Nightwish
Once

THE REVIEW

[I infinitely thank jigoro for giving me the idea]

"Once, I had a dream, and this is it..."

Back in 1995 Tuomas Holopainen, the current keyboardist and brain behind the band, founded his Nightwish, with the intention of creating a band that would make heavy metal music but use a beautiful female voice as a vocalist to balance it out.
And so, after recruiting soprano Tarja Turunen, Nightwish was born. They started with some power metal tunes, which soon would be replaced by more mature compositions, both musically and lyrically, more dramatic and profound in the later albums. Perhaps Tuomas at that time had no idea of what he was innocently creating...

But let's get back to "Once": imposing, majestic, epic, any comment would be reductive for this album, where every song is a little masterpiece.
The first track the naive listener encounters is Dark Chest of Wonders, opened by a very heavy riff from guitarist Emppu Vuorinen. Then the bass and drums join in, followed by the orchestra, transforming into a sweeping introduction. In the verse, the choir counterpoints Tarja's splendid voice.
After hearing Dark Chest..., the listener will be so intoxicated that they can't wait to hear another splendid song, and in Wish I Had An Angel they will find just what they're looking for! Without an instrumental introduction, the song kicks off immediately with an impeccable duet between Tarja and Marco Hietala, the band's bassist and second singer, then attacks with guitar accompaniment and electronic drums. The chorus is sung by Marco's deep voice.
We've reached Nemo, the first single from the album, and also the most beautiful song. Delicate piano notes will entice the listener to turn up the volume on their CD player. A wrong move, as they will be hit by a powerful wave of guitar and bass sound! In the verse, besides Tarja's crystalline voice, there are the bass and Jukka Nevalainen's drums, who has been the drummer since the band's early days. In the chorus, the guitar reappears, and the orchestra comes in, which towards the end performs a very beautiful instrumental insert.
Infernal and dark choirs introduce the massive Planet Hell, a concentrate of negative energy, which results in a song denouncing the absurdity of war, in an infernal world, with no half measures. The verse is interpreted by Tarja and Marco.
Useful to let the ears rest a bit after Planet Hell, Creek Mary's Blood is a song that evokes the annihilation of the Native Americans by the white man. The intro of this wonderful song is entrusted to what seems like a tribal dance (?), which precedes a melody of classical guitar and orchestra. In the verse, Tarja sings with an orchestra and various percussion as the background. The guitar then enters, with long and epic chords, leading to a solo that picks up the chorus music. In the end, John Two-Hawks, a Lakota artist invited by the band, recites a poem in the Indian language.
A piercing electric violin wakes us from the stupor given by John's soothing voice. We are facing The Siren, yet another wonderful chapter of this fantastic album, an oriental-sounding song that evokes, with its hypnotic melody, the calls of a siren (Tarja) to a sailor (Marco) who, tied up, cannot reach her.

"All stories have been told, all orchids are gone. Lost in my personal world, now I take care of dead gardens". Thus goes the text of Dead Gardens, the most decadent song of "Once", opened by the most malevolent and funereal riff ever forged in the history of Nightwish. To emphasize the sense of gloom and melancholy, the orchestra was not included in this song. The finale consists of the obsessive repetition of a heavy riff (by comparison, bands like Candlemass or Trouble are practically harmless) that's abruptly cut off.
Far more majestic but still very dark is Romanticide which continues in the same vein as Dead Gardens, with guitars with distortion close to noise. In this piece, the music is merely a vehicle for the hopeless and probably autobiographical text. The ending is very particular, marked by a violent guitar and a frustrating bass, accompanying Marco's singing, which is nothing more than an angry whisper. With a series of angry shouts and screams, the song ends and, with it, the darkest part of the album. This song probably served as a release for Tuomas, to eliminate all that accumulated negative energy, caused by strong commercial pressure, due to the band's success.

"My downfall will be in you. My love will be in you. If you are the one to hurt me, I will bleed forever". These cannot be other than the words of a lover (reciprocated or not), indeed we are talking about the mythical Ghost Love Score, the true masterpiece of the album, exceeding ten minutes in duration.
This is a very particular piece, not only for the execution (more refined metal combined with orchestral elegance) but for the themes addressed. It seems that Tuomas, after freeing himself of all anxieties and frustrations, desires to start again to seek innocence and tranquility (this is in fact the whole concept of "Once").

With the end of the beautiful finale, marked by epic choirs that recite the quoted phrase, "Once" as a concept album also ends. The last two songs, in fact, are very beautiful but do not connect to the previous tracks.
Kuolema Tekee Taiteitijan is a sweet ballad in the group's mother tongue, Finnish. In some ways, it may remind one of Lappi-Lapland from the first CD, "Angel Fall First", but in Kuolema the atmosphere is more moving and less "minstrel-like".
Higher Than Hope is dedicated to Marc Bruealand, a friend of the band who recently passed away after fighting a tough battle with cancer. The song alternates between acoustic parts and sudden electric explosions. Towards the finale, Marc's recorded voice is heard, accompanied by the beat of a bass drum, as if to symbolize a weary step.

In conclusion, Once is one of those albums that I deem "universal", which can even be found on the shelves of someone who normally only listens to black or death metal (personal experience). In short, in my opinion, the band's masterpiece and one of the best metal albums ever.