Reviews list for Nightwish - Wishmaster (2000)

After an incredible experience with Nightwish's first live album From Wishes to Eternity, I immediately felt up to making a full revisit of the album the band was touring for, Wishmaster. Seeing how much I enjoy the songs in this album in live form, I thought maybe I would get the same glory in this album that I considered a classic over a decade before this review. And I still enjoy them all! Well, the songs that were performed live. The remaining few, ehh...

I think the slight issue is, this is around the time the band started becoming more pop-ish in their songs. However, most of these are balanced out by the heaviness and bombast. The catchy choruses hold many of them up and lessen the needlessness of repetition.

"She is My Sin" opens the album quite strongly. The drumming is some of the heaviest I've heard in that album. Tarja Turunen's magical vocals really shine, especially in the chorus. I also love the soloing here. It is followed by the rifftastic "The Kinslayer". The lyrics are based on the Columbine school shooting. The bridge is interesting as Tarja's singing alternates with spoken vocals by Ike Vil to practically recreate a talk between the killer and the victim. "Come Cover Me" starts off calm and mystical then carries on with the usual heaviness. Tarja's vocals can be d*mn heart-touching in this amazing track. "Wanderlust" is a great song, but not the total best. Nothing bad or skippable about it, but it's outshined by the better highlights. Many parts of that track I still enjoy including the chorus and the keyboard soloing.

"Two for Tragedy" is a ballad. The fact that it's a ballad is not the problem. I like the nice flute and keys, leading up to when the guitar, bass, and drums enter. The thing is, the lyrics sound a bit forced and it's a little too slow. Those could've been improved so that it's doesn't just sound like a pop ballad with guitars. Luckily it leads to the anthemic title track. Epic chorus, beastly guitars... This still reigns as one of my favorite Nightwish songs today. I can hear Dragonlance/Lord of the Rings lyrical influences. What's preventing from giving this album a rating beyond 4 stars is the next two tracks, starting with "Bare Grace Misery". It tries to bring back the energy of the heavier side of Angels Falls First but doesn't please me enough. "Crownless" is, I hate to say, the worst track here. While having more of the power metal part of the sound seems cool in theory, it sounds too cheesy for me now, especially those 8-bit-ish synths. Pretty much the DragonForce "Ring of Fire" cover of this album, I used to love it, but now, f*** that.

"Deep Silent Complete" is nice and catchy, calming things down while staying heavy. Wonderful atmosphere and vocals! "Dead Boy's Poem" is another ballad, but this one you can't criticize easily. There a great chorus and superb soloing, the latter after a spoken bridge by a young boy named Sam Hardwick. "FantasMic" is a fantastic epic paying tribute to the animated works of Disney. It really packs a powerful punch, especially in the final 3 minutes. Absolutely perfect! The 2007 reissue comes a few bonus tracks including one studio track "Sleepwalker" that's worth that extra mile. The other two bonus tracks are different live renditions of "Wanderlust" and "Deep Silent Complete".

If it was up to me, I would give "Wanderlust" and "Two for Tragedy" some heavier power, replace "Bare Grace Misery" and "Crownless" with "Sleepwalker", and remove those unnecessary bonus live tracks. Still I shouldn't change too much. The rest of Wishmaster has some of the best symphonic power metal hits you could ever wish for....

Favorites: "She is My Sin", "The Kinslayer", "Come Cover Me", "Wishmaster", "Dead Boy's Poem", "FantasMic", "Sleepwalker" (bonus track)

Released in 2000, ‘Wishmaster’ is the third album by Finnish symphonic metal band, Nightwish. It comes two years after its predecessor, ‘Oceanborn’, and pretty much continues in the same vein. At this point the band was just beginning to break into the mainstream, and it’s easy to see that the strength and quality of their writing was garnering them a bigger and better reputation with metal fans.

The musicianship on this album is fantastic, with particular praise going to keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen and guitarist Emppu Vuorinen. The chemistry between these two is exceptional, with plenty of intense guitar riffs and a flurry of complex keyboard melodies blending together with ease. And amidst it all, singer Tarja Turenen’s operatic vocals suit the style of music perfectly.

‘The Kinslayer’, ‘She is My Sin’ and the title track, ‘Wishmaster’, are all absolutely fantastic songs, and could easily rate as some of my Nightwish favourites, and the rest of the album is filled out nicely with the likes of ‘Crownless’, ‘Fantasmic’ and ‘Wanderlust’. Other than one or two fillers, the album flows effortlessly.

Overall, this is a strong follow-up to ‘Oceanborn’, and a step in the right direction for the band, and although it may not be Nightwish’s best album, there’s some very strong tracks that make this an album worth owning.