I love the title and art work… I will buy it as soon as I get some money, I promise. However, I more want to buy their “One Cold Winter’s Night” DVD. It seems cool.

Over to the review.

The album kicks off with a one minute instrumental entitled “Solitaire”, that really feels like a waste of time, or an excuse to have eleven tracks on the album, cause it sounds much better than eleven…. A solo violin playing the most boring notes, where’s the KAMELOT? Just skip the track… I do.

“Rule the World”, the second track, is one of those songs that has nothing special that sticks out, but that it’s nothing wrong with. I like the raise of Roy Khan’s voice in the chorus, and it’s quite speedy. It doesn’t really touch me otherwise, but it’s really an okay song.

The main track has an eponymous title with the album. “Ghost Opera” is a speedy, interesting breaking-border song. And GOD that video’s fabulous! It’s quite boring in a way, though… I can refer to Sonata Arctica’s song “Wolf & Raven”; the song seems to have a great potential but everything fades when it sounds the same without grande changes. It’s not catchy enough.

“The Human Stain” is the fourth track of the album. It is a cynic’s view of the world: everything bad, human kind’s selfishness (“No one really wants to die to save the world”), and the wish to be an innocent child again. It is a good, cool and catchy song, that is sad and interesting with gothic metal-similarities such as the keyboard playing throughout the song.

“Blücher” is based on the sinking of the the German cruiser of the same name in World War II. It’s a bit like “Rule the World” but better; it’s quite neutral, nothing good nor bad about it… It’s cool with the intro as well as some parts of the background that’s just filled with sounds of the war; screaming, shooting etcetera.

And here comes what I would presume is my favorite track of the album. “Love You to Death” is a beautiful story about a couple where the girl is dying, and this is his speech to her about how he will stay by her forever, love her to death… It’s the longest song off the album (5:13) and for that I’m glad. It has a cool intro and a catchy chorus… Me like.

“Up Through the Ashes” is what I would call one of the heaviest song of the album. It’s quite angry. I like it.

“Mourning Star” is quite neutral. I’ve got nothing against it, despite it’s not one of my favorite. Guess I miss some kind of turn that never shows up.

Vocalist Roy Khan tries lots of new vocal methods in the song “Silence of the Darkness”. It also holds a great guitar solo that has a cool, outstanding sound. I guess I’ll try it as soon as I have the powers. This is one of the songs that seems really cool live (I might go to their Stockholm concert in May, 2008, wih).

Kamelot is really good on slow, sad songs, and they usually have at least one per album. On Ghost Opera, “Anthem” is the one. It is a sad piano song with a fascinating chorus and beautiful yet sad lyrics. I keep listening for the introduction of sudden drums in the end, by “I’ll be the best I can”. That would sound great… WHY NOT?

The final song of the album is “EdenEcho” which is another song that would be lovely live. It doesn’t really make it unto my mind, so I cannot count it as one of my favorites. Yet it has a cool chorus.

Tracklisting:

1. “Solitaire” – 1:00
2. “Rule the World” – 3:40
3. “Ghost Opera” – 4:06
4. “The Human Stain” – 4:01
5. “Blücher” – 4:03
6. “Love You to Death” – 5:13
7. “Up Through the Ashes” – 4:59
8. “Mourning Star” – 4:37
9. “Silence of the Darkness” – 3:43
10. “Anthem” – 4:24
11. “EdenEcho” – 4:13

The album also features two bonus tracks (“The Pendulous Fall” and “Season’s End”), both which I haven’t heard.

I recently discovered a new band. It’s a really good gothic-doom metal band called To/Die/For, from southeastern Finland. Check them out on their page at Last.fm or go download / buy their music somewhere. They are currently looking for a new label so they need all help they can get selling albums; i. e., buy their albums if you find them! I can’t… :/

Their vocalist is a bit weird (at least the voice…) but give him a try! This is the second doom metal band I’ve liked, the other one being My Dying Bride, and To/Die/For are much better :) Started listening the day before yesterday, still listening with barely any interruptions. ^^

I especially like songs like Little Deaths, Jaded and Fragmented.
You’ve got to at least try them. PLEASE!<3

On the 4th of December this year I saw one of my absolute favorite bands, symphonic power metal quartet Nightwish, live as they performed in Stockholm during their Dark Passion Play tour.

This was definitely the greatest concert I’ve been to; before, I’ve seen Within Temptation (April 21, 2007) and some minor, Swedish bands, mostly folk/rock/pop bands, so I count this as my second metal concert. I liked it much more than the WT concert not only because Nightwish’s a better band, but also because of the effects; Nightwish is famous for the explosive fireworks in their concerts, and I can’t deny that. I was standing about ten to fifteen meters from the stage, and still I always felt the fire almost burning my face.

I miss former vocalist Tarja Turunen like everyone else, but even though I never saw Nightwish live with her, IÂ judge from the clips I’ve seen (especially End of an Era) that her replacement Anette Olzon is way better live.
They mostly played songs from the new album Dark Passion Play, as expected, but still they played several old hit songs: Planet Hell, Nemo, Wish I Had an Angel, Wishmaster and Ever Dream as I can recall. From the album, they played for example Cadence of Her Last Breath, Amaranth, Bye Bye Beautiful, The Poet and the Pendulum, Whoever Brings the Night and 7 Days to the Wolves. The greatest hilight for me was when they played the epic masterpiece 7 Days to the Wolves, one of my absolute favorite songs by the band, as the first encore (Wish I Had an Angel as the second and last).

I also have to admit that there was a fabolous feeling when all the lights were turned off, and suddenly a spotlight in the middle of the stage on bassist/male vocalist Marco Hietala with an acoustic guitar, starting to play The Islander…

On September 28th this year, Finnish symphonic power metal group Nightwish produced their sixth and latest studio album, featuring their brand new vocalist Anette Olzon, Dark Passion Play. An album which in my opinion is their greatest ever, even though some songs would have been much better with Tarja Turunen (Nightwish’s last vocalist from 1996 to 2005). Anette does her part really well, though, singing parts much better than Tarja ever would have. Though, one thing I miss on the songs is guitar. Ofcourse we have this fully acoustic song, The Islander, that features quite a lot guitar (all the time) but there are several songs that barely have any guitar at all, or at least real boring riffs, such as For the Heart I Once Had and Amaranth.

Okay, that’s enough talking. Over to the review.

1. The Poet and the Pendulum (13:53)

Clearly the best track on the album. Lovely lyrics throughout the song, truly lovely. “The Poet and the Pendulum” (the name derives from a classic Edgar Allan Poe novella, “The Pit and the Pendulum”) is the epic song that’s the centre of the whole album – for a long time the album was supposed to be called this instead of Dark Passion Play. The length ofcourse makes it stick out from the other songs, but exactly like even longer songs by Dream Theatre, it feels like rather about five minutes. It holds several chapters, just like another long Nightwish song, “Beauty of the Beast” from their Century Child album. In this case, the chapters are:

• White Lands of Empathica
• Home
• The Pacific
• Dark Passion Play
• Mother and Father

As noticed, one of the parts are called “Dark Passion Play”, another sign for this song being the center of the album. I love the entire song, but the last half – especially “Dark Passion Play” – is the best. “Mother and Father” is probably the saddest piece of music that Tuomas Holopainen – keyboardist and songwriter – has written for a long time. “White Lands of Empathica” and “Home” truly are boring, but God, that chorus is mind-blowing.

2. Bye Bye Beautiful (4:16)

This song is really simple, and so is the chorus. Perhaps that’s why it got to be the third (and at the moment next, after “Eva” on May 30 and “Amaranth” on August 22) single of the album. I like the lyrics, they’re really progressive, and I like some lines very much, such as “it’s not the tree that forsakes the flower, it’s the flower that forsakes the tree”. “Bye Bye Beautiful” is written about Tarja Turunen, the last vocalist, who was kicked out of the band in an open letter in October 2005.

3. Amaranth (3:59)

The second single, after “Eva”. Even though I like the intro and the verses, I hate the chorus. Sounds like anything but metal to me. Truly poor music video as well. I liked the song when it was released, though.

4. Cadence of Her Last Breath (4:17)

Beautiful music, beautiful lyrics, but really nothing special about it that catches me. Don’t know why. I like the heavy breathing throughout the song, though.

5. Master Passion Greed (6:04)

At first I hated it, but I like it more and more every time I listen to it. Like the choir voices singing “Master passion greed” in the chorus, as well as the fact that Holopainen didn’t let Anette sing it; it is one thing doing a personal offence through a song like this (the song is about Tarja Turunen’s husband, Marcelo, who according to Holopainen was the one who forced them to drop Tarja), but it is another one to make someone who’s not involved sing it. I don´t like the intro, it’s too much alike the intro to both “Whoever Brings the Night” and “The Kinslayer”. It is nice to hear Nightwish trying something heavier and more progressive once in a while, such as this song, “The Kinslayer” (from the Wishmaster album) and “Slaying the Dreamer” (from Century Child).

6. Eva (4:26)

The first single. I wrote a quite long review on this song when it was released, go there instead.

7. Sahara (5:49)

As Holopainen said himself, such a cliche with a heavy metal band making a song about ancient Egypt. The lyrics are real boring, but the music is really good, especially the intro (before 1:16 in length). The choir’s real good as well.

8. Whoever Brings the Night (4:19)

One of my favorite tracks on the album, together with “The Poet and the Pendulum” and “7 Days to the Wolves”. I didn’t like it at all (just like “Master Passion Greed”). Though, after my brother Tim told me that it was one of his favorites, I gave it another try. And I liked it. Just like “Master Passion Greed”, it is very agressive, and I love Anette’s style of singing. I like the lyrics as well, but I think it’s a bit short with to much chorus and too few verses.

9. For the Heart I Once Had (3:58)

This track used to be one of my favorites of the album, but now I think the music is too simple, too boring, with not enough change in the verses. I love the lyrics, and I love the power in the first chorus, but compared with several other songs, it’s quite poor. But God, I’m close to crying when I hear that intro.

10. The Islander (5:08)

Dark Passion Play truly is an album on which Nightwish varies a lot. It has their most epic and longest song so far (“The Poet and the Pendulum”), they have the most agressive song (“Master Passion Greed”), they have a brand new singer for the first time in ten years, and they have this. An acoustic ballad about an old lonely lighthouse keeper with their bass player on second guitar. It’s really beautiful, and at last Marco Hietala (bass and male vocalist) can show off his singing skills in other ways then screaming, as he rather did earlier. This was as well shown on “While Your Lips Are Still Red”, that’s featured on the “Amaranth” single. I love it.

11. Last of the Wilds (5:42)

Nightwish haven’t done an instrumental song since “Moondance” on their 1998 album Oceanborn, but here it is, “Last of the Wilds”. And I really like it. It reminds a lot of “Moondance” indeed, and is a very joyful melody that really cheers you up. It has real cool instruments as well, such as the banjo.

12. 7 Days to the Wolves (7:05)

This song is so awesome. Especially the last few minutes are probably the greatest minutes of the whole history of Nightwish (excepting “The Poet and the Pendulum”, heh). Great lyrics as well, and I like the way Anette and Marco shares the singing, and the whispers that are mixed in. It sounds real cool.

13. Meadows of Heaven (7:10)

Even though it’s not one of my favorites, “Meadows of Heaven” is great to finish the whole album (there is one more track, but it’s only a Japanese bonus track so it barely counts). It’s really beautiful, and got a perfect length to get you in a great mode. Good for relaxing. I hate the ending with the choir voices though. The last minute or so. HATE IT. Skip it from there every time I play it…

14. The Escapist (4:57)

As I heard someone else say, this is the song that’s most like the “old Nightwish”, i.e. how Nightwish sounded before Tarja quit. That’s probably why it wasn’t decided to be on the album, but only as a Japanese bonus track. I really wish it was on the album, since it’s great. I love especially the chorus, even though it sounds a bit like pop (just like “Amaranth”). I love the text as well, feels like it’s covering Nightwish’s whole discography. For example it begins with “Who’s there knocking at my window? The Owl and the Dead Boy“, the Owl referring to the owl on the cover of Oceanborn and the Dead Boy referring to a character mentioned in several songs, such as “Dead Boy’s Poem” (Wishmaster) and “For the Heart I Once Had” (Dark Passion Play). The song is about Holopainen’s wish to escape from the dull reality, and face the adventorous fantasy world, exactly as “Wanderlust” (from Wishmaster) is.