Nightwish - End Of An Era
Performance
Production
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Nightwish - End Of An Era
Performance
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Over the last couple of years I have read and heard many glowing reviews and recommendations concerning the Finish metal band Nightwish and their latest concert DVD, End Of An Era. One of the local music venues in my area, Jaxx Concert Hall, who also refer to themselves as "DC's Euro Metal Home", even recently boasted about the band's October 2007 appearance there as being "the earliest advanced sell out in Jaxx history!" Not that Jaxx is a big club, but this was yet another thing to make me sit up and take notice. Although I was not able to make that show at Jaxx, I was eventually able to score the End Of An Era DVD, when it was finally released in the U.S. at a reasonable, non-import, price. For the unfamiliar, Nightwish are essentially a goth-influenced, symphonic, speed metal band, fronted by a female opera singer. Yeah, you heard me right. Now, if you feel that these styles are all capable of blending together as smoothly as a nice Jack Daniels and Coke, then you will definitely eat this band up. On the other hand, if a female opera singer fronting a kick ass metal band confounds you as much as it does me, then Nightwish might not be your instant cup of tea. Nightwish are not the only band to have adopted this intriguing new musical style. Epica, Within Temptation, After Forever, and a handful of other bands have all taken similar paths, so there is obviously a decent sized fan base for this unique opera-metal hybrid. As a student of the old schools of metal, rock, and prog, this new style has been very slow to win me over - but my mind still remains open to their temptation. End Of An Era captures the band's last live performance with original vocalist Tarja Turunen. In a rather stunning turn of events after this very concert, Turunen was abruptly handed her walking papers by the other four members of the band. Word has it that she was quite the diva, and had become much more focused on her own career at the expense of the band. You can find copies of the "open letter" that they presented her all over the Internet, and then make up you own mind. The tour documentary is also very illuminating. This performance was recorded in front of an enthusiastic hometown crowd on October 21st, 2005 at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland. This is a rather large arena that can hold up to about 15,000 people for concerts, and it looked jammed to the rafters for this show. The band tore through 18 songs from their eight year, five album (at the time) career, focusing mostly on material from their latest epic, 2004's Once. A Nightwish concert always begins in grand fashion, and this show was no different. As the arena suddenly goes dark, the strains of "Red Warrior", taken from The Last Samurai movie soundtrack, fill the air, making the tension in the arena almost unbearable. As this epic opening theme builds to a climax, the four male band members take the stage and charge right into the opening song, "Dark Chest Of Wonders". The crowd are already in a frenzy, but when Tarja takes the stage a moment later, the place literally erupts. The band's stage show is quite massive, rivaling that of any other arena band in the business. Before Tarja even sings her first words, you are already bombarded with the first round of staggering explosions. Their enormous lighting rig must have cost a small fortune, but it provides one of the most dazzling light shows I have seen in a while. The band really fancies the use of strobe lights too, so take caution if you are prone to seizures. In true Kiss-like fashion, damn near every song performance features at least one round of explosions and giant flame throwers just for good measure. But as overwhelming as the stage show can be at times, it is the powerful Nightwish music that holds their fans captivated throughout the entire show. Bassist Marco Hietala is an imposing figure who looks like he just stepped off of an ancient Viking warship. He sports a giant blond mane and long beard that is braided into two separate tails, which resemble a couple of foot-long icicles hanging from his chin. Hietala occasionally shares lead vocal duties with Tarja, and nowhere do they both shine more than on their excellent cover of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic "Phantom Of The Opera". Tarja is a striking figure who looks like a Nordic goddess onstage. Her long, straight black hair flows over numerous wardrobe changes throughout the show, which alternate between black gothic and white angelic styles to help capture the mood of each song. Her powerful soprano vocals sound amazing live, and her enchanting stage presence is reminiscent of a young Stevie Nicks. Eight of the eleven songs from the new Once album were performed this night, and they also take on some unexpected covers of Pink Floyd's "High Hopes" and Gary Moore's "Over The Hills And Far Away". These two songs fall far from the band's unique style, but they turn in some remarkably faithful and impressive performances. The band also invites Oglala Lakota Native American musician John Two-Hawks onstage to perform his own song, "Stone People", before joining them on "Creek Mary's Blood", which featured his vocals and cedar flute playing. I purchased the deluxe, three-disk edition of End Of An Era, which includes the concert DVD, as well as two CDs covering the same setlist. The disks are housed in a tri-fold digipack that is adorned with dark gothic artwork and includes a 14-page color booklet. The DVD includes two very impressive Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo audio tracks, and a crystal clear widescreen video presentation. My only real complaints are with the nauseatingly quick camera angle changes, and the directors infatuation with the slow motion button. The DVD extras include a picture gallery, and the 55-minute documentary, A Day Before Tomorrow, which provides an intimate behind-the-scenes look at the band during their 2005 world tour. Many of the conversations are in Finnish and no English subtitles are provided. It took me a few tries to get through all of this DVD, but I came away a bigger Nightwish fan than when I first started. This is definitely the type of music that may need a little extra time to grow on you, but any symphonic metal fan would be remiss to not give End Of An Era a spin. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - February 2008 |
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Running Time: 103 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - June 2007 |