The very best of Europe's biggest metal band.
Nightwish are, without a doubt, one of the fastest growing metal acts around today on all spectrums of the music profession. With over 2.5 million albums sold worldwide, their unique groundbreaking combination of operatic vocals and symphonic heavy metal has become widely recognised and ever popular. Their improvement and growth over the past nine years of their work is clearly evident throughout their records, surpassing their brilliance with their stunning release 'Once', their most recent album. Now, Nightwish are set to release 'Highest Hopes', a spectacular combination of some of their greatest songs. Bringing together old favourites, new serenades and previously unreleased material, 'Highest Hopes' highlights the ultimate skill and grace of one of the world's greatest metal bands. Perhaps not so well known, the band had previously released a 'best of' entitled 'Tales From The Elvenpath' but one of the troubles with this was that the band had not included any material from 'Once' which is by far and away their best album ever written. 'Highest Hopes' has included two tracks, which were released as singles and have been considered to be among the best of the tracks on the album itself.
The general combination of tracks chosen by Nightwish to feature on this 'best of' album are well balanced between each of their five major releases and highlights the very height of their musical skills and talents at various stages of their work. Hence, 'Highest Hopes' is clearly the ideal album to recommend to someone who has never been introduced to the band but is eager to be enlightened to the powerful, versatile vocals of the beautiful and statuesque front woman, Tarja Turunen, the later roaring yet elegant vocal work of bassist (2001 onwards) Marco Hietala and the graceful and elegant sounds of symphonic heavy metal. From some of their heaviest, anthematic tracks of great technical prowess to their more elegant, vocal orientated and powerful ballads, 'Highest Hopes' will take you on a landmark journey throughout the history of Nightwish and their world of fantasy, lost innocence and enchantment.
The album kicks off with the first offering from the landmark album 'Once', the sultry and seductive 'Wish I Had An Angel'. This is a track that really highlights the claim that Nightwish have worked hard to prove that, no matter how strange it may seem heavy metal and operatic vocals really do work. The timbre and quality of vocal work between Marco and Tarja are completely different, yet somehow they compliment each other perfectly and Marco's vocals have added something to Nightwish that somehow seemed missing previous to his arrival to the band. Seductive and driving with addictive rhythm, 'Wish I Had An Angel' certainly has a place within this compilation and makes an excellent album opener. Similarly the majestic and emotive 'Nemo' makes an excellent representative for the power of 'Once' on this album and like the rest of the ballad style tracks highlights the sheer beauty and skill of Tarja's voice. However, the beauty of 'Nemo' is that it clearly shows how much clearer Tarja's voice has become over the years, and really shows her at her highest potential. 'Nemo' is also the first single to have been released from 'Once' and sold thousands of copies within its first week of release alone and having become something of a landmark track for 'Once' it would have been a crime not to include it. 'Oceanborn' has been dubbed the most technical and difficult of their albums to produce, and also one of their best having reached a groundbreaking quality so early in their career being full of layers, chilling synth work, soaring and powerful operatic vocals from Tarja and heavy, enchanting guitar work. It is no surprise then that this album holds the highest featured tracks on this 'Best of', the beautiful and solitary 'Sleeping Sun', the gothic and extremely fast paced 'Stargazers', the majestic 'Sacrament of the Wilderness' and the ethereal and elegant cover of 'Walking In The Air'. All of these tracks highlight the real crossover of metal and operatic vocals in their earliest beginnings, the bridge between the innocence and experimental sounds of 'Angels Fall First' and the maturing heights of the awesome 'Wishmaster'.
While on the passing mentioning of covers, it is widely thought that Nightwish handle covers with such grace and skill that they are often considered to be better then the original track itself. Indeed this has been true of 'Over The Hills And Far Away' and certainly of 'The Phantom Of The Opera', the sheer dynamics and power of the song perfect for vocal interaction between Marco and Tarja. 'Phantom Of The Opera' was featured on the 'Century Child' album, an album that saw the introduction of Marco Hietala after the departure of previous bassist Sami from the band and a never-ending realm of new musical horizons for the band. Indeed it has been the introduction of Marco that has allowed Nightwish to handle covers that give Tarja a break from the stage and give the spotlight to the bands collaboration as an instrumental piece. On this note we come to what really makes this release worth buying for fans that may already have all of Nightwish's material, the stunning rendition of 'High Hopes' originally by progressive rock legends, Pink Floyd.
Usually Pink Floyd covers are frowned upon because Pink Floyd were such an influential band to the development of rock in general, let alone metal, that to cover their music and alter it would seem a crime to most. However, Nightwish have executed their cover version in such a way that does the both Nightwish and Pink Floyd the world of justice, in a style that moves and packs in all the emotion and power Floyd used and multiplies it one hundred fold. The cover, as with most rock covers done by Nightwish, is handled only by the boys of the band and here, the focus is handed to the roaring yet strangely operatic vocals of Marco Hietala. It is a voice of real power and charisma, a tone of gruff yet melodic appeal with a slight sense of delusional madness in the mood of its tone. It is a voice that really works with the sheer emotion and beauty of the music, but it also is a voice that works separately from the workings of the bass, which Marco is also responsible for. Usually a vocalist who also plays an instrument having to put focus on both lines at once can often neglect his instrument when doing vocals but not so with Marco, who is able to put equally as much force and power behind both bass and vocals and really manages to keep the sound together. The efforts of Tuomas, Emppu and Jukka do not go unnoticed either, with haunting and chilling synths from Tuomas, the echoing and emotive solos of Emppu and the roaring drum rolls of Jukka all working together to make this cover something really special. In a roaring chorus that pulls everything together into a driving force of musical movement, the emotion of the music itself highlights just what it was that made Pink Floyd so utterly special and crucial within music. In the final fading moments devoted to Emppu's touching solos, there is but one conclusion, while no one could ever cover Pink Floyd material to the extent of bettering the original, Nightwish have done an exceedingly excellent job of coming close. While turning the performance into something unmistakably Nightwish, they have retained the essence of brilliance of Pink Floyd's composition and so have created a respectful tribute to Pink Floyd rather than just a simple cover.
In conclusion, the compilation is an excellent one that highlights and explores the very height of Nightwish's flair, finesse and skill. A perfect tribute to one of the very best bands in metal, this 'best of' creates high hopes for the future of their music, music that will undoubtedly become better and better and revered within time. Nightwish are real metal legends in the making and can only continue to grow musically with experience and time.