Review: Nightwish – Made In Hong Kong
Music, Reviews

Written by EternalWanderer

Or more formally, Nightwish – Made In Hong Kong (And In Various Other Places), but that wouldn’t all fit in the title. Anyways, this live EP from Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play – which I was greatly anticipating the release of fairy lights – ends up being a real disappointment. First, there’s no live recordings on songs from albums before Dark Passion Play. None. Which is really a shame since, based on my two live experiences with the Christmas decorations , new singer Anette Olzon really aces them. I can understand not wanting to bring on more unneeded comparisons between the two singers, but really – not including even a single of the older performances is just a shame.

Performances here are mostly solid, but none will replace the album version like Christmas lights from the band’s End of an Era DVD & CD release did. However, based on both my own concert experiences and various bootlegs, these are definitely not the best performances of each song from the tour. Which is perfectly understandable, since it’s just some recordings – not a handpicked best of – but I’m still just a little bit disappointed at already having heard all of these songs performed better on bootleg recordings. The live version of instrumental track Last of the Wilds is a complete dud – losing all the atmosphere and charm of the original. The strongest point here is definitely The Poet And The Pendulum, which translates beautifully into live performance. Recorded audio can never capture the mind blowing experience of hearing the band play that song live, but frankly – it’s still pretty awesome. Stunning performances from every band member, especially Olzon who sings a part in the middle which is done by a choir boy on the album – a great improvement over how it was originally recorded, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, there’s something completely beyond the band’s control bringing this release down – the audio quality. While it benefits for having the chance to be tinkered with in studio, I”ve heard audience recorded bootlegs that sound much better. This is just sad, and near impossible to overlook. With all but the one exception mentioned before, the band plays admirably – their passion for the music evident – but for all their efforts, this release is really brought down by something completely beyond their control. The biggest offender here is Emppu Vuorinen’s guitar, which sounds like it’s being amplified through a tin can, but it’s very noticeable in other places as well – albeit less consistently so. Also, the tracks don’t all start or end along with the actual song – in some cases including bits of the band members speaking as well. This can be taken as a positive or negative thing, depending on what you’re looking for from this release, but for me it was a negative. I’d be expecting that if this were a full concert release, but since it’s not – I was hoping those bits would be cut out.

As for the non-live tracks on the album, Escapist is phonemonal – combining the feel of their new (Dark Passion Play) and their old (Wishmaster) – though the guitar riff in the song is far too similar to the one from She Is My Sin. But this is only a minor quibble, it’s a great Nightwish song. However, due to this being at least the fourth release this song has been featured on – I’m sure most Nightwish fans have already heard it. For those who haven’t, I’d strongly recommend just grabbing it from a legal download service (it’s available from Amazon MP3, I just looked, so presumably is also on iTunes). While Your Lips Are Still Red is another great track, actually not a formal Nightwish track at all but a song that (composer and keyboard player) Tuomas Holopainen wrote for a film which also features vocalist and bass player Marco Hietala and drummer Jukka Nevalainen. While it sounds nothing like most Nightwish tracks, the song is lyrically and melodically beautiful – along with being one of Hietala’s best vocal performances. However, unless you’re a collector, my recommendation is the same as the above – find this track elsewhere. And if you are a collector, I’m sure you already bought this without reading my review, or if not – will buy it no matter what I might say. The last track, Cadence of Her Last Breath (Demo Version) is a rougher mix of the same song from Dark Passion Play which features Marco on vocals. While it’s nowhere near as good as the demo version of Eva – which is as stunning as the album version in its own right – it’s at least listenable, unlike the demo version of the epic The Poet and the Pendulum. While hearing this gives the impression that the album version may have been improved by including some of Hietala’s vocals, as it stands now – unless you’re a really big fan of his vocals – you’re probably not going to want to hear it more than once.

I love Nightwish, I really do – but I simply can’t justify the purchase of Made In Hong Kong (And In Various Other Places) to anyone other than the most die hard fans, and I think even they’ll be disappointed by it. A real shame for a great band, especially when this release really did have potential. If you have the chance, I strongly recommend seeing one of the last few gigs on Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play Tour – seeing the band live is an incredible experience. Unfortunately, this EP isn’t. 5/10
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Mar 11
Day of the Song: March 11th, 2009
Music

Written by EternalWanderer

Today’s is Diablo Swing Orchestra – Ragdoll Physics. Seems somehow fitting, all things considered in the world, and I just wanted to share it.

*can’t get it to embed right*

Oh, just listen for yourself!
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Mar 10
Review: Crisis – The Hollowing
Music, Reviews

Written by EternalWanderer

I’m going to go out there and say I didn’t really love this one. It is by no means a bad album. Just, for my tastes, not a spectacular one. And I do appreciate the innovation that is going on here, both comparitive to “extreme metal” of the time and to their previous releases, really I do. If anything, that’s the album’s strongest point. The vocals of Karyn Crisis are as good as one could as for in this type of music, occasionally slipping into the melodic but primarily being screams. Don’t take that as a bad thing, however, she’s very good at what she does and uses a surprising amount of variety within that style. I’ve read praise of the album’s lyrics, but frankly – the fact that I couldn’t understand most of them renders the point moot for me. Of course, when in a genre of music where the lyrics are typically laugh worthy – just having ones that aren’t cringe inducing when they can be understood is a plus. Taken further into the realm of avant-garde metal, this could really have been something special – but as it stands, it’s little more than a slightly about average album that has some neat ideas but never fully explores them to their potential. If you’re looking for something a little bit less straightforward than the latest offerings of Arch Enemy and The Agonist but more accessible than the likes of Unexpect, this might just do it for you. For me, though, while there’s certainly potential there, The Hollowing just isn’t fulfilling. 6.5/10
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Mar 8