ALBUM REVIEW: Darkwoods My Betrothed – Angel Of Carnage Unleashed


One of the more fascinating projects to be revived during everyone’s pandemic-induced free time, Darkwoods My Betrothed has returned with their first album since 1998’s Witch-Hunts. Angel of Carnage Unleashed (Napalm Records) sustains their old style for the most part, showing off a variant of Viking Black Metal with hearty Symphonic flourishes. Of course, it’s always interesting to see how time will toy with a preexisting formula, especially one that has gone undisturbed for twenty-three years.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Nightwish – Human. :||: Nature.


With gaps of up to five years between studio albums, it takes some serious dedication to be a Nightwish fan these days. Since 2007, the band has only released four albums, but in that time, their fanbase has grown so large that the symphonic Finns (well, mostly Finnish) have been able to make that often treacherous leap from mid-sized venues to selling out full arenas.Continue reading


Nightwish – Beast In Black: Live at Arena, Birmingham (UK)


 

Swapping medium sized venues for full sized arenas can be a big gamble for a band, but after a highly successful show at Wembley Arena in 2015, Finnish Symphonic Metal act Nightwish decided to take the plunge and returned to UK shores for a lengthier three date arena visit in support of their recently released compilation album Decades (Nuclear Blast).Continue reading


BLOODSTOCK 2018- Part 2: Catton Hall, Derbyshire UK


SATURDAY

With everyone firmly into the swing of things by now, Saturday’s main stage openers Nailed to Obscurity opened proceedings strongly enough but were promptly blown out of the water by one of the major surprises of the festival – Power Trip. A combination of thrash and early death metal, the Texan act were a blur of riffs and speed, whipping up the early afternoon crowd into an explosive cyclone of energy. Continue reading


Lyric Video: Nightwish – Endless Forms Most Beautiful


Nightwish has released their second single for the title track of their album Endless Forms Most Beautiful, out now via Nuclear Blast Records. Stream the lyric video below.

Endless Forms Most Beautiful Single tracklist:

1. Endless Forms Most Beautiful (album version)
2. Sagan (instrumental) previously unreleased
3. Endless Forms Most Beautiful (alternative version)
4. Endless Forms Most Beautiful (radio edit) previously unreleased

Buy ‘Endless Forms Most Beautiful’ digital copy here:
AMZ MP3: http://geni.us/NightwishEndlessEPAMZ
iTunes: http://geni.us/NightwishEndlessEPiT
Google: http://smarturl.it/NIGHTWISH-FormsEP-GP

NIGHTWISH members include:

Floor Jansen – Vocals
Tuomas Holopainen – Keyboards
Marco Hietala – Bass & Vocals
Emppu Vuorinen – Guitar
Troy Donockley – Pipes, Flutes, Whistles
Kai Hahto – Drums

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Nightwish and Delain Book Spring 2016 North American Tour


nightwish delain tour

Finnish symphonic metallers Nightwish have confirmed their 26 dates headlining North American tour with Delain as support in early 2016.

Feb 19: Starland Ballroom – Sayreville, NJ
Feb 20: Webster Theater – Hartford, CT
Feb 21: Metropolis – Montreal, QC
Feb 22: Music Hall – London, ON
Feb 24: Carnegie Music Hall – Pittsburgh, PA
Feb 25: LC Pavilion – Columbus, OH
Feb 26: Royal Oak Music Theatre – Royal Oak, MI
Feb 27: Rave – Milwaukee, WI
Feb 29: First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
Mar 01: Burton Cummings Theatre – Winnipeg, MB
Mar 02: O’Briens Events Center – Saskatoon, SK
Mar 03: Winspear Center – Edmonton AB
Mar 05: MacEwan Hall Ballroom – Calgary, AB
Mar 06: Wilma Theatre –Missoula, MT
Mar 07: Showbox SoDo – Seattle, WA
Mar 08: Knitting Factory – Boise, ID
Mar 10: Knitting Factory – Reno, NV
Mar 11: City National Civic of San Jose – San Jose, CA
Mar 12: The Grove – Anaheim, CA
Mar 14: Rialto Theatre – Tucson, AZ
Mar 15: City Auditorium – Colorado Springs, CO
Mar 16: Uptown Theater – Kansas City, MO
Mar 18: Diamond Ballroom – Oklahoma City, OK
Mar 19: Aztec Music Hall – San Antonio, TX
Mar 20: New Orleans Civic Theatre – New Orleans, LA
Mar 21: Iron City Live – Birmingham, AL
Mar 23: The Ritz – Tampa, FL

NIGHTWISH members include:

Floor Jansen – Vocals
Tuomas Holopainen – Keyboards
• Marco Hietala – Bass & Vocals
Kai Hahto – Drums
Emppu Vuorinen – Guitar
Troy Donockley – Pipes, Flutes, Whistles

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Nightwish Reach #34 On Billboard US Top 200 Album Chart


nightwish billboard

Finnish symphonic metallers Nightwish have sold 18, 342 copies of their new album Endless Forms Most Beautiful in its first week of sales in the United States and hit #34 on Billboard US Top 200. The album was produced by Tero “TeeCee” Kinnunen and the album features the participation of London’s The Metro Voices choir group, London’s Young Musicians Children‘s Choir, and the Orchestre De Grandeur led by the esteemed orchestral arranger Pip Williams, who teaches Music and Music Technology at the London College of Music. Professor Richard Dawkins not only narrates the introduction to the album’s opener, “Shudder Before The Beautiful,” but also the album’s closer, “The Greatest Show On Earth,” which takes its name from his 2009 book on evolution.

They will be out on tour with Sabaton and Delain across North America and dates are posted here.

NIGHTWISH members include:

Floor Jansen – Vocals
Tuomas Holopainen – Keyboards
Marco Hietala – Bass & Vocals
Emppu Vuorinen – Guitar
Troy Donockley – Pipes, Flutes, Whistles
Kai Hahto – Drums

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Nightwish – Endless Forms Most Beautiful


Endless_Forms_Most_Beautiful

Nightwish, the rulers of symphonic metal have returned and are ready to take over the world with their new album Endless Forms Most Beautiful (Nuclear Blast). This much anticipated album is the first studio album with not only Metal queen Floor Jansen on vocals, but also Wintersun drummer Kai Hahto, who took over when long-time drummer Jukka Nevalainen had to drop out due to health issues.

Composed primarily by Tuomas Holopainen, the sound on this new album hearkens back to the old Nightwish but one major difference is the vocal performance given by Floor. While she is fully capable of the high operatic capers we know from former Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen, there is little of that on this album. Instead, we get to enjoy her full range of power and emotions, from very small and sweet vocals on ‘Élan’ and ‘Our Decades in the Sun’, to the intense and distorted power in ‘Yours is an Empty Hope’. In fact, this album shows an even greater range than her own projects (After Forever, ReVamp) have done.

The album also contrasts with previous Nightwish works in subject matter; while Imaginaerum (Nuclear Blast) dealt with the world of the imagination, this album describes the beauty of the natural world. In fact, the album title is a quote from Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

‘Élan’ is the first single and video for the album, even though it is one of the softest songs on the album; Troy Donockley’s whistles give the son a Celtic vibe, and Floor’s vocals are sweet at first, however, this sweetness does not last the whole song, since towards the end a very pleasing modulation brings more powerful vocals. It might not be the song most representative of the album, but it is beautiful and driven. On the album ‘Élan’ is followed by ‘Yours is an Empty Hope’, a song that brings all the bombast one can hope to find in a Nightwish song. The heavy guitar riffs are supplemented with an excellent orchestra and choir, and it is the heaviest song on the album. Floor totally rips on these vocals, and it a very intense song to experience. Tuomas’ genius as a composer is demonstrated by the contrast between this and the next song, ‘Our Decades in the Sun’. Despite the gentility of this song, with ethereal choir song and such sweet vocals by Floor, the song still doesn’t fall flat, has an astounding energy for a song so serene, and is definitely one of my favourites from this album.

‘Weak Fantasy’ is epic, the title track is very catchy, and ‘Edemah Ruh’ is very smooth. However, there is one song that stands apart from anything Nightwish has ever produced, namely ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. This is the last song on the album, and lasts a staggering 23 minutes 58. There is no real good way to describe this song, other than as varied as nature itself; it has operatics, power vocals, narration, and instrumental sections and varies from intense piano to orchestral masterpieces, to heavy metal.

Trying to pick out highlights form this album is like trying to pick needles out of a stack of predominantly needles. There may be an occasional pin, depending on your personal tastes, but there is not a strand of hay in sight.

9.5/10

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LORRAINE LYSEN