Nightwish – Imaginaerum

When asked to review this album, I have to admit that I was rather apprehensive. This was mainly because I am not massively familiar with the work of Nightwish, nor with the Finnish music scene – apart from Eurovision record breakers Lordi, perpetual dirge-mongers HIM and migraine-inducing poopshifters The Rasmus.

This has worked to my advantage however, because you can be safe in the knowledge that their previous endeavours will not have any bearing on what you’re about to read (and I’m sure that makes you EVER so happy!).

Sitting in a dark room and just listening to the album straight through it felt like a rather strange experience, almost a post-coital one – with a dragon and buxomly-breasted fairy, obviously. That being said, there were parts of my mind that felt like I was engrossed in a film of epic proportions.

The introduction comes in the form of ‘Taikatalvi’, a Finnish-language song that does nothing to help alleviate my ignorance of Scandinavian culture. Musically, it sets a great tone for the rest of the album because it is kind of lulling you into a false sense of security – which is what most of the great fairytales in history do. Then you get hit in the face with the glorious adventure of ‘Storytime’, a powerful and acidic contortion that develops and develops and explodes. From here on in, the bursts of symphony do much to make synapses crackle and fizzle with delight. ‘Ghost River’ bombs the icy lake with fire and fury, ‘Slow, Love, Slow’ tiptoes through a cloud of heady fog and jazz-influenced smoke and the badly-titled-but-interesting ‘I Want My Tears Back’ – featuring the Bad Shepherds’ Troy Donockley – does much for the argument that we need more Irish/Finnish musical fusion.
Other standout tracks include the fierce and nightmarish ‘Scaretale’, rip-roaring blackout ‘Rest Calm’ and a song fit for any final battle – ‘Last Ride of the Day.

There are a couple of weak tracks, but they’re not total stinkers. ‘Turn Loose the Mermaids’ is pretty boring in comparison to the rest of the album and thirteen minute opus ‘Song of Myself’ does start to get tedious about eight minutes in – but the killer certainly outweighs the filler.

Frontman Tuomas Holopainen himself said that the album was written under the influence of Hollywood director Tim Burton, which sounds both odd and extremely fitting – though I doubt even Burton himself could produce anything remotely as grandiose as Imaginaerum.

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