Nightwish haven’t made their own lives easy over the last decade. With the shock firing of Tarja casting an unfair pall over the subsequent two albums with Anette Olzen, you could scarcely credit the notion that lightening would strike twice, and yet, seemingly without warning, Anette suddenly jumped ship. Initially it seemed that it was simply unfortunate, but confused accounts as to whether Anette truly jumped or was pushed blighted the news that the band were to move forward with the immensely talented Floor Jansen, and it is some four years now since the band’s last album, the impressive ‘Imaginaerum’ hit the racks. Since that time the band have been touring with a vengeance and a live CD/DVD/Blu ray (‘showtime, storytime’) of the tour left viewers in no doubt that line-up strife aside, Nightwish were far from a spent force. Thus we come to ‘endless forms most beautiful’, the band’s first album with Floor Jansen despite the fact that the Dutch singer has been fronting the band since 2012. Based around a quote from Charles Darwin: “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” ‘Endless forms most beautiful’ is a typically ambitious album that seems set to finally draw Nightwish from out of the lengthy shadow cast by the long-departed Tarja.
The album opens with ‘shudder before the beautiful’, a song that kicks off with a brief spoken word passage before kicking into the oh-so-familiar Nightwish mix of classical bombast and power metal histrionics. As anyone who has seen the band live will testify, Floor has proved to be an excellent addition to the Nightwish ranks, and yet it’s interesting to note that it is a low-key introduction that she makes on her album debut with the band. It is a gambit that pays off as Floor moves from a gentle croon on the verse to a more full-bodied assault on the chorus and, in so doing, stamps her authority with calm confidence. As for the song itself, it plays to all of Nightwish’s many strengths with vast choirs, rich orchestration and huge, juddering riffs all vying for the attention. Like much of the Nightwish catalogue, it’s a lot to absorb in one sitting and whilst the riffs might initially capture the attention, further plays highlight the skillful orchestral arrangements that give the song its depth. Having opened on such strong form ‘weak fantasy’ sees the band maintaining the pace, and it’s good to hear the band on such thrillingly metallic form. With a crushing riff slamming the listener from the outset, the verse sees the band strip back the distortion but not the pace, and the song is a taut, energetic piece of work that benefits from imaginative vocal work and a full-on approach from the band. Things take a folkier turn on ‘Elan’ with plenty of traditional instrumentation on display and the sort of pop melody that the band have previously employed to good effect on songs like ‘Amaranth’, a track to which this forms a sort of spiritual successor. It adds a light and shade dynamic to the album and it helps to avoid fatiguing the listener with a one-dimensional full-on approach that would get tired far too quickly. Things do, however, return to bombastic shores with ‘yours is an empty hope’, a song that benefits form the sort of monumental orchestral overture you might expect from a fantasy movie before plunging into a Metallica-slaying riff in the vein of ‘master passion greed’. It’s a huge adrenalin rush of a track, and it’s always a pleasure to hear Marco Hietala’s brutal vocals screaming out of the abyss.
The album finally slows for the sultry ‘our decades in the sun’, a subtle, beautifully restrained track that suggests the band learned much from their experiences of crafting the eclectic ‘Imaginaerum’ whilst ‘my Walden’ has a folk-metal feel and some interesting harmonies powering it forward. The title track sees things take a darker, more metallic turn with stabbing strings giving way to a full-bodied riff that gets the adrenalin flowing nicely. Indeed, some of the album’s heaviest moments reside here in the song and it’s a fine example of Nightwish at their most majestic. Another softer moment awaits with ‘Edema Ruh’, which features subtle, electronic percussion and gentle strings on the verse all of which contrast nicely with the driving chorus. ‘Alpenglow’ is what might be described as typical Nightwish with its somewhat whimsical picked strings, heavy-quiet-heavy passages and let-me-tell-you-a-story lyrics although much better is the dark, instrumental, somewhat sinister ‘The eyes of Sharbat Gula’ with its drums-in-the-deep and piano work leading to the epic, twenty-three minute long finale ‘The greatest show on earth’. An unabashed monster of a track, ‘the greatest show on earth’ revels in its own absurdity, the band clearly indulging their more opulent tastes in a manner last seen on the magnificent ‘poet and the pendulum’. Filled with spoken word passages, moments of sparkling beauty and searing riffs, Floor’s increasingly impressive vocals and symphonic breakdowns, it’s a track that never once feels its length and it provides the perfect close for the album, promising great things for the future.
After such a lengthy career and in spite of the various line-up changes, Nightwish still sound very much like Nightwish. Floor is a fine vocalist, arguably capable of more gravitas than Annette but still eschewing the overt operatics of Tarja, and her presence could be credited with giving the album a greater degree of depth than the deeply underrated ‘dark passion play’. Clearly brimming with confidence, Nightwish seem entirely unfazed by events that might have broken lesser bands, and they’ve crafted an album that is intelligent, interesting and frequently exciting. For those who turned their back on the band with the departure of Tarja, and for those who have never liked the band, there is nothing here to change your mind, but of the post-Tarja records, ‘endless forms most beautiful’ is arguably the strongest and it continues to highlight the band’s consummate ability when it comes to mixing symphonic and metallic elements together. Instantly recognizable as Nightwish, ‘endless forms…’ sees the band refining rather than reinventing their sound and it will certainly appeal to fans and symphonic metal loving newcomers alike. In short, ‘endless forms most beautiful’ is a richly rewarding effort that is well worth investigating.
