For me it’s Nightwish, they have continually evolved with every iteration, each new female lead and grown from every hurdle they’ve faced.
They started of as a relatively obscure symphonic metal band with a loyal following and have since become widely known across Europe and parts of the US amongst metal fans and didn’t really start to take off in terms of popularity until 2013 after the current lead singer joined the band.
Personally I started following them long before they were widely popular and before they released their album Dark Passion Play, Which followed the particularly bitter release of their lead vocalist at the time, Tarja Turunen. Many fans feared it would be the end of the band due to their loyalty to Tarja, who was known for her incredible operatic voice and is still widely loved today.
She was replaced by Anette Olsen for the album Dark Passion Play, which was for me..the first evolution of their music. This album also dealt with a lot of the bitterness and heartbreak the band had to deal with following Tarja’s departure. Most notably in the track “The Poet and the Pendulum” which dealt with a lot of dark feelings and emotional turmoil felt by Tuomas Holopainen. That track alone, has so much more attached to it that the scope really goes further than the bounty suggests.
Again in the track “Bye bye Beautiful” it dealt with some of the issues they faced following Tarja’s departure from the band and was away for them to both pay tribute and move on. The album as a whole is also a pretty big shift away from what they had been doing previously, much heavier metal in places yet also some tracks which truly complimented Anette’s softer voice and weaker vocal range, Meadows of Heaven comes to mind.
Another change of style came with the album Imaginaerum, which was much darker but with more elements of fantasy and ‘nightmare fuel’ but also tracks which have since turned into classics. I think one criminally underrated track which really showcased something different, was Slow. Love, Slow. It had a distinctly Jazzy theme to it that reminded me a bit of Sin City with that sort of gritty dystopian vibe. Which in my opinion is of Anette’s best performances. The song really showcased their range of musical ability, and if memory serves me correctly..they even played at a Jazz festival.
Their style evolved once again with Endless forms Most Beautiful, introducing us to their current singer Floor Jansen and aherm..the famed, Floorgasm. This album has a decidedly more whimsical theme but deals with the evolution of life and other aspects. This is the first album that also introduces Troy Donockly as a full time member (he’s made appearances in others, but now full time) and although he plays many instruments he’s most well known for his Uilleann pipes which gives this album a truly different feeling to all the others.
The Stand out track for this album is most definitely “The Greatest Show on Earth” and is quite simply, a musical and lyrical masterpiece. 24 minutes of pure metal bliss that showcases each of their talents.
The next album, Human Nature (Sadly their last with Marko) was also a distinct evolution of their sound although their style stayed very much the same. This album, as per the title deals with elements of well..human nature and experimented with the unique sounding harmony the three singers have together whilst also giving them their own set pieces, it was something I’d not heard from them before. There’s so many stand out tracks in this album that I can’t really list them all but I will list a couple, starting How’s the Heart, for something that showcases their incredible harmony and Shoemaker for the Floorgasm of all Floorgasms.
Where this band really shine most though is Their live performances, everyone always says the same thing “The best live performance I’ve ever seen” I was lucky enough to be able to see their Human Nature tour and it’s something I’ll never forget. They sound even better live than the studio recordings, which is a rare quality these days. Something that also surprised me, is how varied the age groups of people that were there but it does that they appeal to a much wider demographic than a lot of others in the same genre, thanks precisely to how much they’ve grown and changed.
A lot longer than 70 words but uh, was a lot to cover for how often they’ve evolved.
