what many (likely) don’t see in nightwish

it can’t be denied nightwish have, by the last couple of years, turned into a mainstream, commercial kind of act, in the sense they draw attention first and foremost thanks to anything but their very music proposal.
no doubt that’s the result of the long-dragging on, dreadfully draining circus the whole tarja’s departure affair brought about. which alone accounts for half of the quasi-emo drift the band has undergone — audience-wise.
let’s make the point clear. i’m trying to discriminate between how the band is currently perceived, as opposed to how it used to, and what the band actually IS. and my point is, an abyss cracks open between them.

tarja’s long gone. besides stating the obvious, this remark alone speaks of much of the difference standing between the present-day nightwish and the band they used to be.
her departure tore the old time fans between anette-haters and anette-tolerants — if you’re thinking i forgot anette-lovers, you’re already stepping into the “new fans” territory, which is something else.
i do not like anette. nothing personal, of course. and she might even be a decent singer (which i’d personally question), but she certainly doesn’t fit the genre.

WHAT genre then? that’s pretty much the question. have nightwish turned into a lazy, fans’ whining-prone band, just dwelling on what they’ve achieved in the past? definitely not. they’ve actually gotten BETTER — at songwriting and, broadly speaking, at expanding their proposal.

paradoxically, the “gothic” phase is their past. they’ve been gaining more and more recognition as a gothic act after tarja left, but they had actually stepped onto a more symphonic, less gothic approach way before she did.
so what’s weird now, is that a big part of their fanbase seem to look at them as a legitimate part of the gothic subculture (or call it what you want) to which they, the fans, belong.
in a way, they’re still gothic. their lyrical themes still are. much of the atmosphere their music creates still hints to gothic imagery. in short, they still draw much inspiration from what one may call the gothic heritage.

but they have moved on. their music has become much more complex and elaborate than your average gothic act’s. since once (but the process actually began with century child, atleast music-wise), the addition of an orchestra broadened the instrumental horizon a great deal (with stunning effects as to the “fullness” of sound and the ability to create an epic atmosphere), so much so that the label “gothic” (if they’ve ever, strictly speaking, been so) just doesn’t suit them anymore.

it may as well be said that the orchestra was actually brought in IN ORDER TO fit the expanding musical needs of composer tuomas holopainen. which is probably closer to the truth.

as a matter of fact, there’s just so much more to them than a mere gothic mannerism. during the years, their music got more and more complex, and better (as in: more “profound”, more original, and so on). that came at the expense of their gothic side. or, better said: they could develop into a regular gothic act, one of the uncountable likes of evanscence, after forever, theatre of tragedy (whatever name comes to your mind; they’re plenty, and that’s the point) — but they have not. they’ve moved in the other direction. they took on the challenge to work an orchestra into their sound, and the deal is paying the hell off.

it doesn’t even take such a close listen to realise how close dark passion play and once are in terms of a shift to the same kind of sound. a different, new one. a more symphonic, bombastic one (rings any bells? go read what were tuomas’ plans, in his own words, when he started the band).
the more you listen to those two albums, the more you should get the impression they’re almost two parts of the same whole. there are differences, of course. above all, anette in place of tarja. on a side note, it is true DPP songs were written to fit anette’s singing style, but that alone doesn’t make her the best singer possible.

but back to the point. as far as now, there’s no other band that got this close to actually merge metal to a soundtrack-like, orchestral counterpart. it is well-known to many by now how much tuomas has been into the work of hans zimmer for years, and what’s best, you can tell from his music. it’s not like just a musician paying due to a much celebrated and influential composer; it’s actually an artist following someone big’s steps, AND creating something new.

orchestras have played an important side role in the history of rock, so that alone is nothing new. what’s new is the genre coming out of this whole experiment: a soundtrack-like (orchestral, “classical” if you prefer) kind of metal which is pretty unprecedented. and neither of the components is taking over the other. that’s what keeps it all very balanced, thus so enjoyable.

the one band getting close to it at the moment is amaseffer. their debut is brilliant, and there’s more and maybe even better to come, as slaves for life is but the first album of a planned trilogy. so nightwish are atleast one album ahead as of now. there’s one thing that really makes them stand out as a band — what made them emerge from the common ground of gothic they used to share, yet already with their own unique touch, with the co-genred bands. and that’s the way they bring the “epic” to life. “epic” as something solemn, majestic, something both delicate and strong, something that can move and excite you at the same time. nightwish have reached a great synthesis of such opposites; literaly a new style, the one making once and DPP two parts of the same, let’s say, concept of music.

the more complex they become, the more nightwish seem to attract a mainstreamy, easy-to-please kind of audience. nothing against that, of course. it’s just weird how they get judged based on that rather than on the music they play.

this is just one of many possible ways to look at nightwish, the kind of band they are now, the kind of music they play, and so on. my way, that is. possibly shared by others — but, many? unlikely. to the average listener, they’re often just “a cool gothic band” or something of the sorts. maybe “the” gothic band. the clever will rather say “symphonic”. point is, they’re pretty much more than any of that. it’s all a matter of tastes, yet it’s undeniable what they’re making (ok, whatever that is) is something new and grand. and me, i really like it.