Highest Hopes (The Best Of Nightwish/Deluxe Edition/+DVD) [Digipak] - Nightwish

Advantages: Superb cameraship, stunning sound quality
Disadvantages: You wish it could go on forever

...Truly well named. This was the last concert for Nightwish with their original singer, Tarja Turunen. And boy, does it show! A stunning concert in Helsinki, its the very best of the (then) new and old tracks, with their trademark musicianship, playing of the crowd, and over the top performance. All the way from the first notes to the final bow, the band give it their all - and do their level best to make sure Tarja looks good - Marco even going so far as to tone his unmistakeable voice down a notch, rarely challenging Tarjas power, though during some tracks he does push her for the high notes - notably during phantom of the opera. For nightwish fans such as myself, this represents a huge part of the band leaving, and is a superb example of how we knew them. Technically, this DVD is superb, giving a reasonable amount of time to each... Read review

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Advantages: Best Of Collection
Disadvantages: None!

...the vocals perfectly and Tarja's voice helps to reach complete the feeling. 10/10 Track 16 - High Hopes I've been told this is a cover of an old Pink Floyd song, but I've never heard it so I can't compare. Tarja is not present on this song but it has some awesome guitar parts and Marco's voice is great. 8/10 The DVD has three tracks from a concert held at M'Era Luna. The video quality isn't great and I don't know if its been over-dubbed or not. It does have an extra song on though 'She Is My Sin' which is quite a good song. Overall, I can recommend this album whole-heartedly. Its great as a starting point into liking this band, but don't get too used to Tarja as she was removed from the band. EDIT 04/07/06 - The times listed on the back on the CD case are actually wrong, this is most apparant on the last track "High Hopes" as the CD case... Read review

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Advantages: Some old favourites, brilliant first album
Disadvantages: very raw, not as polished as later albums (not necessarily a 'disadvantage'!)

......"But I'm still here". OK, not technically the same album (line is from End of All Hope, from Century Child), but a good link, I feel. :) Nightwish are a Finnish metal band. Their debut album, "Angels Fall First" was first released in 1996, but the digipak was released in 2002, along with all previous albums to Century Child. As far as debut albums go, this is pretty good, I think. It feels like the opening act to something great - you get a teaser of what they can do, but their talent and ability is still very raw and untapped. There are a few songs on "Angels..." that are still firm favourites with the band's fans - such as "Beauty and the Beast", which is performed on the album by [former] singer Tarja Turunen and Tuomas (keyboards). I have heard this performed live, with Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica doing the male voal... Read review

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