DARK PASSION PLAY

I didn't knew Nightwish was consider prog, I never thought that, but now I can help some people to get into this good and interesting band... this is a surprising album, a great comeback, like a reborn for this great band...

Everybody was little afraid about Tarja's departure, I didn't care too much because I wasn't fan from them but one friend give me this album and said that I should like it, and he was right... so, lets see the review:

This is not an operatic album, it's a symphonic metal piece with good flow, great melodies and catchy choruses... the operatic powerfull voice is gone, there's a pop singer leading this band and bringing a softer texture to the songs, which is good because it's easier to sing along with... the music remains the same, with his great keyboard player compossing great songs, but BTW, I don't like that a band don't compose music but just a single mind but well, the result is quite good, and you will find yourself singing over and over those fancy lines in "Bye Bye Beautiful", "Amaranth" "Sahara" and "The Islander"... well, I can say that the 80% of the album is very catchy, sometimes cheesy but good enough to appriciate it...

The instrumentantion is good, the symphonic arrangements are sometimes very ambicious but the bad thing is that Holopainen is a good keyboard player but cannot play the whole thing live, so is quite dissapointing of using sequencing but of course, nobody is expecting him to be Jordan Rudess, so I can live with it... Musically Nightwish has not loose nothing with the departure of Tarja, they sound tight, heavy and good... of course, there's no show off or soloing but just a great assamble of good players... I even feel that Anette Olzon fits better in NW... they gain more pop accebility by not loosing the musicianship... Tarja also sounds great on her solo album, so I think the fans win much more by both now their are separate...

If you like Symphonic metal, this is the album for you... get it, for me it's an excelent prove from what is quality rock with great melodies... 4 stars without any doubt -the remaining star I don't give it cause I doubt this is essential for prog- but it's great...