Nightwish - Century Child

*=Staff's pick	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* The Beauty Of The Beast*

Genre	Symphonic Metal	Tarja Turunen	Vocals
Tracks	10	Erno Vuorinen	Guitar
Runningtime	50 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Spinefarm Records	Marco Hietala	Bass
Release	15 July 2002	Jukka Nevalainen	Drums
Country	Finland	Tuomas Holopainen	Keyboards
Similar artists	Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil

The undebated masters of the operatic power metal crossover are back with their fourth studio full length, Century Child. This time Nightwish are a bit heavier than on previous releases and the orchestral arrangements are backed up by the Joensuu City Orchestra. Another new installment is bass player Marco Hietala's vocal contribution on perhaps the heaviest track the band has ever made. Their sound has also become more mature and solid. I can also tell you already that the album sold gold in Finland after only 2 hours and at present time it's reached platinum. That alone perhaps speaks for itself... =)

Besides this, things are pretty much the same. Tarjas marvellous operatic voice is backed up by the solid and heavy riffing and the huge amounts of orchestral arrengements that we're so used to by now. The awesome atmospheres of baroque symphonic metal that Nightwish create so god damn good are of course also one of the great installments here. Although it feels like Tarja holds back somewhat in some of the verses and sometimes feels a bit restrained, this is taken back by tenfolds in these awesome choruses, that also are backed up by majestic choirs.

The songs themselves are a great blend of both up- and mid-tempo class and of course a ballad has found it's way among the ten tracks. But the real highlights here are besides the three first absolute killer tracks, Nightwish awesome idea to make Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera go metal and the final wonderful and epic 10-minute closer The Beauty of the Beast.

The only thing I could come up with that's on the down side is that there's a lack of solos here compared to previous releases, but that's really it. I just love Nightwish and Century Child only reminds me of how great they really are, solos or not. And as usual we're up against an impeccable production at Finnvox Studios by Mikko Karmila who also did the mixing and Marko Jussila was responsible for the mastering.

Although this release doesn't fully reach the heights of Oceanborn and Wishmaster, that's nothing to be the slightes bothered by, cause it's still great enough to make every fan go berserk. If you still haven't been acquinted with the wonderful world of Nightwish you definitely should make huge changes in that area. Don't just rush out to do your best to make Century Child sell gold and platinum in other parts of the world, but make a withdrawal from your bankaccount on your way so you can lay your hands on their previous three albums too. Ihana Nightwish!

Production	Vocals	Compositions
9	9,5	8,5

Summary
9 chalices of 10 - Mat