When Finnish symphonic metal giants Nightwish fired their original lead singer in 2005, nobody could have conceived that the band's sound - already bombastic and over-the-top - would get even bigger. True, Anette Olzon's voice does not quite soar to the heavens the way former vocalist Tarja Turunen's does, but that hasn't stopped chief songwriter Tuomas Holopainen. If he - and Nightwish with Olzon - blew the doors open with 2007's Dark Passion Play, then this year's Imaginaerum has brought the house down.
Imaginaerum Makes Dark Passion Play Sound Tame
Now that Olzon's had a few years to get used to Nightwish (and vice versa), Imaginaerum doesn't need to serve as an introduction to the former Alyson Avenue singer. That may be why the album opens with the Finnish "Taikatalvi", a soft, folk melody sung by bassist Marco Heitala. The show doesn't really start until the second track, and Imaginaerum's first single, the powerful and charging "Storytime". Accessible, catchy and very Nightwish, "Storytime" sets the tone for the rollicking and diverse music to come.
More Is Better for Nightwish
Even on the more pedestrian songs like "Ghost River", Nightwish aren't content to merely dial it in. It says a lot when a slightly unremarkable track still has a children's choir on it - because if "Ghost River" is somewhat lackluster, Nightwish hold nothing back on the 13-minute "Song of Myself" - Imaginaerum's answer to "The Poet & The Pendulum" - and the twisted, insane "Scaretale". The latter song is Nightwish at their flamboyant, ambitious best, where Anette Olzon's aggressive vocals show her fully sinking her teeth into the position of Nightwish's lead singer.
On the other side of the spectrum, the jazzy and restrained "Slow, Love, Slow" shows Nightwish working well outside the confines of heavy metal. "Turn Loose the Mermaids" goes from a melancholic, acoustic ballad to a spaghetti Western piece (replete with whistling), and inexplicably, the transition works.
When Less Would Have Been Better
Some of the music sounds like what we've come to expect from modern Nightwish. "The Crow, The Owl and The Dove" sounds like the requisite mellow, acoustic track, and "Last Ride of the Day" sounds like the requisite catchy, heavy track that isn't quite up there as "Storytime". There's nothing wrong with either of those two songs, but Imaginaerum wouldn't have been any poorer for their exclusion.
Verdict: Not Guilty
Nightwish finish the album with the title track, a symphony-only medley of the big orchestral cues from the songs that preceded it. It takes some serious cojones to be able to pat yourself on the back like that, but Nightwish may be the only band with the means and confidence to pull it off. Every song on Imaginaerum is different, each telling its own story. If some songs don't match up to others, it's only because those others set the bar so high: the charge of "Storytime", the flair of "Arabesque", the majesty of "Song of Myself", the dementia of "Scaretale", the crescendo of "Rest Calm". Take your pick. Whatever your poison, you'll find it, and so much more, inside Nightwish's Imaginaerum.
Nightwish, Imaginaerum: 9/10. A confident, bold, and ambitious album from a band that places no limits on what it can do and where it wants to go.
Michael Perera - The only rule in writing is honesty. If you're honest, the words will write themselves.
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