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| Dark Passion Play | 
 enlarge | Artist: Nightwish
Label: Roadrunner Records
Category: Music
List Price: $21.98
Buy New: $14.49
You Save: $7.49 (34%)
New (20) Used (7) from $13.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  60 reviews
Sales Rank: 13409
Format: Special Edition, Extra Tracks
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 179702
UPC: 168617970274
EAN: 0016861797027
ASIN: B000URDEBA
Release Date: October 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new, factory sealed. Fast shipping!
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| Customer Reviews:
 TARYA WHO???? NIGHTWISH IS ALIVE & VERY WELL!!!! October 6, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Tarya - Nightwish is just fine without you. It took getting rid of Tarya for Tuomas to really blossom. IMO - this is their best work yet. Some harder songs than have been done in awhile - nice; some new stuff which works. Still not completely used to Anette's voice - but keep in mind, Tuomas had all of the songs written before she was even picked. Soooo - next cd, Tuomas will write the songs with her voice in mind. Which means she'll be even better next cd - which I don't mean to say that she isn't awesome on this one - because she is. Nightwish is far, far, FAR from dead. NIGHTWISH FANS REJOICE!!!!!!!!!!! This collector's edition is nice as it's great to have just the orchestral stuff playing in the background when you are doing something else. Also, it's another glimpse into the brilliant mind of Tuomas. Nightwish - thank you for putting yourselves out there.
Nightwish comes with a new sound... October 12, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Alright so Annette's brought a different feel to Nightwish's traditional sound with her vocals - yeah I admit I feel like just the vocals changed the music's overall aura - the bad thing was that it didn't exactly feel much like Nightwish anymore. But that's just the only thing I have against this new era in Nightwish's career - the feel is a bit more pop and they're starting to sound less-unique as they start to sound more like typical gothic female fronted bands like Epica. But the good thing is that this sound is solid for Nightwish - what DOES make them unique still is the musicianship - it's still Nightwish in that sense (take a good listen to the instrumental CD of this special edition CD - still very Nightwish). And another thing is that they still maintain an epic soul to their music with the full orchestra similar in vein to "Once." "Dark Passion Play" is definitely something new to Nightwish, but you might want to give this a try. I found it quite - no - VERY enjoyable to listen to despite the not-so-Nightwish feel with the vocals, but it's still some solid epic metal. Nightwish is not over yet because of Tarja's departure but more like a different chapter has begin for the band - something new, different, yet quite solid in a good way.
Bye bye beautiful, hello hiding amaranth October 27, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
After "Once" I said to my brother "there is only Nightwish, you need no other!". Now with "Dark Passion Play" this is even more true. The band have moved in the logical direction since the last album. Even the side-swipes at former singer Tarja are done so well that they transcend pettiness.
Comparisons between Tarja and new singer Anette are pointless, they are both great, enjoy them both!
 Yes, It's Still Nightwish November 13, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
First, I must say that I miss Tarja. Anette is a good singer, but she just sounds so ordinary and her vocals here are about 3 Db too quiet on many of the songs. I am not impressed by the first 2 songs, but the rest of this release is about what I expected. Very few bands are daring enough, or talented enough to put this amount of varied material on one release. Listen to "Seven Days To The Wolves" and then listen to "For The Heart I Once Had". Nightwish has made a career of doing this. This CD is the most complex that the band has ever released and the second disc of this set proves it. I personally thought that the band's last release was a bit over-baked and this release suffers from the same problem in places. In conclusion, this is typical Nightwish and they still do it better than just about anyone else.
An amazing find. May 21, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I can pretty much sum up this album in one word: amazing. But even that doesn't do it justice. In some ways this album defies and transcends description by words.
Nonetheless, here I am, trying to review it. Well, that's how it goes. Let me start by saying that this was my first experience with Nightwish. One of my best buds had played a couple of the songs off the single disc version while we were goofing around in halo 3, and it sounded intriguing, but I wasn't paying attention to it so I didn't give it the credit it so truly deserved. When I bought this extended version online a couple months later, I was astounded to discover what I had listened to was merely the tip of the iceberg for a true masterpiece. Truly, all the words that have been used to describe this brilliant meshing of metal and symphonic orchestra, such as epic, bombastic, brilliant and more are all to be believed.
I also didn't know there was a huge contoversy over the album because they had ditched their long time leading lady Tarja. I discovered this while trying to find out more about the band later on, figuring that if this album was so good the rest of them must be as well. Well, I'm here to tell you that assumption was wrong.
Don't misunderstand me, I can see (or I suppose in this case, hear) the appeal to their music prior to Dark Passion Play. All of the same basic elements are there, making its predecessors as brilliant a foray into symphonic metal. There's really just one difference.
For my money, Anette's vocals are worlds apart and far better than Tarja's. I'm sure I'll get called down by some long time fans for sacrilege, but as a new guy on the Nightwish scene I feel I can get away with this. After I listened to DPP for the umpteenth time (it really still hasn't lost its luster, and I must be on something insane like play number one hundred fifty since I bought it a little less than two months ago) I thought it might be nice to diversify my Nightwish playlist with some of their older stuff. I downloaded several songs that I was told online were representative of their sound prior to DPP. After about three or so plays each to make sure it wasn't just acclimating to the different voice, I summarily deleted them. I found that Tarja's vocals, while good in their own right, didn't blend well with the rest of the band. In fact, several times I had the feeling that the band was forced to accommodate her, instead of fully exploring their own unique style. The operatic style she is so well known for was stifling, and I had to stop listening just to catch some air; I felt vaguely like she was suffocating me.
Anette is quite the opposite. As far as I can tell, she has a wider vocal range, and her voice is much crisper. Her voice reverberates in your ear, much the way a well-made bell will continue to ring out long after it is struck. She sounds much more authentic and sincere than Tarja ever did, and she blends flawlessly with the band, perfectly complementing the sound and never preventing the others from finding their own unique sonic imprint. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Tuomas had most of the songs already written long before she was hired on, but I can only hope that her influence continues to mesh so well with the rest of the sound.
Now, why four stars instead of five for such a glowing review? Well, the answer is that while this album truly is a masterpiece, it is also not without its flaws. My complaints are small, in truth, and if I could have given a four and three fourths I would have. Basically, my main complaint is Marco. He is an accomplished bassist, and vocalist, but sometimes his vocals just go too far. Specifically, in Master Passion Greed, he sounds far too angry and pompous. I understand that this is intentional, but it gets in the way of the wonderful musical journey going on beneath him at times. You can tell in the instrumental version that it is a truly complex sonic playground all its own; sometimes this is quashed by his vocals. Also, I have to say that I am glad that Reach stayed as a demo version of Amaranth. The finished product is much better and had Reach been all there was it would have been a detriment to the entire album. Primarily, again, due to Marco's vocals. He takes the gritty demonic stereotype of male vocals in metal to ridiculous extremes; sometimes he is so out of tune it makes my ears want to bleed. However, he is brilliant in Bye Bye Beautiful, where his gritty, grinding sound is appropriate, and so melodic in the Islander that I still have a hard time believing it is even the same guy.
One last thing stands against this extended version: The instrumental versions. While in some cases the instrumental disc is an amazing showcase of the orchestration behind the vocals, many times it falls flat on its proverbial face. Many of the songs on this album rely on the vocals for the melodies, so removing them leaves only the accompaniment which is often repetative. It is obvious that the brilliance of Nightwish isn't in its blazing technicality but in the way it all comes together to provide an overall mindblowing musical experience. The Instrumentals do provide wonderful background music for reading or playing video games, but if you aren't looking for that I'd say you are better off to simply buy the regular cut, especially since it's much cheaper.
To sum up this admittedly long winded review, newcomers to Nightwish will absolutely love this album, people who were turned off to Nightwish by the vocals in prior releases should give them another shot, and for long time fans, the basic essence of the band is preserved, even though it is obvious they are moving in new directions.
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