Nightwish: Wishmaster (2000)

Ah, this takes me back.  In my college days I was kind of obsessed with highly melodic bands with female lead singers.  It started with Evanescence, who my girlfriend at the time really liked, and then built into groups like Tristania, Leaves' Eyes, Within Temptation and Lacuna Coil.  Of course the most famous band fitting that description is Nightwish, who was a particular favorite.  These were in the days when Tarja Tarunen was still the singer.  I had a couple of the band's albums but then grew out of the phase and have only occasionally revisited those albums.

Recently I decided to revisit one of Nightwish's earlier albums because I heard a couple of songs kind of randomly and remembered how much I once enjoyed the band.  Nightwish always stuck out from the legion of similar bands.  For one thing, there was the beautiful, operatic vocals of Tarunen, someone who is clearly well-trained.  This influence was particularly obvious on Century Child's cover of "Phantom of the Opera".  Secondly, there is the music.  Nightwish is quite plainly a power metal band, one with significant symphonic influences, but it is not hard to imagine a group like Sonata Arctica playing the same type of music.  Most of the other bands have generally had a much more mainstream sound, almost rock, instead of the clear power metal sound of Nightwish. 

Wishmaster is one of Nightwish's most highly-regarded albums and was a pretty good bet for the one I would check out if I wanted to rediscover the band.  The album actually pre-dates everything I have heard from them.  That being said, it is still the band's third album and their sound was fully-formed.  The music here is generally fast-paced power metal that would fit in well on an album by any European power metal band.  It is melodic and bombastic with some impressive riffing, terrific solos and a lot of keyboard melodies.  Generally, the music is even better on this release than on their subsequent ones, most likely due to the fact that the band was still pretty far from hitting any sort of mainstream popularity which resulted in a streamlining of their sound.  Songs like "She is My Sin" and the title track are pretty much guaranteed to get stuck in the head.  Then, there's "Crownless", and holy hell this is an amazing track.  With lightning-fast keyboard melodies and riffs, this song stands out as one of the band's best songs of their career, much less just this album.

Of course no discussion of Nightwish would be complete without discussing the vocals.  Tarunen has an amazing voice with a multiple octave range and is able to do some truly impressive vocal gymnastics.  She can easily go from a whisper to a high-pitched howl in the very next note.  She is terrific on this release.

I really think this album has supplanted Century Child as my favorite Nightwish album.  Does that mean I am going to get back into this band?  Probably not to the same degree.  I do appreciate their ability to play true power metal better than most bands who hopped on the bandwagon of placing a beautiful woman in front of the mic to make some money, but this is still music I really have to be in the mood for.  But just maybe that mood will strike me a little more often.

Year in Metal: 2002

BEHEMOTH: ZOS KIA CULTUS (HERE AND BEYOND)
The sixth album from the Polish metal band represented a bit more of a departure in musical style from their previous albums. At this point, the band existed far more on the death metal side of the fence with some black metal influences. Behemoth has always had a very dark sound and this album took that to even more of an extreme. Of course, the twisted Morbid Angel-style riffs, the deep vocals of Nergal, and the mystical and occult lyrics are all present. This is one of my favorite albums by Behemoth.

IMMORTAL: SONS OF NORTHERN DARKNESS
Norwegian black metal goofballs Immortal released their seventh album, and at the time, their final album in 2002. The band would reunite years later, but at this time, this was to be it. This album was a bit more of a streamlined blackened thrash metal album and was a little on the slower side than their previous hyperfast material. Nevertheless it is one of the catchiest releases in Immortal's impressive discography.

LACUNA COIL: COMALIES
I have a bit of a soft spot for this release from Lacuna Coil. The music is fairly standard gothic metal/rock, but it is Cristina Scabbia's voice that makes this one worthwhile. Her sensual crooning is definitely the highlight of this album. This is much more of a romantic metal album than aggressive or angry. This album garnered the band quite a bit of attention and they were often compared to Evanescence, although their music was significantly better.

NIGHTWISH: CENTURY CHILD
I apologize about having two albums from groups with female lead singers that are more geared towards the mall-goth demographic this year, but this is my favorite album by Nightwish and one which my fiancee really enjoys as well. The symphonic power metal band's fourth album featured the first male vocals of the band's career which were delivered in more of a gruff style and some of the darkest music.

SYMPHONY X: THE ODYSSEY
Progressive metal band Symphony X released one hell of an epic album in this, their sixth album. This was the first time I had heard of the band though and was interested in checking them out due to the 24 minute take on the travels of Odysseus after the Trojan War. I have always been interested in Greek mythology and The Odyssey is one of my favorites. Musically, this album reminds me a lot of Kansas's progressive rock albums, with more of a metal bent.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: IN FLAMES: REROUTE TO REMAIN; KATAKLYSM: SHADOWS AND DUST; OPETH: DELIVERANCE; SHADOWS FALL: THE ART OF BALANCE.

BANDS THAT FORMED IN 2002: DevilDriver, Eluveitie.

"Prom Dress" Metal

A few years back, there was a surge of metal bands with female lead singers. A lot of these bands possessed other similar characteristics, most notably elements of their sound. Because of the almost pop nature of the music and the female lead singers, this scene became derogatively referred to as "prom dress" metal.

A lot of the bands played similar, if not identical, styles of metal. It was mostly gothic metal with a mixture of other elements thrown in for good measure: power metal, symphonic metal, and others. Below, I will discuss a few of these bands.

LACUNA COIL
At this point, the Italian band Lacuna Coil is the leader of the pack. The reason is simple: Cristina Scabbia. Metalheads the world over have fallen in love with Cristina who is as beautiful as she is talented. The band played a type of gothic metal that was dark and melodic and Scabbia's voice sultry and powerful. Unfortunately, they have begun falling out of favor with a lot of their earlier fans as they have been getting more mainstream attention. The reason for this is simple as well: the music is not as inspired as it was in the early years. Lacuna Coil has gone the Evanescence route towards mainstream pop-rock ditching much of their metal influences in the last few years. A shame, their early material was very impressive.
NIGHTWISH
Another very well-known band, Finnish power metal band Nightwish has suffered a bit in recent years due to the change in singers. Tarja Tarunen was the band's initial singer and her voice was an extremely gorgeous operatic soprano. The musicians were among the most talented in the scene and took the songwriting craft extremely seriously. The music was essentially a heavy metal symphony backing a very talented singer. Unfortunately, Tarunen was booted from the band and Annette Olzen took over in a much poppier direction. Seeing a pattern?
WITHIN TEMPTATION
This Dutch gothic metal band has not done much to separate themselves from the rest of the scene. They do enough things reasonably well to garner some attention, but not well enough to be considered a better or more talented band than the two bands above. And they are falling victim to the same curse as the above bands by focusing their songwriting attention on being popular. Never the best strategy for metal bands. Sharen Den Adel is a fantastic singer, not as bombastic as Tarunen, nor as seductive as Scabbia, but she has her own style.
TRISTANIA
Easily the darkest sound of the scene, the Norwegian group Tristania features a multitue of singers. Vibeke Stene is just the focal point. The band also features a couple of male singers to perform various types of vocals, as well as a choir to fill in. The sound is creepy and surprisingly brutal. The band plays dark symphonic-influenced gothic metal with an interplay of vocalists and musical parts. Less a band, and more of a traveling metallic opera. Tristania unfortunately is also suffering an identity crisis as Stene and one of the main songwriters have left the band in recent years. A shame, because their last album with Stene was quite possibly their strongest.
LEAVES' EYES
The German-Norwegian viking/gothic metal band is one of the newer bands in the genre. The band plays a style of music that is a little more aggressive than the above bands, featuring a strong songwriting team, and heavy guitars. Liv Kristine has a strong voice, which is a little more of a submissive sound than overpowering the music. It's somewhat appropriate for the lyrical them, which deals with the Viking woman, at least on their Vinland Saga album. Kristine's husband Alexander Krull is the guitarist and growler in the band, while her sister is in the band Midnattsol. Quite the musical family.Other bands who have been erroneously placed in the genre are The Sins of Thy Beloved and Draconian who are both much closer to doom metal than gothic metal and whose female singers are more backup singers. I did not discuss Epica as I do not own an album by them, nor have I heard enough to be able to discuss them.

In recent years, there have been many more bands featuring female lead singers in a variety of genres. Death metal (Arch Enemy, Estuary, Dreaming Dead), black metal (Gallhammer, Sigh, sort of), thrash metal (Pyrotoxic), metalcore (The Agonist, Straight Line Stitch), and traditional metal (Benedictum, Temtris, Ignitor). Women are starting to catch up in heavy metal.