ItвЂ™s not a surprise that moments like these show up though, given how togetherness and the universal experiences of the human race are such key themes, and to NightwishвЂ™s credit, they do enough to avoid it for the majority, especially on a track like HowвЂ™s The Heart? whose openly more sentimental bent could make it a prime candidate to fall into such a pitfall.Д«ut for such an enormous concept, a band like Nightwish feels about right to steer it in a successful direction, and thatвЂ™s effectively true for Human. It all makes Noise feel like a distractingly awkward outlier in its whiplash fast-forwarding by a few thousand years as a screed on the ills of technology that feels really played-out, but even when embedded in its own theme, the bright, pithy harmonies of Harvest play into the sanguineness of an Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical with the glittery instrumental to match. It lends some great lyrical flourishes to tracks like Music and Pan which tap into mythology and spiritualism and how they tie into the earliest concepts of culture and storytelling, something which is allowed to evolve even further into the pounding percussion that makes up the second half of Tribal. For one, taking a concept like what it means to be human and breaking it down to a more elemental, almost shamanistic viewpoint works excellently for a band as indebted to tradition as Nightwish are. The exact culprit of where that comes from isnвЂ™t too difficult to narrow down either, but itвЂ™s worth noting before getting to that that, when playing to their strengths, Nightwish remain attached to an overall creativity and field of inspiration that plenty of their symphonic metal contemporaries certainly canвЂ™t lay claim to. doesnвЂ™t feel quite as impressively powerful as it was likely intended to. Factor in how that can mask an album that is, otherwise, a pretty solid continuation of what this band has been doing for over two decades, and Human. But even then, this is a lot to take in, and when Nightwish are effectively facilitating their own bloat in such a bald-faced manner, itвЂ™s not exactly easy to just look away from. ThatвЂ™s NightwishвЂ™s demographic after all, and when such blatant pandering to that has gotten this so far, it only makes sense to carry on doing it, which is why the feature-length, ludicrously opulent Human. :||: Nature., a double album clocking in at over eighty minutes with the second disc comprised entirely of an eight-part, half-hour orchestral suite dedicated to nature and the planet as a whole.ДЇor most, even attempting that could immediately be deemed as an act of incredible bravery or immense stupidity, especially within metal, but you get the idea that Nightwish kind of know what theyвЂ™re doing here, especially when it comes to appealing to the stripe of metal fans in particular who like the extol the comparisons between metal and classical music more than most. And so, with the focus continually put on making grand, sweeping epics and curbing the mainstream machine, the impression that Nightwish give about their success вЂ“ that it comes exclusively from the aforementioned dedication and will continue to do so вЂ“ gives them the clout to make an album like Human. The arguable candidates are 2004вЂ™s Once or 2007вЂ™s Dark Passion Play, but they arenвЂ™t so much universally recognisable as the key blueprint for operations within symphonic metal only. ItвЂ™s in the output where the greatest contention might come though, because from the broadest possible standpoint that covers metal as a whole, Nightwish donвЂ™t really have that one release thatвЂ™s established itself as a staple within the metal canon. TheyвЂ™re basically the faces of symphonic metal, and though the slimness of that niche can further some of the confusion, armies of devoted fans and gigantic world tours with commendable regularity speak for themselves. It almost seems strange to place Nightwish among some of the biggest bands in modern metal, but itвЂ™s effectively true.

Nightwish new album