About six or so years ago, I was driving around in my battered, air-conditioning-less GMC Sonoma. I had the radio tuned to the local rock radio station. A fairly moody piano riff came out of the speakers, followed by a forlorn female voice. Then came big crunchy guitars.
I remember thinking that was pretty cool - a female voice over heavy guitars. There just wasn’t a lot of that going on. What little there was sounded more like Lita Ford. Nothing wrong with that, but I wanted heartier fare than “Kiss Me Deadly.”
That tune turned out to be “Bring Me To Life”, the soon-to-be Evanescence mega-hit. Frankly, the band disappointed me with the rather dull guitar riffs. Amy Lee has a nice voice, but she wasn’t the metal dragon lady I hoped for - more of the moody, put-upon Goth girl who is okay playing the victim. Very one-dimensional, to my ear.
Tuomas & Tarja in better days. (Maija Koivisto)
I forget who pointed out Nightwish to me. Don’t know ‘em? That’s ’cause they’re from Finland, and American rock radio is awfully parochial. Britain, okay. But I can go a long time without hearing any German (save the Scorpions), Finnish or even Swedish bands. One with a female vocalist? I shouldn’t hold my breath.
Anyway, Nightwish kind of blew me away with its fusion of a classically trained female singer and really dense arrangement, along with a rhythm section that absolutely pounds. Then-singer Tarja Turunen’s voice was a bit too widdly for me, but I liked the willingness to take a chance on something different. And holy cow, widdly style or not, Tarja has a powerhouse of a voice. I appreciated it enough to buy their albums. Shortly after I started listening, a row within the band led to Tarja’s ouster via open letter on the band’s Web site; I won’t get into that.
Minor League Rocker, meet Major League Rocker. Photo by Minolta Monet.
Her replacement, a more conventional rock singer named Anette Olzon, really inflamed a lot of the fan base. “Popwish,” many sniffed (despite the sound of Empu Vuorinen’s cranked Mesa amp and Jukka Nevalainen’s double-bass drumming - yeah, that’s totally Britney Spears). Meanwhile, she was in the studio recording Dark Passion Play, which would be the best-selling Nightwish album to date. She struggled live with some of the earlier songs on tour, but started to come into her own with many of them - though not all. (My own pet theory? Tarja’s classical stylings gave the early fans intellectual ammo and made them feel special and elite. Shorn of that, they bawled their eyes out into their corsets and lace, taking their anger out on the Anette.)
The music? It’s still pretty awesome. Tuomas Holopainen, the band’s keyboardist and composer, has a cinematic sweep to his writing. I prefer some of the earlier stuff because it relied more on the guitar and less on string arrangements. But the quality and invention is still there. Anette doesn’t have the monster set of pipes, but she’s super-expressive and a bit more creative with her melodies.
Marco and Emppu - two of the cheeriest metal cats ever. (James Van Nguyen)
Nu-metal types and those who like modern American metal often call Nightwish “cheesy.” That’s code for “creativity,” “good chops” and “no faux-macho posturing.” I love the combination of beauty and fury - it’s refreshing next to the dour, glum, sour vibe of most American metal.
Speaking of the lack of faux-macho metal posturing, Nightwish has the distinct Euro-metal persona of seeming grateful to be playing every time their onstage. Every time I see a Euro-metal band, each member seems thrilled that I was willing to lay out my money -and my time- to come see them. They all just have a really warm, friendly live vibe. Nightwish excels at this, largely because of Anette and bassist Marco Hietala. It’s hard to find two more likeable people in metal.
I’m glad this band is around - it makes my CD collection a much better place. They also pointed me toward more European female-fronted metal bands. More on them in a future post!
One awesome band. (not sure who shot this - if it's yours, let me know and I'll credit you!)
