httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VF0BlXP-0Y
Ghost Love Score
By: Nightwish
What’s better than heavy metal power chords, double bass drum pedals and wailing flanged guitar solos? Add a classically trained lyric soprano, a brilliant composer who often uses full orchestration and a bass player/lead guitarist bromance. Call it ‘Opera Metal’ and watch bands all across Europe and America follow suit, leaving behind guttural screeching for something much more melodic, powerful and epic that probably started with Iron Maiden.
Nightwish, the Tarja years
A lot of people tell me that they don’t like heavy metal music. To them I say this: have a listen to any of these albums, and then tell me that you still feel the same way. This isn’t your dad’s heavy metal (Black Sabbath, etc.) … having followed them for years and seen them live (with new singer Anette Olzon), I can tell you that you’re going to see and hear something more akin to an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical than the kind of thing that makes Christian right-wingers hurl accusations of satanism.
I could talk about their fantasy novel-inspired lyrics, or the internal drama that led to the split with the incredibly talented Tarja Turunen, or their ultra happy and energetic stage presence (yeah happy isn’t a typical heavy metal trait either – they really are trail-blazers) but let me boil it down for you: you know the part in action movies where there’s epic ‘modern classical’ music with operatic chanting and it sends shivers up your spine as the hero engages in a climactic battle scene? That’s what it feels like every time I listen to Nightwish.
Ghost Love Score still makes me feel that way. I listen the whole ten minutes through every time it’s on my playlist – and it’s the most-played song on my iPod. It can instantly summon an epic movie montage into my imagination.
I might not wear a heavy black trench coat in the middle of a blazing summer anymore like I did in my high school years, but I still have a little bit of an inner goth deep down somewhere…and he loves the simplicity and thrill of electric guitars and orchestration (kind of like this), epic stories of angels and demons, elves and dragons, and something that is just a little unabashedly unapologetic and over-the-top.
So give Nightwish a listen, and see if you get a chill up your spine.
Open your miiiiind
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