Album Review: NIGHTWISH - Human. :II: Nature.

Disc 1:

01. Music
02. Noise
03. Shoemaker
04. Harvest
05. Pan
06. How's The Heart?
07. Procession
08. Tribal
09. Endlessness

Disc 2:

01. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Vista
02. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - The Blue
03. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - The Green
04. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Moors
05. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Aurorae
06. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Quiet As The Snow
07. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Anthropocene (incl. "Hurrian Hymn To Nikkal")
08. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Ad Astra

I've never been a massive Nightwish fan, however they do have some awesome songs in their repertoire. Admittedly, that album title and the track-listing of Disc 2 looks like the most pretentious, pseudo-intellectual nonsense ever committed to CD, and I was a little put off by it at first. Then I remembered that this is Nightwish, and if anyone can make this kind of over-the-top melodramatic concept work perfectly, it's them.

The first single, Noise, is fantastic and reminds me of their Imaginaerium era. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I really enjoyed the two albums they did with Annette Olson, probably because they were a bit more 'Pop' and commercial. Current lead singer Floor Jensen has already proven that she can vocally smash any era of Nightwish with ease, so the band can go in whatever direction they want, knowing their singer can master anything thrown her way. Anyway, it's nice that the Pop element hasn't been discarded, and Noise proves that this style works well for them.

The album opens with Music, which has an intro longer than most Pop or Punk songs. It's like the start of a theatrical production, and in a way, it is. Anyway, it's a great song with a massive chorus, and wouldn't sound out of place on an Avantasia album. Floor's vocals are incredible, but that's a given. When have they been anything less than incredible?

I'm not too sure about Harvest, not because their 'piper' (yes, they have a fucking piper), Troy Donockley, takes on the lead vocals, but it's a bit too Folk Metal for me. It's proper Lord Of The Rings stuff, but I suppose quite a lot of their repertoire is.

How's The Heart is an obvious single. OK, the Folk comes in strong on the chorus, but I actually really like this track.

Tribal is a dark, angry, dramatic song with some gnarly riffing. It's quite trippy in places but sits nicely on the album. It's certainly a highlight for me.

The second disc, All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World, starts off with some spoken words, leading into eight tracks of very beautiful instrumental music that sounds like the score to the most epic movie ever.

I like Human. :II: Nature more than their previous record and there's no doubting the fact that a lot of time, love, and talent has gone into it. I'm sure that fans who enjoy post-Tarja Nightwish will adore this new opus and quite rightly so. For the passing fan, there are certainly enough earworms to make it worth checking out.