Perfection is a very rare thing, but when you do mange to stumble across it the reward is immense. One of the most promising symphonic Metal bands in existence today is Finland’s Nightwish who recently made yet another trek across U.S. soil playing to sold out crowds in virtually every city. I was privileged to catch the band when they hit the House Of Blues San Diego in sunny Southern California and could not have been more impressed with their performance. The band featuring their newest member, the lovely Anette Olzon on lead vocal have been creating quite a bit of demand with the release of their dynamic new release Dark Passion Play. True, there was much skepticism as to whether or not Anette would actually be able to replace such an integral part of the Nightwish sound following the departure of the bands previous vocalist Tarja Turunen who served with Nightwish from 1996-2005, but anyone who has heard Anette can attest that she was definitely the right woman for the job.

As the anticipation grew for the band to take the stage there was an almost magical feeling floating in the air. I have to admit that this was by far one of the best live experiences I’ve ever had covering a band. There wasn’t too long of a change over from the opening band to when Nightwish finally made their presence known. In a massive out pouring of light and sound the band emerged onto the stage following their intro and hit full force with “Bye Bye Beautiful”, one of the stellar new tracks off of Dark Passion Play, and a song that some have speculated is a send off to the bands aforementioned former vocalist. “Dark Chest Of Wonders”, which is actually my favorite song from the new CD came next and it just doesn’t get any more epic sounding than this. Anette’s voice is absolutely amazing here and gives proper credence to the bands masterful sound. Keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen or the maestro as he is otherwise known has truly outdone himself with these latest compositions. If you enjoy listening to the bands CD the live version is 1000 times more intense. Song’s such as “The Poet and the Pendulum”, and “Amaranth” are absolutely breath taking or as I call it, love at full volume. One unexpected segment of the show was the acoustic laden “The Islander” that is sung by bassist Marco Hietala. As much as I enjoyed this song, I did miss Anette’s harmony from the CD during this segment of the band’s the set. I also wish that they had played “Eva” but was however thankful for what I received overall.  

In addition to the bands new material they did break out a decent assortment of vintage Nightwish as well including the fan favorites “Wishmaster”, “Nemo” and “Wish I Had An Angel”, all of which were nailed to pure perfection. Now, even though I believe that this show was visually stunning, I have to say that I was surprised by Anette’s down played look. After seeing the killer glamour promos from when she joined the band I was expecting a bit more. Nevertheless, the music is the primary focus and from that position the band’s set was audibly pristine from start to finish. Nightwish performed remarkably in absolutely every capacity. I can’t wait for the next time they come to town hopefully I’ll be able to make that one as well.

-Priest