Nightwish: Human. :II: Nature.

Nightwish are a band which has evolved. They've evolved in terms of personnel with only keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen and guitarist Emppu Vuorinen remaining from the group's inception in 1996. In somewhat of a non-shock their music has evolved a great deal in the quarter of a century of their existence. Some people like this, some people do. I am quite prepared to put on record that 2002's Century Child is my favourite Nightwish album. That said, they've released some great music before and after said record and parts of Human. :II: Nature. (irritating title btw) are up with the very best of this excellent band. Some of Human. :II: Nature. (irritating title btw) is crap and some of it, arguably goes straight up its own arse but at least artistically the 'wish are still moving forward.

The first thing to note is that the album is eigthy minutes long, yup...that's an 8 and a 0. Quite a brave choice in a world where more and more people have the attention span of a flighty goldfish. Let's get the divisive stuff out of the way first. There's a school of thought which wonders why, when you have a toweringly brilliant vocalist such as Floor Jansen you would require a song wholly led by Troy Donockley and there's another school of thought which asks why said song could be interpreted as being the kind of folksy, twee tune which gets played over a montage of a journey on a striaght to DVD kids' animation. I don't hold any truck with either of those and I think said track, "Harvest", is really pleasing in a folk rock kind of way. Not as good as the new Mykur album Folkesange but pretty good.

There's yet another school of thought which questions when you have a toweringly brilliant vocalist...you know the rest...yet complete the album with a thirty minute instrumental piece called "All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World" which whilst being pretty in a sub Hans Zimmer way isn't exactly crucial listening. Beethoven, Bach, Holst and the like won't be quaking in their graves at the prospect of a Tuomas Holopainen assault on the classical music field.

Now, let's look at the crap bits. After "Music" which is a pleasing and relatively low key start to the album and the excellent grower of a single "Noise", I really didn't get "Noise" nor its probably ultra expensive video for quite a while but once it clicked it won't leave my brain. "Shoemaker" is a total snoozefest devoid of a decent hook or melody and is one of the worst Nightwish songs of all time. Oh, hold on, here comes "Pan" to take that accolade quite quickly thereafter. "Pan" sounds like a leftover from the Once album and it is easy to see why it didn't make the grade �" it's Nightwish by numbers.To paraphrase a Sunday morning football team, Nightwish 'are better than that.'

The rest of the album is pretty damned good though hence the four stars below. Unlike some of their contemporaries Nightwish, despite their boundary pushing haven't morphed into an almost completely different band and yes, Within Temptation, I'm looking at you. Tuomas Holopainen, unlike some of his contemporaries hasn't lost the ability to pen a foot tapping tune and yes, Delain, I'm looking at you there. So, a flawed album but one where the good stuff outweighs the bad.

Track Listing:
Disc I

01. Music

02. Noise

03. Shoemaker

04. Harvest

05. Pan

06. How's The Heart?

07. Procession

08. Tribal

09. Endlessness



Disc II

01. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Vista

02. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - The Blue

03. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - The Green

04. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Moors

05. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Aurorae

06. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Quiet As The Snow

07. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Anthropocene (incl. "Hurrian Hymn To Nikkal")

08. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Ad Astra


Added: April 18th 2020
Reviewer: Simon Bray
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 1796
Language: english

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