Aki's Blog

Finnish symphonic power metal act Amberian Dawn has now officially announced their third album “End of Eden” to be released this October. It is to be heavier than their previous albums “River of Tuoni” (2008) and “The Clouds of Northland Thunder” (2009).

Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish has reported their forthcoming release of a photojournal by Ville Akseli Juurikkala (photographer of bands such as HIM, Apocalyptica and The 69 Eyes), with photos from their 2007 – 2008 Dark Passion Play Tour, entitled Dark Passion Gallery. Gah, a wasteless thing, sure, but I still NEED it. €25. Cannot… afford…

Hint-hint! I don’t think you ought to read this journal unless you’re more or less all-knowing about the story of Tarja Turunen being kicked out of Nightwish in 2005, and their new singer Anette Olzon, who joined them in 2007. I know very well I’m a geek, so shut the fuck up about telling me. Thank you.

I read in an interview with Tuomas Holopainen (keyboardist and composer of symphonic metal band Nightwish) that he concider their songs Wish I Had an Angel (from 2004 album Once) and Bye Bye Beautiful (Dark Passion Play, 2007) as part of the same story lyrics-wise.It has also been rumoured that Master Holopainen had a crush, which was verified in an interview – even if he wasn’t deeply in love with her, he at least had a mere crush on her, “as did almost everyone as she was a very beautiful woman”. My theory: Wish I Had an Angel is about his platonic love towards Tarja, the “angel” which he cannot have. The subject of Bye Bye Beautiful is obvious as well as verified – it’s about firing Tarja from Nightwish. In other words, the story can be like this:Part 1 (Wish I Had an Angel):Tuomas has a crush about Tarja, yet isn’t loved back.Part 2 (Bye Bye Beautiful):Tarja is fired from Nightwish in 2005 partly due to her lack of interest in the band, and her changed attitude making her a complete bitch (my interpretation of the words in the letter (see the sources)). This doesn’t have to have anything to do with Tuomas’ crush on Tarja, but still this is a way of making the clear statement that he doesn’t want to be with the one he loves. Also, as is conspired among many fans and tabloids, the real reason of firing Tarja was because he couldn’t stand not having her. Either way, I do think this was a part. It seems like it, if Wish I Had an Angel and Bye Bye Beautiful really are parts of the same story.Sources:* Tuomas’ Nightmail – http://www.nightwish.com/en/community/nightmail* Tuomas talks about Dark Passion Play – http://www.tuomasholopainen.net/darkpassionplay.html* Open letter to Tarja in which she is fired – http://nightwish.com/en/article/6

Comments: (taken from the Last.fm article)

Rozen-rot:

Hey, very interesting, I didn’t know he had said that. Here’s my possible explanation. Its hard to infere meaning because the lyrics of WIHAA don’t actually make that much sense, but lets have a go at analyzing them anyway. “Deep into a dying day”. Here, ‘dying day’ could represent the end of the old era, meaning that the decision to fire Tarja is on his mind, and he is ‘deep into’ it [perhaps he is refering to the infamous letter, 'deep into writing it']. “I took a step outside an innocent heart”. This could refer to the realization by Tuomas that as the boss he has to do something which will not go down well with the fans. He won’t be seen as innocent, in many cases he will be singled out and hated. Or perhaps Tuomas already feels guilty for what he will do, and thus his heart is no longer innocent. Or maybe this is reference to Tarja, that greed has made her heart loose its innocence.

“Prepare to hate me fall when I may, This night will hurt you like never before”. Tuomas seems to be saying this might be the worse mistake of my career – ‘fall when I may’, and at same time preparing Tarja, acknowledging that this will likely end their friendship. But a link to BBB – did you ever listened to what we played?”Old loves they die hard.” Love doesn’t have to mean “in love”. Tuomas has stated many times that he has loved her voice, and that she was beautiful, but call me crazy but that doesn’t sound like anything more then admiration. Tarja was his muse, and he loved her. But I don’t believe he was ever “in love” with her. [He has a girlfriend].”I wish I had an Angel for one moment of love. I wish I had your Angel, your Virgin Mary undone”. Tuomas wants an Angel? In the first line that doesn’t have to mean Tarja. Following the first versus if Tuomas is considering firing Tarja, maybe angel is symbolic of a female vocalist whom he can love [not in the dirty way] and be inspired by, as is no longer the case with Tarja. In the second part, that might refer to Tarja, he wants her angel, as the way she was before the change in her character.”I’m in love with my lust”. Lust is a sin. Like greed. “Burning angel wings to dust”. What I infere from these two lines is, its not working out. 1. These could be representative of Tarja, she is saying I’m in love with my sin and its causing destruction, literally turning the band relationships to dust, or 2. Tuomas is saying because he is allowing the problem to remain, he is causing the destruction. “I wish I had your angel tonight” – Tuomas really wants the old Tarja back.’Drunken disguise changes all the rule’ – Tuomas admitting he has an drink problem.Okay not going to do anymore because I’ve run out of time. Might tomorrow if this sparks up a quarrel ;P. But anyway I would agree with Tuomas that they follow the same story but I don’t seen WIHAA as an unrequired love song for Tarja, seems more like a warning to me Of course I have the gift of hindsight on my side.Also note that it ends on ‘I wish I had an Angel’ four times, rather then ‘Your angel’. Suggesting Tuomas wants an angel [new vocalist] really badly.The problem of course with lyrics is that they are completely open to intrepretation. For all we know Tuomas put them together because they were pretty.

Quispiam (me):

Thanks for showing such an interest. I don’t think he was in love with her either, I guess I expressed myself unclear. Having a crush, being in love, those are two different things. I would say that either1) He was in love with her, but knew he couldn’t have her. That’s why it varies so much between (as your theory goes) that he wants to fire her, and that he says he wants her to be his (“I wish I had your angel tonight”); he knows it’s impossible, yet he cannot help to think “but maybe I can have her after all…” I know since I’ve been in the same position, and it’s quite tough on you. He also doesn’t say that he wants HER, that she IS the angel, he says he wants HER angel, i.e. what she used to be and maybe still is deep inside….or…2) He wasn’t in love with her, but Marcelo destroyed her through his greed, as described in Master Passion Greed, destroyed his old beloved friend. He didn’t want this to happen, he wanted the old Tarja back. Even though he’s not in love with her, he admires the old Tarja enough to refer to her as an angel. Think of her as a shell with the old Tarja either killed long ago, or trapped inside the shell. Desperately, Master Holopainen tries to bring her out, more and more realising that he can’t. She is long gone. He realises that he if he can’t reach the angel inside the shell, he has to destroy the shell too, metaphorically. Through firing her. I would say that the song is about dealing with those strong emotions when he has to get rid of his long lost friend. Think of it yourself; you have a friend who (choose yourself if you want to see it metaphorically or not) you love till the end, yet he is trapped inside a demon. You try to find your friend within the demon’s heart, but you slowly realises that your friend has become the demon. He is not your friend any more. He is, against his will, a demon. The angel is trapped within the demon, what is there to do but to through a burning crucifix at the demon?I’m sorry I may sound rather poetic, I’ve been working on a song text the whole day… :PEternalwanderer:@The above: I like your second theory. In addition to making sense, it’s ridiculously nicely worded.Anyways, your whole theory makes sense to me, though I can’t say as I’m nearly as familiar with every word master Holopainen has ever spoken.Solyndra:In the biography he said however that WIHAA was written (or he came up with the idea) when he went to a bar with his girlfriend at the time and that all the guys were lusting after her. And I believe it kinda pissed him off xD His girlfriend at the time couldn’t have been Tarja because she was already married, and BBB is definitely directed at her.So I think the storyline could be correct lyricwise, but I don’t think the actual facts connected to the lyrics are connected as well.And by the way – in 2004 the band and Tarja were still friends. It went wrong during the tour, not before, if my memory serves right.Quispaim (me):Solyndra: You’re right, he have said that. That’s the one con in my theory, maybe I should have mentioned it.And yes, they have said that it was during the tourings, but also that they never rehearsed Once together. The guys had one shift, Tarja another, so they barely met. Maybe Tuomas already thought of this, and the tour was what made it worse.Rozen-rot:I think tensions had been arising for a long time, I mean they didn’t just happen over night. Look at Century Child released in 2004, Tuomas doesn’t seem to be in a good mood writing that one. Then factor in he wanted to leave. Problems were brewing for a few years prior to that release.That and the lovely Mrs Turunen stating in an interview that she and Tuomas were never friends. Nice.Quispiam (me):Rozen-rot: Little is known about why he wanted to leave Nightwish after Wishmaster (or was it after Over the Hills and Far Away?), all he has said is that “they felt musical differences among the members”. That’s also why he fired Sami, who according to him didn’t have a similar goal in their musical life (they’re still friends though), and why so much changed with Century Child. I don’t think it has to do with Tarja, really.Solyndra:It wasn’t just the band. He has also said his personal life had pretty much collapsed at this point..BlackDahlia333:I did believe that there was a connection between these two songs. Even the music sounds somehow simalar. So as far as we know that BBB is about Tarja why don’t believe that WIHAA is about her too? Tuomas has said she was his muse so I think he loved her (I’m not saying he was in love with her) Tarja had express her willing for solo career before the release of Once so maybe Tuomas was thinking his options.Quispiam (me):Yeah, well, I don’t think Tuomas was (nor is) in love with Tarja; neither WIHAA nor BBB really suggest love (more than friendship, respect, passion etc.).And yes, I know that if I were Tuomas I’d want to kill all the fans discussing his deeply personal problems, but hell, I have too much free time. GreyWolf84:I found your journal wandering on lastfm..I hope it’s ok if I add my comment on the matter..Actually Tarja husband really stated Tuomas was in love with her (read Marcelo Cabuli answers, in Tarja’s wikipedia). And Tarja confirmed it.Now I’m not sure which kind of love was it..for sure it wasn’t just a random crush since Marcelo quoted Tuomas own words saying “nobody was able to stop his love for Tarja” . Maybe it was platonic, maybe it was more physical..but according to Tarja and Marcelo he was for a long time in love with her.Going back to the song..BBB is surely about Tarja . I don’t think WIHAA has a connection with her..When Tuomas talked about “sister songs” I think he meant music-wise, not lyricswise.As someone said it, the song was written after a night in a bar with his girlfriend and guys started to hit on her..and Tuomas didn’t know what to do and was kinda pissed. I’ve never understand how the lyrics are connected to the event, however this is what Tuomas said.Quispiam (me):@GreyWolf84: Ofcourse, and I haven’t “decided” for an opinion or theory of my own, I merely debate on facts and guesses. I have read Tarja’s letter, and I know that she and Marcelo over and over again has said that Tuomas did feel for her and that he did confess this, more or less threatening Marcelo to leave her. However this is word against word, and we’ll never know who’s right. Tuomas states he didn’t feel anything more than a crush for Tarja, and that was years ago, back in the late 1990′s. I would presume he more or less admired her, felt a platonic love, but that he had accepted that he could not have her. When Marcelo stepped into the picture he was pissed of, partly in jealousy, but mostly simply because he destroyed his friend. That’s my theory.Your theory on BBB and WIHAA is very possible, and I can at least somewhat relate the lyrics of WIHAA to that event, if it’s written from their point of view.

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

- Tuomas Holopainen

Now I’ve officially scrobbled Nightwish over 3000 times on Last.fm. Go me. ^^

Okay, I’m sick, but it seems like it does have pros!

I just got the films I ordered from CDON.com! The first film is Joel Schumacher’s 2004 film based upon Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece musical with the same name; The Phantom of the Opera! The other film is a filmed concert with symphonic power metal act Kamelot – One Cold Winter’s Night, 2006 in Norway. Double win!

So… Can it be better? Now I only have one problem – what to see first?!

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.

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.

Just heard “The Escapist” by Finnish metal band Nightwish on YouTube. It will be included on their “Bye Bye Beautiful” single released later this year. It’s great!

• The Escapist at YouTube