{"id":17779,"date":"2012-01-31T17:41:02","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T00:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=17779"},"modified":"2014-02-16T09:37:49","modified_gmt":"2014-02-16T14:37:49","slug":"nightwish-imaginaerum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/nightwish-imaginaerum\/","title":{"rendered":"Nightwish | Imaginaerum<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Nikiforos Skoumas<\/span>
\nStaff Writer —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Back in 2007, when Nightwish introduced Anette Olzon as their new lead singer, a major part of the press came to label the move as the \u2018greatest risk in the band\u2019s career.\u2019 One feels that their new album Imaginaerum<\/em> sets higher and harsher odds for Nightwish than ever before. <\/p>\n

In a day and age where physical album sales decrease semester after semester, Nightwish put out an album that cost altogether no less than 400,000 Euros (that\u2019s well over half a million dollars). So the stakes are once again up for the Finnish symphonic band. <\/p>\n

And being a band of that kind it is only natural that they should be investing on orchestral arrangements. For the task in hand, the quintet hired the London Symphony Orchestra, complemented by the \u2018London Metro Voices\u2019 choir (heard on such blockbusters as Lord of the Rings<\/em> Trilogy and Pirates of the Caribbean<\/em>). <\/p>\n

These high profile collaborations not only reinforce the creative boundaries of the band but also set very strict rules as of how Holopainen\u2019s songs should be composed. Nightwish was built on intense, often up-tempo, rhythm section, thick guitars and extra melodic keyboard arrangements. In contrast to a classic Nightwish song where Tuomas would induce a multitude of keyboard harmonies through a variety of tempos, the new album features merely a couple of very simple core melodies per songs, dressed in the best way possible, leaving a lot to be desired. <\/p>\n

One finds that the songs on Imaginaerum<\/em> roughly fall in two categories: the \u2018soundtrack rockers\u2019 and the \u2018tales.\u2019 On the first category one lists the heavier songs like, \u201cI Want My Tears Back,\u201d which lacks the drive of a powerful guitar melody or any instrumental improvisations or leads whatsoever (hence the term \u2018soundtrack\u2019) and the \u2018tales\u2019 are acoustic-symphonic songs for the biggest part which would no doubt tie nicely with a theatrical play. <\/p>\n

Soundtracks and theatrical plays \u2026 well there is no secret that Nightwish intend to release a movie based on the album\u2019s concept later in the year; still that does not alter the fact that these high profile collaborations have actually compromised their songwriting as opposed to liberating their musical style.<\/p>\n

The limited edition of the album is thick two-CD digipack featuring the original album and its instrumental counterpart along with a double poster. <\/p>\n

Genre: Female Fronted Symphonic Metal<\/p>\n

Line up:
\nAnette Olzon – vocals
\nTuomas Holopainen – keyboards, piano
\nEmppu Vuorinen – guitars
\nMarco Hietala – bass, vocals (tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 )
\nJukka Nevalainen – drums, percussion<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1. Taikatalvi
\n2. Storytime
\n3. Ghost River
\n4. Slow, Love, Slow
\n5. I Want My Tears Back
\n6. Scaretale
\n7. Arabesque
\n8. Turn Loose The Mermaids
\n9. Rest Calm
\n10. The Crow, The Owl And The Dove
\n11. Last Ride Of The Day
\n12. Song Of Myself
\n13. Imaginaerum<\/p>\n

Band website: http:\/\/www.nightwish.com\/en\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrockhaven rating: 6\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Nikiforos Skoumas Staff Writer — Back in 2007, when Nightwish introduced Anette Olzon as their new lead singer, a major part of the press came to label the move as the \u2018greatest risk in […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6772],"tags":[336,4258,4084,334],"class_list":{"0":"post-17779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2012","7":"tag-cd","8":"tag-imaginaerum","9":"tag-nightwish","10":"tag-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}