Wishmaster : pleasant CD for Euro-metal newcomer

Finnish metal band Nightwish often achieve chart success in their native land of Europe. Their sound is very accessible yet original : the band features trained opera singer Tarja Turunen as lead vocalist with choirs as backing. Most of the songs are written by the keyboard player Tuomas Holopainen.

The 2000 album Wishmaster is an easy-to-like metal album that is accessible for beginners and fun enough for more experienced listeners. In many ways, it is a typical Nightwish CD with catchy riffs and decent vocals – basically “opera” metal lite. What the album lacks is a coherent focus for the discrete songs. Overall mood of the disc is not heavy or dark.

Verdict : Wishmaster is a great place for newcomers to European metal or even general music fans but hardcore metal fans can safely stay away.

Versus The World : a very aggressive Amon Amarth CD

VIKING METAL : Swedish metal band Amon Amarth’s 2002 CD Versus The World is a double CD selling at single CD prices. The bonus disc contains an unreleased track Siegreicher Marsch as well as their Sorrow Throughout The Nine Worlds EP and some demo tracks.

This is my first Viking metal CD and I am impressed. As a subgenre, I’m not sure Viking metal has a unique sound. Rather, it has very specific themes – that of reclaiming the pagan roots of North European countries converted to Christianity by force over the centuries.

As for Versus The World, don’t let the cheesy loincloth barbarian CD cover fool you, the music is top-notch. Amon Amarth features a twin guitar attach and the band hammers out very aggressive riffs that sound mean yet maintain some sense of melody – it puts most American (nu)-metal bands to shame. Their superior songwriting also means that the 9-track main album never becomes monotonous after the first few tracks – there is enough ingenuity and variations in their arsenal to keep the sonic assault fresh.

On the lyrics front, the songs exalt their pagan heritage (like the epic Thousand Years Of Oppression), adding an extra dimension of anger to their music. The nicely printed liner notes contain the English lyrics of both the main album and the bonus tracks – this is helpful since the black metal singing means the lyrics are hardly decipherable.

Verdict : very highly recommended.