01	Stargazers						04:27
	02	Gethsemane						05:21
	03	Devil & The Deep Dark Ocean						04:46
	04	Sacrament Of The Wilderness						04:12
	05	Passion And The Opera						04:50
	06	Swanheart						04:44
	07	Moondance						03:31
	08	The Riddler						05:16
	09	The Pharaoh Sails To Orion						06:27
	10	Walking In The Air						05:28

Oceanborn - 1998
Состав:
Emppu Vuorinen - электро- и акустическая гитары
Jukka Nevalainen - ударные и перкуссия
Tuomas Holopainen - синтезатор, фортепиано
Tarja Turunen - вокал
Sami Vanska - бас


NIGHTWISH - Oceanborn (1998)

Finnish rock group Nightwish seems to defy music genres to their merit. Their second album Oceanborn sails with considerable talent and style in difficult currents of classic hard rock/HM, pop, acoustic ballads and sometimes even speed metal. The mixture is very powerful, yet melodic and easily approachable a little in the same way as American legendary heavy rockn roll (as they themselves called it) group Boston.

Lead vocalist Tarja, a young but gifted classical opera singer, brings unique beauty, power and magic into bands sound. Shes accompanied by Emppu, Sami, Jukka and Tuomas who play, respectively, guitars, bass guitar, drums and keyboards. The bands musicianship sounds respectable, especially considering the difficult twists in many songs. There is, indeed, something classic about Nightwish. The recipe is interesting and whats more important, it works.

At moments, Nightwish conjures rare beauty, strong fantasy-like visions close to magical nature. At other moments theyre capable of creating very powerful, even mighty walls of sound. This music should please both friends and enemies of heavy rock. I do hope that the group will be able to build on this fresh musical diversity instead of swimming into mainstreams of genres.

Why do I believe that Nightwish has the potential to become something really remarkable in rock? A part of that feeling results from Tarjas singing; she has the talent and attitude to become a breathtaking artist. Still, theres more: the songwriting of Tuomas Holopainen shows very considerable talent. Hes capable of creating compositions a little bigger than life by combining musical styles, elements and feelings into fresh, new music. Surprisingly enough, Nightwish doesnt even repeat themselves like most bands tend to do.

At best, the results already now approach heights of a masterpiece; just listen to classic-to-be Sacrament of wilderness, Stargazers - or breathtaking beauty & might of Sleeping sun. The only borrowed song on Oceanborn is Howard Blakes famous Walking in the air. Ive been trying to decide whether Nightwishs version is better or worse than the original. Id say its a bit better, but make your own decision about that.

Oceanborn is a very mature album without any apparent filler songs. Im personally not very much into most of todays fast metal; it was surprising to find out I enjoyed even Nightwishs occasional speed-metal moments. The group is, I think, at their best when combining various genres, feelings, elements into refreshing new music. They dont really need any artificial limits; Nightwish sparkles energy, talent, skill and feeling. Let that be their ticket to what the band deserves. They have what it takes to make rock - and other - classics. Highly recommended.

Sounds are powerful and clear.


Review written by thietavu





OCEANBORN
Written by Ties

This CD blew me away from first listen. Nightwish's debut album "Angels Fall First" was brilliant so I expected a lot from the follow-up, but honestly I didn't expect it to be THAT good. They made a huge step forward, after listening to nothing else than this album since I got it a week ago I have to say that this is one of my favourite albums of all time.

A rough description of the music would be a cross of Angra, Symphony X and Stratovarius, thus symphonic, melodic and fast, executed with the same technical skills as the mentioned bands, yet developping their own sound. On top of that, what makes Nightwish's style absolutely unique, the performance of Tarja, a female opera singer with an angel-like voice. Her singing perfectly fits in with the music, in slow quiet parts as well as in fast ones with heavy guitar rhythms. You'll find a lot of great melodic keyboard parts with piano and strings sounds on this album, combined with heavy guitar riffs and fast double bass drumming. Most of the songs are up-tempo, yet including slow atmospheric parts.There's one instrumental song, "Moondance", that sounds like a heavy version of a scandinavian folk dance (and that's probably exactly what it is). The beautiful ballad "Walking On Air" perfectly rounds off the album. The production is crisp and clear, the only drawback of the album might be the short running time (48 minutes), although there's something new to dicover with each listen. Every song is a highlight, no "fillers" are to be found. Nightwish will make their way with this album. There's no excuse, check it out!