Nightwish - Dark Passion Play Roadrunner Records

Anette Olzon may have won Goth Idol as Nightwish's new leading lady, but she needs to learn how to sing first. Since the 2005 public firing of former vocalist Tarja Turunen, Nightwish held an open call for auditions online where over 2,000 singers from around the world hoped to become the band's new vocalist. Yet, it was Olzon from the now defunct band Alyson Avenue who replaced the beloved Turunen and led the band's first studio album, Dark Passion Play, in three years. Even after the band spent a reportedly half a million dollars, making it possibly the most expensive recording in Finland's history, Olzon is the still the little Swede that couldn't.     What does this album, that's worth a pretty penny, contain? Try “The Poet and the Pendulum,” both the opening track and the longest song ever performed by Nightwish, running almost 14 minutes long! This eerie, epic track was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 story about a prisoner attempting to escape a blade slicing through his chest and falls to his death in a pit. The track is a musical masterpiece, filled with soft, delicate strings, a fading piano, and the haunting voice of a child. Suddenly, menacing horns blast warning cries of the grim reaper anxiously awaiting his victim's arrival. The furious guitars of Emppu Vuorinen, charges in the middle of the London Session Orchestra and before any head banging can occur, Olzon begins singing with her bubble-gum voice. She doesn't have the classical training of Turunen, but it takes a strong woman with booming, god-like vocals to lead both her band and an entire orchestra, not a timid amateur who can't even trigger fear in a song about finality. Even in “Bye, Bye Beautiful,” the final stab at Turunen, Olzon's sugary-sweet voice couldn't ignite fire in lyrics of betrayal. Instead, bassist Marco Hietala had to lead the angry, melodramatic goodbye, warning his former muse “Someday I'll learn to love these scars/Still fresh from the red-hot blade of your words.” Too bad this is as good as it gets.     Perhaps Frodo, not Olzon, is to blame for Nightwish's lackluster album. The London Session Orchestra did record the soundtrack for The Lord of Rings film trilogy, which may be the reason behind Dark Passion Play's un-metal sound. “Sahara,” a song about a “pharaoh's wrath,” contains predictable, even corny lyrics having nothing to with Egypt delivered by an emotionless rookie who relies on screeches for high notes and an operatic chorus singing backup. “The Islander,” is an Irish folk ballad where Hietala is a former sailor singing tales of a lost love, now “a ghost in the fog.” Instruments, such as flutes, woodwinds, and an acoustic guitar dominate the song, along with Olzon's wispy, syrupy vocals only heard in the chorus. “Last of the Wilds,” is a Riverdance reject uniting electric guitars, traditional uilleann pipes, a harp and a fiddler, minus vocals. There's no such thing as Celtic metal and this awkward mess explains why.     Sadly, Nightwish's 11-year reign as Finland's symphonic metal band will quickly crumble due to Olzon's disastrous singing. Her voice is pop enough for radio airplay, but too fragile and weak for a male-dominated band and genre. After a public battle with Tarja, a not-so-secret audition, and years of anticipation, Nightwish's Dark Passion Play left little to be desired, except for their former singer. -Stephanie Nolasco

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Published on: 2008-02-22 (1235 reads)