NIGHTWISH (Live)

For a long time there was nothing to hear from the Finnish Symphonic Metalers in Nightwish. Since the dramatic departure of vocalist Tarja Turunen, the band had been writing new songs for a new high budget album. It’s been three long years since the release of their best-selling record Once. Now, the sequel release came out in September 2007, the long-awaited record Dark Passion Play, which is a definitive musical masterpiece. The expectations fans have had through the previous two years have been blended. Many will not forgive the four guys for their decision of firing Tarja. Filling the space after Tarja was an unforgiving job for anyone, but replacement Anette Olson, has done a great job so far in filling that space, both on the album and live. Her performance this night was no exception!

Both the shows at Sentrum Scene in Oslo, December 1st and 2nd, were sold out. 1800 fans where gathered waiting for the band. The mood among the crowd was great. Jukka was the first one to appear on the stage during the intro. In the dim lights he sat down behind his drum kit. Then the rest of the band walked onto the stage. The aggressive keyboard/guitar intro was delivered through the speakers and then the rest of the band joined in and pounded out the amazing song “By By Beautiful,” one of the leading singles from Dark Passion Play. The band seemed to have fun on stage, always smiling. ”Little” Emppu was all over the place, running around all the time. His guitar playing was really outstanding this Sunday night; aggressive and loud. The pounding beats of drummer Jukka and the groovy bass lines of Marco laid a great foundation. Toumas, the mastermind of Nightwish, played with the greatest passion and the band sounded amazingly tight! They truly performed great versions of every song. Most impressive was the way Annette handled the vocals on the song “Dark Chest Of Wonders” from their 2004 release Once. Every little doubt about her voice was crushed from the very beginning. It sure was a little weird not hearing Tarja’s unique and dramatic operatic voice, but Annette impressed the audience with her interpretation of this tune.

The band played highlights one after another, including the fabulous “Ever Dream,” “Nemo,” and the unexpected “Dead To The World.” The band put much emphasis on their latest release, Dark Passion Play, from which they performed eight songs. It sure is an amazingly good record and the songs from it were a blast hearing live.

The stellar highlight of the night was the tremendous version of the opening track from Dark Passion Play: “The Poet And The Pendulum,” a 13-minute masterpiece. When the majestic symphony intro started, there wasn’t a dry eye amongst the crowd. The band entered, making the dramatic Symphony transition to pure Heavy Metal — a great moment for the headbangers, of course. The amazing lightshow put the little extra atmosphere to it. At some points in the song, the scene literally exploded in flames. The great pyroshow during this tune was indeed fun to watch. It sure was a moment worthy of remembering.

After the song “Sahara,” Marco spoke to the audience. This was where the cliché-type of thing would happen; if the audience made enough noise the band would play a couple of more songs. And so it was, the audience screamed for more while a satisfied Marco stood smiling on the stage with a bottle of vodka in his hands. The band was pleased indeed and played their hit single ”Nemo” + three more encores for this highly amazed crowd.

Nightwish delivered music with such passion and power on this night. Like always, they sure delivered a fantastic show. There have been a lot of expectations when it comes to the new Nightwish line-up, but they proved themselves to be almost greater than before; still hungry for more. The new voice carries the music of Nightwish. Anette was a great choice indeed!