vikingman369 : 19/20 | Few bands ever achieve what can truly be classified, without exaggeration, as "a genre-defining moment." Oceanborn by Nightwish is one such moment. After years of swearing off first era Nightwish, I finally decided to give it a go with this album here: I had read that it was heavily inspired by power metal, which I have been getting into lately, and felt that it was the natural starting point. It's strange to me, having begun my journey into metal in the late 2000s and early 2010s, that there was in fact a time when the metal scene was not saturated by female-fronted gothic metal bands. But in the year of our Lemmy 1998, no one else was doing what Nightwish did on this, their second album: fusing the feminine vocals of their frontwoman with epic power metal Music, wrapped around ostentatious orchestrations that, frankly, drown the preceding efforts of Angels Fall First.
Good luck finding a poor track on this album. Fans of the heavy, fast power metal stuff are treated both first and last with blistering epic assaults, evocative of Dio's stargazing wizards, the darkest moments of the Christian tradition, and the wonders and Mysteries of ancient Egypt. Those who prefer the quieter, more ballad-esque climes of AFF may find solace in one or three (if you got the deluxe re-release, as I did) contemplative moments, each one better than the last (for the best one, see the video included). Narrowing down a favorite track is a Heruclean task for difficulty, due to the sheer number of top tier tracks on this album. However, "Passion and the Opera" has grown on me ever since my first listen to this noctulescent triumph. As for the weakest track, for my money, that place belongs to "Swanheart": not to put it down, as I never skip it every time I listen to the album all the way through. But that says something to the overall quality of this record, if that is the "weakest" track.
Speaking of quality, all five of the Finnish quintet are firing on all cylinders. Tuomas showcasing his skill as a composer, both with soaring orchestrations as ostentatious keyboard passages that carry the eager listener on this epic journey of his. Tarja's dark-toned soprano voice follows suit, soaring to epic heights and contemplative, somber lows. Jukka and Sami lay down a pounding rhythmic foundation on drums and bass respectively that serves as the immutable bedrock of this epic journey. And let us not forget the diminutive Emppu: relegated, sadly, on later releases to the position of private riffmaster, here he soars as the shredmaster general, laying down some of his most epic leads to date, if not in all of the band's history.
This album serves as the Musical bedrock for the numerous female-fronted gothic symphonic metal bands that have sprung up in the wake of the Finnish quintet: a powerful album recommended for fans of gothic metal, symphonic metal, power metal, or even for non-metalheads looking for a more accessible sound than the extremer climes of mainstream metal.
2022-10-15 19:33:08
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