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Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful review



Reviewer:
6.0

657 users:
7.6
Band: Nightwish
Album: Endless Forms Most Beautiful
Release date: March 2015


01. Shudder Before The Beautiful
02. Weak Fantasy
03. Èlan
04. Yours Is An Empty Hope
05. Our Decades In The Sun
06. My Walden
07. Endless Forms Most Beautiful
08. Edema Ruh
09. Alpenglow
10. The Eyes Of Sharbat Gula
11. The Greatest Show On Earth
12. Sagan [bonus]

Some bands keep evolving and some don't. Those bands that change their style or genre or - most importantly - change their approach towards songwriting itself are sometimes heavily criticized, and at times rightfully so. Not all change is good and change for the sake of change is pointless for obvious reasons.

However...

Doing the same thing over and over again for five albums is even more pointless. How ironic is it that Nightwish's least original album is inspired by the writings of the father of evolutionary biology? And how unfortunate is it that the inclusion of two new capable musicians to the band has left Holopainen so uninspired?



I'm going to break it down for you lovely symphometal fans: if you like overly-simplistic dun-dun-dun-dun basslines and riffs that a 10-year-old guitar student could come up with, then you will enjoy this album. If you are anything like me however, and only appreciate symphonic metal when the guitars are actually doing something interesting and the symphonic elements complement the riffing rather than get on your nerves, then there isn't much to be enjoyed here.

Perhaps the only song on the album that received the negative reaction from fans that the entire album deserves is "Elan," the first single. The problem with "Elan," or the rest of the album, is not that it is too soft, it's that the songwriting is fantastically weak. If you ask me, Nightwish's cinematic sound peaked with "Ghost Love Score" from Once and "The Poet And The Pendulum" from Dark Passion Play, and the unimaginative Imaginaerum and the endlessly boring Endless Forms Most Beautiful add nothing but disappointment to the band's legacy. Unlike Floor Jansen's former band After Forever, it seems that Nightwish and Holopainen weren't wise enough to stop when they still had great music to offer.

Speaking of Floor Jansen, she doesn't truly demonstrate her vocal abilities on this album either. Her performance is acceptable, but nothing mind-blowing. Then again, nothing about Endless Forms Most Beautiful is mind-blowing, except for how Tuomas isn't yet bored with his own songwriting.

The only song that didn't bore me was "My Walden". Even if one is not a fan of Nightwish or symphometal in general, that song might be worth a listen. The rest of the album, not so much. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go listen to Oceanborn to recover from all this mediocrity.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 6
Originality: 3
Production: 9

Written by Metren | 10.10.2015




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.

Staff review by
Susan
Rating:
8.5
Short answer: Yeah, it's really great.

Long answer:

Read more ››
published 25.03.2015 | Comments (57)


Comments

Comments: 14   Visited by: 263 users
10.10.2015 - 22:38
ManiacBlasphemer
Black Knight
Finally a review that truly represents this album. When I read the other one I thought that I listened to another album. 8.5? Then Oceanborn would get 15. Even a 6 is too lennient for this garbage.
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10.10.2015 - 23:20
Rating: 8
AngelofDeth
Cyborg Raptor
I agree with some of your statements, especially about how simplistic the album is and that Once was definitely their peak when it comes to cinematic symphonics. But even so, this is still simple music that sounds good so I can't complain too much. It's definitely not the best Nightwish album but it's still better than the majority of output in the genre at the moment, plus it's catchy and has a cool atmosphere despite the lack of complexity.

That said, I'll take it as a one-off but if they repeat this album and keep to the simple style on the next record I'm probably not going to be as forgiving.
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pewpew.. gotcha
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11.10.2015 - 05:20
Rating: 8
ScottyM

To each their own, I suppose.

What entertains me is most is people who are upset at bands like Nightwish who don't change things up enough to keep them interested, yet will happily turn and chastise other bands who do switch things up, or "evolve" as this author put it, because they changed in a way that upsets them.

This is why reviews of subjective and interpretive material like music is useless, past allowing a reviewer to read comments and get a hard on when people agree with them.
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11.10.2015 - 15:30
Rating: 7
Ismarmlp

I totally agree with this review!
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11.10.2015 - 19:40
Shmyt

I disagree, but to each their own.
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12.10.2015 - 09:08
Rating: 8
andreosokin
SOUNDERY
Good review! The total score is a bit underrated, but understandable
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12.10.2015 - 10:04
moe5512

I wouldn't say that Nightwish has ever been that technical regarding riffs, well every now and then but not in a whole.
What kinda destroys the album for me is actually Floor, she sounds so dull and this is supposed to be the same woman that sang Ghost Love Score at Wacken? meh not bad, not good
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12.10.2015 - 12:41
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
I have told this and I will do it again, only interesting and kick ass album after Angels Fell First ... between its just boring , whit songs, here whole album is hit, its made for album people not hit lowers
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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12.10.2015 - 14:02
BlackMetalDay

In my opinion the problem of this album is not the unoriginality but the mediocre songwrinting.
If this album would be like Imaginaerum I would buy it. It was not perfect but songs like Ghost River, I want my tears back or Scaretale have a quality level that I don't find in the new album.
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13.10.2015 - 05:23
Creativinity

When I heard Floor was going to sing on a Nightwish album I almost fainted. Now that I heard the album, I almost fainted...from boredom.

- The promise of what was to come was supposed to be manna for earth. -
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13.10.2015 - 18:22
Rating: 6
mariano

"riffs that a 10-year-old guitar student could come up with"

If I hadn't listened "Dark Chest of Wonders" 10 years ago or even Storytime more recently, I would say the riffs in "Shudder Before The Beautiful" and "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" are cool -but it happens to be the same riff with small variations over and over again.

So I wouldn't say the lack of complexity is the issue, it's the lack of inspiration and creativity!
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14.10.2015 - 19:54
Rating: 6
The Evergreen

I like this album, not as much as... well, any of their other ones... but I like it okay. You, all of you, have made realize something, though: I think Emppu needs to go or needs a break. Jari Mäenpää could fill in for a while. He's not doing much at the moment, and Kai is already there.
That's my evil pan, anyway.
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08.01.2016 - 22:39
AnGina--
Dark Phoenix
This is thes most interesting review I've read on MS in ages. Seriously. Unlike the totally-not-funny-and-boring-sarcasm use I see in some reviews, this one is just so fundamentally honest, it's funny beyond everything. Bravo.
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You think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was a man. But it was nothing to me but blinding.
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29.01.2016 - 00:18
Rating: 5
Metren
Dreadrealm
Written by mariano on 13.10.2015 at 18:22

"riffs that a 10-year-old guitar student could come up with"

If I hadn't listened "Dark Chest of Wonders" 10 years ago or even Storytime more recently, I would say the riffs in "Shudder Before The Beautiful" and "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" are cool -but it happens to be the same riff with small variations over and over again.

So I wouldn't say the lack of complexity is the issue, it's the lack of inspiration and creativity!


So I revisited this review of mine to read the comments and I agree with you. I think the expression about the ten-year-old guitar student was perhaps the wrong one to use. It is not the lack of experience that makes the riffs (and pretty much everything else on this album) a total bore, it is indeed the lack of creativity. Also, I shouldn't insult 10-year-olds, who are guitar students, most of them can play better than I can . A better way of putting it would have been: "Riffs that are inspired by the winners of the annual most boring and lifeless riffs ever contest" or something like that.
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My one-man project's Bandcamp with free downloads: https://dreadrealm.bandcamp.com/
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