I stumbled on a concert with Nightwish and Floor Jansen from Wacken on YouTube last year. I had never heard Floor before and she really made a good impression on me. Power, feeling and range, she had it all. I liked Tarja for her operatic style, but I think in the long run it became just a little repetitive. I also had a hard time hearing what she was singing.
When Anette surfaced I thought she moved the band in a new direction, especially with the Imaginaerum album, from metal opera to metal operetta. Imaginaerium was a true masterpiece! Tarja could never have done that record because it needed the new vocal style. The problem was, of cause, would Anette make the old material justice when performing live? I have never seen them live, but by looking at YouTube videos of old songs played live I think Anette did quite okay.
Enter Floor! I bought the DVD "Showtime, storytime", i.e. the same concert as I discovered on YouTube, because I needed the full thing with good sound and extra material. :-) It is phenomenal! She does it all in a very good way and she really fits in the band. This of cause sets the expectations really high for the new CD.
During the first listen the first riff in the first song reminded me so much of an old song so I thought that the CD was filled with songs built out of lefter overs and reuses of old takes or ideas. But that was gladly not at all the case. Okay, I recognized things here and there, but it was more the trademarks of Nightwish that I heard. I.e. the things that makes Nightwish sound like Nightwish, and I like Nightwish, so that can not be a bad thing, right? In some songs I think that Floor is not using her abilities to the max, but maybe that is more because I like strong vocals. I think the record follow the path created with the Imaginaerium album style wise. By that I mean the operetta style. I can not explain the operetta style feel fully, but I get a feel that the songs is part of some longer story that spans over the whole record and that the songs each play a different part and has a different sound. Just like in an operetta. But this time the departures from the old Nightwish sound is not that extreme as on Imaginaerium. But okay, the last song "The greatest show on earth" with it's 24 minutes of playtime is somewhat extreme :-) Another difference is that I get a much more movie score feeling from Imaginaerium than I get from this record.
Judgement:
I thought this album forever was doomed to live in the shadow of the almighty Imaginaerium, but it's really stretching it's neck way out of that shadow. Well done!! Endless Forms Most Beautiful is a really superb album. It has a worthy place on the mantelpiece in my home!
Rock on!
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