2007 has seen the release of many future classic metal albums already and i thought no-one would be able to top the works of Megadeth, Machine Head and Municipal Waste. Well I was wrong, very wrong because out of Finland comes the new studio album from a band i have known about for some time but never had a large interest in. Kerrang said this is there most interesting album to date and after hearing a few tracks in advance I have to admit i was blown away by the amazing voice of the new singer Anette Olzon! Critics say that she lacks the operatic range of classically trained Tarja Turunen and they may be right. Yet still one cannot escape the sense of warmth and passion in Anettes singing compared to the coldness I always saw in Tarja (which is the reason for my previous lack of interest in the band). As I said on the Nightwish website guestbook "The Queen is Dead, Long Live the Queen!", but enough about the merits of the new singer (did i forget to mention she is actually rather pretty as well!) and on too the music itself. What we have here is a collection of thirteen tracks including ballads, acoustical folk songs and even fourteen minute epics chock full of awesome riffs, Tuomas's emotional keys, pounding drums and not forgetting the soaring and uplifting new voice! So there is in fact always something different to hear in each track instead of just a bunch of rockers so it never gets boring. This is probably the first album all year where the tracks have really spoken to me in such a way before! Even the Irish folk music songs are amazing featurung a nice duet between Marco and Anette. I would whole heartedly recommend this album to any music lover as it is very special. Album of 2007 without a Doubt. Rating 10/10

love the disc fav tracks are Bye Bye Beautiful and Heart i once had

Totally agree with both of these posts, this album is brilliant. I have been into Nightwish for a while now and find the new singers voice fits Nightwish better than Tarja's.

On a different note if you like this album check out former vocalist Tarja's new solo album, very good.

i got tarjas new album for christmas. i have not really heard much thats really sticks in my head yet but i have not had time really to sit and listen to it properly due to all the opeth goodies i got for christmas

i tried to give tarjas disc a spin but im really not into pop music but since i love her voice i figured i should by the cd...

i cant get in the new tarja album really its boring. my mum likes it more than i do. will take the new ultimatum cd any day of the week

whats that about my mum!

I own every single Nightwish CD in existence, and this one is by far one of my top 3.

It sucks that Tarja is gone....but considering that she was an egotistical diva smurfette on par with Whitney Houston, it's probably better that she's gone.

And hey, the new girl ain't half bad.

No, he has that on MP3 as well. That means he owns it doesn't it?