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Rating: I was there wandering around that music store, looking for an album to take home as a memento of the trip. I was browsing the rock section and there were tons of albums, famous, very well-known ones, but I already had those CDs. I also looked at some vinyl records placed at the back of the shop, but nothing, there was nothing that really interested me.
At a certain point, I went towards the metal hard-rock section. I must say there was a sea of interesting albums. They ranged from power-metal to prog-metal all the way to heavy-metal. But even there, I had most of the albums. Until I looked up and saw "Oceanborn", by Nightwish, an album I had been searching for a long time and never found. I didn’t think twice and bought it. I had heard very good things about this band.
Nightwish is a Finnish power-metal symphonic-metal group founded in 1996. The band's musical style is described as epic-metal and opera-metal. The band officially formed in 1996 in Finland, specifically in Kitee. The name of the group, which means "Night Wish", was taken from one of the songs on their first demo. Much of the success the band has achieved over the years is primarily due to the wonderful voice of Tarja Turunen, a student of opera singing in Germany, and previously at the Sibelius Academy in Finland. The musicians who form the band are also very talented, and this is evident in the instrumental pieces that are performed with great mastery of the instrument.
"Oceanborn" is their second album. For the group, it was the album of their worldwide consecration. The cover is very beautiful, with an owl carrying a message in the foreground, and an eye with the earth in place of the pupil watching a woman in water, floating. In the distance on the right, you can glimpse two planets, symbolizing that we are in a fantastical world.
The album starts off very fast with "Stargazers" which is characterized by an intro of drums, guitar, and keyboard. All of it prepares for the entrance of Tarja's voice into the song. "Gethsemane" features a great use of keyboards once again. In this case, Tarja's voice is much more reflective and used in a slower tone. Here too, the instruments try to best support Tarja's voice, the true driving force of the band. The third track "Devil And The Dark Deep Ocean" is characterized by a dialogue between Tarja, who plays the Ocean, and the band's guitarist Empuu, who plays the Devil. A track with much harder guitar and drums than the previous songs. "Swanheart" is the most beautiful track on the album, with Tarja's voice initially left alone by the other instruments, free to express itself in all its beauty. A very sweet song with a very slow pace. Truly wonderful. "Moondance" is an instrumental piece that resembles a Russian dance. The progression of the song is very peculiar. "The Riddler" is a unique track, in typical Nightwish style. Characterized by great orchestral scores performed by keyboards. The progression of the track resembles the notes of "The NeverEnding Story". Among the most beautiful songs on the album. In "Pharao Sails To Orion", the duet of the third track is repeated. It becomes clear how the contrast between Tarja's voice and a lower voice is a strong point of the band.
This album is truly unique, thanks especially to Tarja's voice, one of the most beautiful in the metal scene. Capable of reaching impressive vocal harmonies. The sound of the album is truly unique and offers very beautiful moments in terms of melody. Indeed, Nightwish's music is a melodic and intimate metal. A genre that they represent at their best. Over the years, the band has always managed to maintain a personal style that has improved over time, always highlighting the splendid voice of Tarja.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Stargazers (04:25)
A grand oasis in the vastness of gloom
Child of dew-spangled cobweb Mother to the moon
Constellations beholders of the 3rd vagrant
Theater for the play of life
Tragedienne of heavens
Watching the eyes of the night
Sailing the virgin oceans
A planetride for the Mother and Child
Floating upon the quiet hydrogen lakes
In this ambrosial merry-go-round they will gaze
Ephemereal life touched by a billion-year show
Separating the poet from the woe
Tragedienne of heavens...
Oracle of the Delphian Domine
Witness of Adam's frailty
Seer of the master prophecy
The stellar world her betrothed
Wanderers in cosmic caravan
Universal bond - The Starborn
A son in the search for the truth
Following the pages of Almagest
Discovering the origin of dreams
Stargazers ride through the ancient realms
Tragedienne of heavens...
02 Gethsemane (05:19)
Toll no bell for me Father
But let this cup of suffering pass from me
Send me no shepherd to heal my world
But the Angel - the dream foretold
Prayed more than thrice for you to see
The wolf of loneliness in me
...not my own will but Yours be done...
You wake up where's the tomb?
Will Easter come, enter my room?
The Lord weeps with me
But my tears fall for you
Another Beauty
Loved by a Beast
Another tale of infinite dreams
Your eyes they were my paradise
Your smile made my sun rise
Forgive me for I don't know what I gain
Alone in this garden of pain
Enchantment has but one truth:
I weep to have what I fear to lose
You wake up where's the tomb?
Will Easter come, enter my room?
The Lord weeps with me
But my tears fall for you
I knew you never before
I see you never more
But the love the pain the hope O beautiful one
Have made you mine 'till all my years are done
Without you
The poetry within me is dead
04 Sacrament of Wilderness (04:09)
Naked in midwinter magic
Lies an angel in the snow
The frozen figure crossed by tracks of wolves
An encounter symbolic yet truthful
With a hungry choir of wolves
An agreement immemorial to be born
Dulcet elvenharps from a dryad forest
Accompany all the charming tunes
Of a sacrament by a campfire
A promise between the tameless
And the one with a tool
Tonight the journey from the cave begins
I want to hunt with the tameless heart
I want to learn the wisdom of mountains afar
We will honor the angel in the snow
We will make the streams for our children flow
Wrapped in furs beneath the northern lights
From my cave I watch the land untamed
And wonder if some becoming season
Will make the angel melt in shame
I want to hunt with the tameless heart
I want to learn the wisdom of mountains afar
I want to hunt with the tameless heart
I want to learn the wisdom of mountains afar
We will honor the angel in the snow
We will make the streams for our children flow
05 Passion and the Opera (04:47)
In sleep he sang to me
In dreams he came
That voice which calls to me
And speaks my name
And do I dream again?
For now I find
The Phantom of the Opera is there
Inside my mind
Sing once again with me
Our strange duet
My power over you
Grows stronger yet
And though you turn from me
To glance behind
The Phantom of the Opera is there
Inside your mind
Those who have seen your face
Draw back in fear
I am the mask you wear
It's me they hear
Your/my spirit and your/my voice
In one combined
The Phantom of the Opera is there
Inside your/my mind
He's there
The Phantom of the Opera
Beware
The Phantom of the Opera
In all your fantasies
You always knew
That man and mystery
Were both in you
And in this labyrinth
Where night is blind
The Phantom of the Opera is there
Inside your/my mind
Sing, my angel of music
He's there, the Phantom of the Opera
06 Swanheart (04:44)
All those beautiful people
I want to have them all
All those porcelain models
If only I could make them fall
Be my heart a well of love
Flowing free so far above
A wintry eve
Once upon a tale
An Ugly Duckling
Lost in a verse
Of a sparrows carol
Dreaming the stars
Be my heart a well of love
Flowing free so far above
In my world
Love is for poets
Never the famous balcony scene
Just a dying faith
On the heaven's gate
Crystal pond awaits the lorn
Tonight another morn for the lonely one is born
08 The Riddler (05:14)
Riddler Riddler ask me why
The birds fly free on a mackerel sky
Ask me whither goes the wind
Whence the endless tick-tick stream begins
Make me guess if the earth is flat or round
Set a guessing if fantasies are unbound
If tales aren't just for children to see
That it's peace if sleep walks with me
As you wish
For kingdom come
The one to know all the answers
You think you dwell in wisdoms sea
Still sweet ignorance is the key
To a poet's paradise
Challenge the Riddler and you will see...
Riddler Riddler ask me why
All mothers beneath the Earth and sky
Hold their children's hands for a while
Their hearts forever - yours and mine
Make me wonder what's the meaning of life
What's the use to be born and then die
Make me guess who's the one
Behind the mask of Father and Son
As you wish
For kingdom come
The one to know all the answers
You think you dwell in wisdoms sea
Still sweet ignorance is the key
To a poet's paradise
Challenge the Riddler and you will see...
For nature hates virginity
I wish to be touched
Not by the hands of where's and why's
But by the Oceans' minds
As you wish
For kingdom come
The one to know all the answers
You think you dwell in wisdoms sea
Still sweet ignorance is the key
To a poet's paradise
Challenge the Riddler and you will see...
09 The Pharaoh Sails to Orion (06:27)
"Get away from me!
Take heed to thyself and see my face no more!
for in the day Thou see my face
Thou shall die!"
- Exodus 10:28
A constellation of divine architecture built on Earth
A holy harbour - Orion
Nautical ascension to the firmament
Ship-shaped barrows open my heart to the wisdom of this land
Sailing with the Serpent Chimera of a fiendish sandman
The Unicorn arrives with the westwind to dream His funeral
"Thou art born for Horus dwells in Thee"
Slumbering with the ebb and the flow of this foaming tomb
"Thou art born for Seteh dwells in Thee"
Reveal your face to me and guide me though the Stygian fields
Enthral my soul to Sepedet's beams to serve Your will
Sailing on the distant seas from darkness to deliverance
Tales like the ocean written to the Draco's glance
Ruling with the scythe of death you tear out philosophies apart
An ancient starwalk to merge into the stars
"Open thy veins for my venom
Kiss the cobras with thy twisted tongue
So shalt thou join the empyrean circus
Where beggars mourn and seraphs dance
In this twilight cathedral
Shall I wed thee,
O Bride of the Netherworld"
Sailing on the distant seas from darkness to deliverance
Tales like the ocean written to the Draco's glance
Ruling with the scythe of death you tear our philosophies apart
An ancient starwalk
Join my soul the Hunter in the sky
10 Walking in the Air (05:28)
We're walking in the air
We're floating in the moonlit sky
The people far below are sleeping as we fly
I'm holding very tight
I'm riding in the midnight blue
I'm finding I can fly so high above with you
All across the world
The villages go by like dreams
The rivers and the hills
The forests and the streams
Children gaze, open-mouthed
Taken by surprise
Nobody down below believes their eyes
We're surfing in the air
We're swimming in the frozen sky
We're drifting over icy mountains floating by
Suddenly swooping low on an ocean deep
Rousing up a mighty monster from his sleep
We're walking in the air
We're floating in the midnight sky
And everyone who sees us greets us as we fly
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Other reviews
By wwwhatemoornet
“The singer is hot, who cares about the album, I’m off to the bathroom to jerk off.”
“It’s a halfway album, half successful, enjoyable only halfway but paid for at full price.”
By sly1
A masterpiece. Even though more than 2 years have passed since I first heard this CD, it remains one of my favorite CDs.
This is why Oceanborn is the group’s masterpiece, it is one of the metal masterpieces of the ’90s.
