Nightwish - Dark Passion Play (Limited Edition) [Digipak] (CD 2007)

When Nightwish sacked lead singer Tarja at the end of the 2005 tour,many people myself included wondered if they had blown it,particularly as it didnt seem that they would be able to find another singer in the same vein as Tarja,s operatic styling.One album on and all doubts have been dispelled,this is one of Nightwish's best.New singer Anette Olzon whilst not as operatic as the former is certainly no slouch & the band have cleverly not brought in a doppelganger.Lead off track "White lands of Empathica" is a 14 minute epic with Anette sharing lead vocals & is typical of their own symphonic/gothic crunch & stirring strings." Bye bye beautiful" & " Master passion greed" could be a backlash at Tarja with the lyrics seemingly telling the story of why she was dismissed.Musically this is one of the bands tightest & heaviest albums until we reach "Eva" which is a ballad & suddenly you realise how well Olzon has fitted in to the band.However the biggest surprise & pleasure(for me) are the last four tracks,which with the exception of " 7 days to the wolves",would'nt appear out of place on albums by Fairport/Steeleye or in the case of "Last of the wilds"(an instrumental) featuring Troy Donockley on Uilleann pipes by Lunasa.This track left me gobsmacked(I love this track)before the band carried on the aural battery with the much heavier but awesomely catchy "Wolves" before "Meadows of Heaven" rounds off the album with another folk-based ballad featuring choral backing,huge strings and a guitar solo that had me air-guitaring madly during it's all too brief time,before a massive climax in true Nightwish fashion.Nightwish have once again raised the bar & proved that the Scandinavians are untouchable when it comes to this kind of music.
The ltd edition double has an all instrumental 2nd cd showing how tight this band are.
This album is MAGNIFICENT on every level,nuff said.