If you don’t know who Nightwish are yet, it’s time to wake up…fast…because the Finnish goth-orchestralmetal band is already a phenomenon throughout the rest of the world. Nightwish’s last album, Once, hit #1 on the Pan-European charts, and extended their faithful fan-base in Australia & NZ.
On first listen, Nightwish seems to fall into the same genre as Evanescence and Lacuna Coil - femalefronted metal band with symphonic and gothic overtones. But any similarities end there. Seven albums in with ‘Dark Passion Play’ Nightwish are without doubt the template to which others have followed, again recording with a full orchestral compliment, this time at the Abbey Road studios in London.
Nightwish have been the focus of much publicity over the last 12 months after completing an exhausting auditioning process for a new lead singer. From the 2000 submissions they narrowed it down to Anette Olzon. Olzen remarks that ‘Dark Passion Play’ is Nightwish’s most varied work stating “As a whole, it's a big mixture, yet a heavy album.”
The first single, ‘Amaranth’, has been certified gold in the band's native Finland only two days after its release.
