This is it, the big post. Nightwish is a band that’s been around since 1996 and has released 9 studio albums, 1 ep, and 6 live albums. Their catalog can be split into 3 distinct eras with their 3 singers. Last week I talked about their first 5 albums with Tarja Turunen and played some of my favorite tracks off each album for the show. Tarja will forever be the singer that I most associate with the band as her vocals played a large part in their rise to fame in the metal world. This week we’ll be covering both Anette Olzon and Floor Jensen. Anette was only with the band for 2 albums, but many clock Imaginarium as the best Nightwish album and it certainly is a great album where they really hit their stride. Floor has released 2 albums with the band and both have been fairly mixed in how well they were received, but where Floor really shines is her live performances. She is one of the few vocalists that can really nail both the more hard rock sound of Anette and operatic style of Tarja making her a real powerhouse when it comes to live shows.

Angels Fall First

Their first album was one hell of a debut for the band. While the band doesn’t quite have their style dialed in for it, and the mixing doesn’t age well it’s still a great album from them with a few songs that despite their bad mixing still hold up.
Score: 3/5

Oceanborn

This is the album that really sold me on being a fan of Tarja. Adding live instruments to the recording process versus using synths for everything resulted in the band having their symphonic sound closer to what it will end up being. With tracks like Stargazers, Gethsemane, Passion and the Opera, The Pharaoh Sails to Orion it’s really hard to not fall in love with Tarja on this album.
Score: 5/5

Wishmaster

They really hit their stride in production and songwriting for this one. This is by far their most power metal sounding album with many songs directly referencing fantasy literature classics like Dragonlance and Lord of the Rings. Wishmaster also establishes some of the recurring themes for the band such as the dead boy. This is the album that inspired me to do this whole Nightwish retrospective listen and still one of their best entries in the catalog.
Score: Sturm Brightblade out of 10.

Century Child

By now the band has their sound nailed down with this being their first album recorded with a full orchestra. This is their first album where it feels like all the production stops have been cleared for them to release the album they’ve always wanted to release. Tracks such as End of All Hope, Ever Dream, Slaying the Dreamer really cement the vocals of Tarja as being my favorite that the band has had.
Score: 4/5

Once

The best selling album from Nightwish. I wonder how much of the sales were driven by Tarka announcing her departure from the band after this album’s release. With fan favorites such as Nemo, Wish I Had An Angel, Dead Gardens, and Ghost Love Score this album has aged really well and remains one of their best works with Tarja. The production really sticks out on this album as well as being slightly better than the previous releases from the band. Once was also my first Nightwish album that I ever owned.
Score: 5/5

Dark Passion Play

The first album with their new singer and surprisingly not as bad as I think a lot of fans remember it being at the time. When this album was released a lot of the online buzz around it was “Anette is not as good as Tarja” which in retrospect was a very unfair complaint to be so common considering how the singers had entirely different styles. There were more tracks on Dark Passion Play that I enjoyed than I had remembered at release, and some tracks aged really well off this album such as Amaranth, and Cadence of Her Last Breath. The band’s change in singer also brought a change in style to be more a rock opera or pop metal which I now see as a welcome change for a band and a fitting evolution for Nightwish.
Score: 4/5

Imaginaerum

This album is hailed as the best album in the Nightwish catalog and it certainly feels like the band has been building towards this album for a while. The album is big, bombastic, structured to tell a story, and just really seems to fit with the band’s vibe. Tuomas had been wanting to write a concept album for a while and I think that the time he took to craft this album really shows considering how well regarded this album was at release and still is. The album even has a fucking movie that goes with it! Despite the album having a 75 minute runtime it manages to stay fun and engaging the whole way through. There are some bits which to me feel a bit awkward (specifically the spoken word part of Song Of Myself), and it does something I wish more bands did; release the instrumentals for the album as bonus tracks.
Score: 5/5

Endless Forms Most Beautiful

Floor’s first album with the band, but she got some time to adjust her singing style to fit the band during her time spent touring with them. By the time they got into the studio to record this album Floor perfectly fit in with what is the modern Nightwish sound of more pop metal than traditional power. I prefer this album over Human :II: Nature, but I wasn’t a big fan of Endless Forms Most Beautiful when it came out. The album isn’t bad, but it feels like more of the same after Imaginaerum plus given it’s run time the album really starts to drag on in the back half. If you listen to the album in smaller chunks it’s manageable.
Score: 3/5

Human. :II: Nature.

By far my least favorite album in the catalog but the album that probably sounds the best? I haven’t really gone through and compared the sound quality of all their albums, but the layers and textures on this album are great. It’s really unfortunate that the songwriting and lyrics don’t do the rest of the album justice. After this album’s release we saw 2 more longtime members of the band depart so I really wonder how it’s going to impact their next release.
Score: 2/5

I really love this band. I am glad that I took the time to listen to all of their albums and while I am looking forward to their next release I am sad that we will never return to the Tarja era for the band’s sound. I feel that she was really the peak of the band’s creative output and they’ve been chasing a high since then. In retrospect Anette was a competent singer and released some great tracks with the bands. Anette got a lot of hate that she didn’t really deserve, but I understand why fans at the time felt like Nightwish was selling out or was moving to far away from their original styling with her. While sales for the band peaked with Tarja, concert sales continued to rise with Anette. Maybe they really were on to something with Anette’s more pop metal style of singing. Floor is a great addition for the band, but has yet to release an album with them that really knocks it out of the part. I can’t wait to see how the band grows now that they have such a capable singer.

Nightwish albums ranked best to worst

1. Wishmaster
2. Once
3. Oceanborn
4. Century Child
5. Dark Passion Play
6. Angels Fall First
7. Imaginaerum
8. Endless Forms Most Beautiful
9. Human. :II: Nature.

Nightwish Playlist