Nightwish – Imaginaerum
Release Date: November 30, 2011
Highlights: Taikatalvi, Storytime, Slow, Love, Slow, I Want My Tears Back, Turn Loose the Mermaids, The Crow, the Owl and the Dove, Song of Myself
One of the things that attracted me to Nightwish in general was that their music seemed so ethereal and possessed this ability to take me on this really cool journey. I am not a fan of reading fiction as I don’t really have the attention span to keep up with all of the character changes and scenarios. I do find, however, that the more I find myself exploring new metal bands, especially those in the symphonic/progressive realm, I find myself really enjoying the escape of losing myself within a conceptual album of science fiction, the supernatural, or in the case of Nightwish, just losing myself in a fantasy world.
Nighwish’s Imaginaerum tells a story about an old songwriter with an otherworldly imagination who still thinks he is a young boy. While asleep he travels into his past where his dreams of old come back to him mixed with the young boy’s world of fantasy and music. It’s not a hard concept or storyline to follow. It’s not a concept full of hard to grasp political and social commentary. It is simply a fantasy tale that I was easily able to sink into and really enjoy.
When creating a conceptual album, it’s important to try and make it as musically diverse as possible in order to flow much like if you were reading a book. Sometimes with conceptual albums the songs can be a bit too diverse causing it to sound disjointed at times. Imaginaerum covers a lot of ground combining symphonic elements, traditional metal, and even traditional folk elements all while maintaining a cohesive flow. The opening instrumental track “Taikatalvi” is an amazing piece that steadily builds up tension going right into “Storytime” which is all out symphonic metal. “Love Slow Love” is another favorite of mine as it’s really a unique combining of lounge jazz with metal. Don’t ask me how they pulled it off but they did it beautifully. “Turn Lose The Mermaids” has this traditional celtic folk inspired vibe with some amazing vocal work from Anette Olzon and some beautifully played instrumentation. Closing with the epic instrumental title track “Imaginaerum” gave me a sense of resolve and served as a sort of “roll the credits” type of music. I loved hearing but it wasn’t as much of an impact knowing that this was the end. I still really enjoyed listening to this track as it was also kind of like a cool down of sorts after this intense musical journey.
Imaginaerum is without a doubt one of my new favorite albums. I found it to be diverse, fun, and very easy to get into. I know that Nightwish fans gave her a lot of shit but I really found Anette Olzon to be the MVP here. Her dynamic vocals and her ability to shift directions from song to song really made this entire listening experience a great one. This album makes me not even want to go back and check out their other albums because I find it hard to think that they could do anything that would top this one. Imaginaerum is just what I said; it’s an ethereal listening experience. Put the headphones on and allow yourself to be taken away just for a little while. Everything will be there when you get back. I promise.
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