Magnus

Here's the trackllst. Hoping Mad World is not a cover song! The Reckoning (with Jacoby Shaddix) Endless War Raise Your Banner (with Anders Fridén) Supernova Holy Ground In Vain Firelight (with Jasper Steverlinck) Mad World Mercy Mirror Trophy Hunter

I definitely want The Kinslayer and Wishmaster performed and recorded in one of the two shows. I'm thrilled they chose to record shows in South America though. They have the best audiences by far, which makes for a better recording. Floor's vocals for Ghost Love Score have improved a ton since the infamous Buenos Aires recording from 2012, but the audience singing along with Emppu's solo sure is something! While not as loud, I have no idea why they basically muted the audience in Tampere for VoS. Like in Stargazers when Floor gets the audience going. Not only is there no audience reaction in the recording, but they muted Floor's final "hey" (which admittedly was probably a good decision since she was moving her mouth away from the mic as she said it so it'd sound bad on record... but it bugs me that they didn't bother to cover this up by showing a shot of the audience or some other band member).

New promotional image: I really like the futuristic sci-fi direction they're taking with this album so far though. It's definitely something new and fresh from them - and it seems we won't get anther album as disjointed as Hydra again but a cohesive effort instead! I also like the tagline on the website, how it alternates between Resist/Within Temptation. Another observation: this is the best their drums have ever sounded on record. Definitely more "oomph" to them compared to previous albums.

It's definitely a new direction for them. And if this song and Raise are anything to go by, this will be their heaviest album since Enter (not the same kind of heavy, but this is already heavier than 99% of their stuff since Mother Earth). People who'll still say "they're pop now" after this are delusional. This is most definitely metal (also definitely not symphonic metal). I quite like it, but I really want to hear Rise in HQ. Musically speaking that's the better song. It feels like making this one the first single is pure damage control. They still went ahead and recorded a video for that song from what I've read. The only thing I'm a bit annoyed by is the vocal production. There is some audible pitch correction on Sharon's voice, making it sound "glitchy" at times. It sounds fine for the most part, but then it will just crack in an unnatural way. It could be an intentional effect, but it bugs me.

I'm mostly hoping the main show they're recording will sound as good as the Tampere gig, and not go for the 'cinematic' mix of the Wembley show.

I'm definitely getting the CD release. I wonder if it's been remastered? I have the original The Dance EP, but not Enter for some reason.

No one is expecting Oceanborn 2 (nor would I want it, since it's not among their best work imo). I literally gave you good examples of songs that could serve as inspiration for the kind of heavy, by Nightwish standards, I'd like to hear more of on the next album. I'll list them again along with a couple of more songs: Romanticide, Higher Than Hope, Whoever Brings the Night, Piano Black, Weak Fantasy and Yours Is an Empty Hope. You'd also have to be dense to think that I literally want Tuomas to copy/paste from these tracks to make new songs that sounds exactly the same. I'm talking only about the heaviness itself, not the songwriting.

Maybe we could compile a list of random pro-shot performances that are yet to be released on a Nightwish DVD/BD? Some are available via compilations chronicling the entire festivals and/or as part of samplers included with magazines (I know there is one performance of She Is My Sin... and another song but I can't remember which one) that came with a magazine a few years ago. Like this one:

Different strokes for different folks, I love this album. Was listening to the demo versions the other day and it struck me how much better Cadence of Her Last Breath sounds with Marco on lead vocals (if they ever perform it live again, I hope they have him sing it). For the Heart I Once Had mainly suffers from poor production (the guitar tone in particular sounds very off compared to the rest of the album). I stumbled upon this today though: There's a nice little surprise from Tuomas towards the end!

It's really fascinating to see how consistent he's been with his views. This all reads like something he'd say today. And that's not a bad thing. He was definitely very wise already in his youth.

Definitely agree with this! Élan has such beautiful lyrics. Toolmaker, Yours Is an Empty Hope and Weak Fantasy are quite heavy and I don't think it's that unreasonable to think they might go more in that direction for the next album. I'm not saying every single track should be like that, but an album that is heavier on average than the last couple of releases is really not out of reach.

I'd love to see them release their heaviest album yet (without having every song sounds angry or antything). I'm thinking stuff like Romanticide and the Piano Black section of Song of Myself. Some operatic vocals, some heavy vocals and some growls from Floor, more keyboard and guitar solos from Tuomas and Emppu and more Marco lead vocals (him doing cleans and Floor growling like in Yours Is an Empty Hope was really cool). And some technical drum work from Kai on top of that. From Troy I'd like to hear more than just Flutes and backing vocals. I really like him as a second guitarist, especially when he does the Pink Floyd-esque stuff.

It's cool to hear Floor sing like this, but the music itself? Meh. Not for me.

I'm fine with Toxic Angel, as long as it's closer to the Decades artwork (which is honestly one of my favourites). There should definitely be a big ban on using predominantly dark blue, black and grey tones though. The band has far too many of those already. Something purple again, like Century Child, would be nice. Or something wine red? Brown and gold is also a nice combination. I'd actually like to see the return of the night owl!