Nightwish - Century Child
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CD Details
Artist: NightwishEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2003-09-23
Music Label: Century Media
Soundtracks:
- Bless The Child
- End Of All Hope
- Dead To The World
- Ever Dream
- Slaying The Dreamer
- Forever Yours
- Ocean Soul
- Feel For You
- The Phantom Of The Opera
- Beauty Of The Beast
Music reviews of Century Child
Music Review: They Can Do Better... And Have
Rating: 3 Stars
It is almost painful for me to give this album such an "awful" review. I love Nightwish -- They are one of my favorite bands and I listen to every one of their CDs fanatically. However, unlike most of their other albums, I had to delete some tracks when I copied this to my computer using iTunes. This simply isn't one of their better albums, and it's a shame, because it easily could be.
This is the album where Nightwish started to get darker, harder, and faster (Faster Harder Nightwish, anyone?). That's perfectly okay, but this album is the transition point, and thus mediocre. It has some great songs, but it also has ones -- the ballades, mainly -- that fall flat. Some of the lyrics aren't up to par with other works; some the songs don't sound as good; some are just out-right boring. The others are absolutely beautiful, but as a result, make the other ones sound that much worse.
Like my Once review, I will now go into a song-by-song review, before summarizing my thoughts. If you don't care about the songs individually, you may of course skip through it.
---
Bless the Child (4/5) - A wonderful way to start off the album. The lyrics are excellent, the song itself is beautiful, and it leads perfectly into the next song. The only reason it isn't 5/5 is because it gets dull. The song is six minutes long, but unlike some of Nightwish's song, after a while one begins to notice how long it is and get a little bored with it. For the occasional listen, however, it sounds lovely.
End of All Hope (4/5) - This song is almost half the length of Bless the Child, not to mention heavier and more "metal". I don't think it needs to be said that the lyrics are a tad cheesy -- just look at the title -- but it doesn't detract from the song; there is some decent imagery in it if one ignores how obvious the meaning is. The melody and Tarja's singing match perfectly, making up for the so-so lyrics and making it one of my favorite songs on the album.
Dead to the World (4/5) - The lyrics to this song are positively beautiful, and some of the keyboard pieces are insanely awesome. However, I am not fond of Marco's voice, and seeing as he sings most of this song, that detracts from the track in my opinion. The fast tempo and melody are brilliant, however, and Tarja's voice makes the song more tolerable. I just couldn't give this song below 4/5, all things considered.
Ever Dream (5/5) - I don't know what it is about this song, but one day I feel in love with it, and have listened obsessively to it since. The lyrics aren't that great, but the song itself is gorgeous. It's one of Nightwish's heavier "ballades", with a piano and strings complementing the guitars very well and producing a gorgeous melody. Tarja sounds heavenly, and the last minute or so of the song is chilling in how gorgeous it sounds. I normally don't like a song that has mediocre lyrics, but this is wonderful enough to make an exception.
Slaying the Dreamer (4/5) - One of those standard heavy songs that you have to love. The lyrics are strangely interesting, and it took me a lot longer than it should have to figure out what they're about; that's normally a good thing for me. Marco, when he appears for a brief moment, sounds better than he did before, and adds to the song. The melody itself is standard metal -- crazy guitar riffs and the works -- but it fits the song, so it's all good.
Forever Yours (2/5) - Nightwish can produce some great ballades. This is not one of them. It's very slow, but the melody is dull, the lyrics are uninteresting, and Tarja doesn't sound nearly as beautiful as she usually does. Also, I prefer heavy metal to wake me up, not put me to sleep. I have listened to this song so little that I can't say much more than that.
Ocean Soul (3/5) - It's better than Forever Yours, at least, but that may only be because it's heavier. I used to love this song, and indeed the beginning is rather pretty. However, the melody and Tarja sound standard, and the lyrics don't help it, being they are too dry and, well, standard. It's not bad, but there is nothing that stands out, dropping its rating.
Feel for You (2/5) - A Forever Yours clone, except with better lyrics. The only problem is that they're about very similar, if not identical, topics. So while Feel for You does have pretty imagery, it feels as if one has heard it before.
The Phantom of the Opera (3/5) - Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. It's like Ocean Soul; nothing in particular stands out. Tarja sounds good and hits the high notes as expected, Marco actually sounds pretty decent, and the melody is what I imagine a heavier version of the Broadway song sounds like. However, like Bless the Child, it gets dull after a while, and is only good for the occasional listen.
Beauty of the Beast (4/5) - The middle part of this song is the best, shortly followed by the third. The first part is pretty, but a tad slow, and generally it's not a good idea to start a ten-minute song off slowly. However, once beyond that part, one forgets it's so long because it turns fast and spectacular. I love the lyrics and many times have been tempted to sing them down the hallway of my high school to see what happens.
--
Overall, six of the ten songs are a good listen, which is a little lower than normal Nightwish quality, but not bad. Here are some of its main flaws:
Variety: Once has the same issue; for some reason, Nightwish's modern albums have variety problems. The two ballades on the album sound nearly identical. Bless the Child and Beauty of the Beast are somewhat similar, and some of the faster tracks also sound rather similar, or even "standard" for metal. The only song I can think of that stands on its own is Ever Dream (I'm not counting Phantom of the Opera seeing as it isn't theirs).
Lyrics: One of my favorite aspects of Nightwish is their lyrics; even when they about something as pointless as a bad day they still sound wonderful. However, in this album, many of the lyrics aren't very poetic, and in some cases are just dry and dull. Lyrics are very important for me in a band; a band or song has to be just plain brilliant for me to even remotely consider listening to them if they have cheap lyrics. Some of the songs on this album don't have that brilliance to counteract the lyrics.
That is it for glaring flaws; I also mentioned minor ones before and during the song reviews. As for the positive aspects? Tarja and Marco sing very well in this album. The band itself sounds wonderful in many of the songs, complementing the orchestra. I'm fairly certain this is the first album of Nightwish's to feature an orchestra, so they did well on the first try. Speaking of first tries, considering how different this is from their other albums, Nightwish did very well making it sound great without losing their style.
It is, in the end, not an awful album. It has its great songs that one may listen to obsessively, and it is a pretty good transition point to a different Nightwish style. If it weren't for those few songs that detract from it, I would happily give the album four stars, but alas, I am a perfectionist and those few songs lower the rating.
I would recommend the album to people who are already familiar with Nightwish, but Oceanborn or Wishmaster may be better for people who are just trying out the band.
Thank you for reading, and happy listening!
Description of Century Child
"NIGHTWISH could very well have cloned their last full studio album, Wishmaster, and would have been guaranteed to sell as many copies without the fanbase batting an eyelash. Simply put, the band is that good. NIGHTWISH is not stupid, firmly believing in artistic integrity over sales and clearly having the balls to branch out, explore and experiment with their craft. For a start, the level of bombast seems to have been turned down a notch on Century Child in favour of a more metal approach, even singer Tarja toning down her all-out opera vocals somewhat and using her voice with much broader scope. Ironically, the band has become more operatic at the same time with the addition of bassist Marco Hietala - recently stolen from Sinergy - who acts as Tarja's male lead vocal counterpart on several tracks, making a huge impact on the band's sound. No question that NIGHTWISH would be just another band with out Tarja though, who shines brighter than she ever has before. ! Century Child is yet another firm step towards greatness." (9 out of 10 review) ? BRAVE WORDS & BLOODY KNUCKLES-1st new album in over two years! Massive anticipation! -Fourth full-length from one of gothic metal?s leading acts. -NIGHTWISH have already received double platinum and gold album awards in their native Finland, as well as winning two Emma Awards (the Finnish equivalent of a Grammy) and scoring four Top 10 hits at radio. -Produced by Tero Kinnunen (Nightwish) and Mikko Karmila (Amorphis, Stratovarius, Avantasia) at Caverock and Finnvox Studios in Finland.
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