Ranking Nightwish albums from worst to best (Anett

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Ranking Nightwish albums from worst to best (Anette era excluded)
Before I begin i want to make a few disclaimers first. Firstly, I will be omitting albums where Anette Olzon was the front woman. That era of Nightwish doesnt interest me, I stopped following Nightwish during that era, i have no albums from that era and i dont want them either. Secondly, i did regain my interested in Nightwish when Floor Jansen joined, albums with her on will be included, but remember one thing……….ive had years of listening to Nightwish albums from the Tarja era, but not that many from the Floor era, so maybe it might be better if i make this ranking in 2 years time, but ill give it a go for now nonetheless.

In 7th place………..their debut album Angels Fall First. I think Nightwish were one of these bands where it took them a few albums before they firmly found their place and formed a very polished product. The production quality is kind of under par here compared to all their other albums. Emppu Vuorinen vocals are considerably under par too, especially in songs like Astral Romance and Beauty and the Beast. There’s no amazing songs on this album, but there are some good ones like Elvenpath and Know Why the Nightingale Sings. The 3 Lappi songs that are sung in Finnish are alright too.

In 6th place……...Oceanborn. The band’s second album. A small improvement from the second album, but certainly not one of their best albums. You know when an album is good or a cracker to you, because you’ll keep coming back to it often. Unfortunately i have not come back to this album that often. Apart from a few songs on this album, the rest are just mediocre at best, Their cover of Walking in the Air is great though.

In 5th place would be their latest album Human II Nature. Maybe this album might get ranked more higher if i were to do this again in 2 or 3 years time, but for now i do not consider it a very strong album. There’s a few good songs on this album, and songs like Pan and Procession sound quite storytelling’ish, and i do usually like songs that sound storytelling’ish.

In 4th place would be Endless Forms Most Beautiful. The first Floor era album. On this album they employed folk metal quite a bit. There’s a fair few songs on this album that sound rather folk metal’ish like Edema Ruh and My Walden, luckily im quite a fan of folk metal, so thats an alright move there. The opening track is a great song, and the first time i heard it i thought to myself “yes!!!, thats the old Nightwish back again”. The last track aswell is a good epic that lasts over 20 mins. A fair amount of it though is speaking dialouge. But there’s one bit where it goes rather heavy, and Floor certainly shows off her vocal variety by singing rather heavy, sounding kind of like Doro Pesch or Bonnie Tyler. Tarja would not have been able to do this, Emppu Vuorinen would have had to have done those bits for her.

In 3rd place would be Century Child. This album and Wishmaster are kind of equally good, so Wishmaster is only going to very narrowly beat this. But some good and great songs on this album and plenty of them. The opening track is a good opening track, Id say Ocean Soul is the weakest track on this album, as i only consider it mediocre quality. End of All Hope is a great song, and they do a smashing cover of Phantom of the Opera.

In 2nd place would be Wishmaster. Like i said in the previous paragraph, Wishmaster only narrowly beats Century Child. I think only for sentimental reasons though, that Wishmaster beats Century Child. Kinslayer was the first song I ever heard by Nightwish, and when i heard it i thought “They mix classical, opera and metal together very well”. The title track is very good too, and i grew to really like Dead Boys Poem, a sad story told in a nice way (sounds like an oxymoron i know lol). She is my Sin is a great song too.

And in first place…………...Once. Many people say that this was the album Nightwish went commercial on. Maybe to a degree they did, but they didnt betray their roots that much tho either. One thing that makes an album good or great, is variety, and this album has huge variety. Nemo was the 2nd song by Nightwish i had ever heard. Songs like I wish I had an Angel and Planet Hell sound semi industrial, which is good too. Ghost Love Score and Creek Mary’s Blood are both amazing songs. This album ranks number 1 for me.