Nightwish – Endless forms Most Beautiful (2015)

cover

As the most expected release from 2015, today we have Nightwish and their eight full-length release: “Endless forms Most Beautiful”. Armed with two new band members, this legendary Symphonic Metal band delivers nearly 80 minutes of music in their most ambitious album to date. The album is naturally filled with fast, catchy and heavy tracks that are perfectly combined with dramatic symphonic arrangements, all nicely tied together with a very powerful message.

Opening with the bombastic “Shudder Before the Beautiful”, the band sets a very active tempo since the beginning. Floor Jansen’s vocals work very well for Nightwish and they greatly shine in this release. It was obvious that the band’s previous singer had considerably less range than Floor, and the band is now back into their lush and explosive musical days from their Tarja-era. The choir arrangements are extremely well delivered and greatly enhance the music. Marco Hietala has a reduced role, in terms of singing, in this release but it makes his moments count like on the epic “Weak Fantasy”.

The album’s first single “Élan” is a very typical mid-tempo song that provides a nice taste into the album, but is not the most representative piece from it. The bombastic and explosive older Nightwish is back with the powerful “Yours is an Empty House”, a track that brings back Floor’s After Forever memories. Her vocals continue to be challenged with the power-ballad “Our Decades In the Sun” and the very catchy “My Walden”. This last song perfectly demonstrates the abilities of the band’s newest full-time member Troy Donockley.

After the engaging album title track, we are taken to the band’s good old days with the epic solos of “Edema Ruh”, a song that mixes the band’s older heavier basic music and their newest symphonic/acoustic elements that they have picked up along the way. “Alpenglow” is another one of the typical catchy Nightwish songs that people will flip out about and chant together, so be sure to check this one out before going into the more experimental an acoustic pieces near the end like “The Eyes of Sharbat Gula”.

The album closes with one of the band’s most ambitious tracks to date, the monumental “The Greatest Show On Earth”, a very cinematic piece that feels like the soundtrack for a short movie rather than a song. In this track, all the bells and whistles are thrown into the mix with some spoken sections by Richard Dawkins. This song greatly summarizes the Tuomas Holopainen attitude towards making grandiose music that makes a lasting impact and conveys a direct message. Overall, “Endless forms most Beautiful” is a pretty solid release that nicely incorporates Floor into the mix with some more challenging and intense vocal sections. More of the same is always good; when it is this high quality and still entertaining.

Band: Nightwish Album: Endless forms Most Beautiful

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Release: March 27th, 2015 (Europe) / March 31st, 2015 (North America)

Official Site Social Media

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Finland

Rating: 92/100
Year: 

Recent Image Galleries