Album Review: Nightwish - Yesterwynde
Reviewed by Chris Taylor
If there is one thing you can be sure of when it comes to Nightwish, is they will never do anything half-hearted. Whether they are instilling Lewis Carol-esque wonder and mystery, or an exploration of the majesty of life itself the Finnish Symphonic Metal giants always make their albums as big as their legacy.
That being said there was a sense of unease going into their tenth studio effort, Yesterwynde. Since their last album Human :II: Nature the band lost long time member Marco Hietala after an abrupt exit, Floor Jansen was diagnosed with cancer (and since defeated it), and Tuomas announced Nightwish would not be touring Yesterwynde for personal reasons. All this suggested their mind’s might be elsewhere during the creation of their tenth album. Would Yesterwynde feel like a Nightwish album on autopilot?
Of course it doesn't. Yesterwynde is, to put it simply, another epic album from an epic band. It very much follows the vein of the previous two albums with Floor Jansen, Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Human :II: Nature, Tuomas has even referred to these albums as a trilogy. So we have an album about big ideas, life, time, humanity and any other lofty themes you can think of. It very much feels like a culmination of this era of Nightwish, which you’ll know already if you are a fan of or prefer the previous eras.
Right from the off every Nightwish fan will have a smile on their face by the end of the two opening tracks Yesterwynde and An Ocean of Strange Islands. The title track settles in the listener with a tranquil choir and orchestral piece straight out of a fantasy film score, with the impeccable work from multi instrumentalist Troy Donockley and Jansen’s ethereal vocals guiding us into the first full track. Forget going out with a bang, Nightwish want to begin their album with an explosion. An Ocean of Strange Islands is a nine and a half minute epic that might be one of the band’s strongest openers since Dark Passion Play’s The Poet and the Pendulum. It has everything that makes Nightwish, Nightwish. A piece of music with real movement, it has soothing moments of keys, pipes, strings etc. epic swooping orchestras, thudding guitar work and stratospheric vocals. With an over two minute instrumental ending, An Ocean of Strange Islands for any other band would be the closing track. For Nightwish, we’re just getting started.
To the surprise of no one, the big standout on this album is the incredible vocal work from Floor Jansen. One of the most impactful vocalists in the genre, she dominates this album with her talent. Whether her vocals are as big as the orchestra backing her, or brought right down to a calming lullaby she is unmatched. Tracks like The Antikythera Mechanism, with it’s more stompy arrangement, could have run the risk of being too ‘ploddy’ but Jansen’s climbing vocal melody adds all the momentum it needs. Similarly Something Whispered Follow Me is one of the more grandiose tracks on the album with her vocals being a huge part of that.
With that though, Nightwish have used the Floor Jansen trilogy of albums to ever so slightly try new ideas. The Day of.. uses some sci-fi themes in its lyrics and slight electronic music, which works much better here than when it was used on Human :II: Nature, but quick vocal lines that feel ripped from a Danny Elfman score keep things feeling distinctly Nightwish alongside the newer ideas.
There also feels like an attempt at making the album a tad more progressive than what’s come before. It’s rare for a song on Yesterwynde to not swerve into a new idea part way through. Sure this isn’t a completely new thing for Nightwish, but here almost every track goes through many different stages before the end. Where this could have made the album feel overblown, they instead make it flow together so seamlessly giving it very satisfying pacing from beginning to end.
As amazing as this album is, it is undeniably hard to accept the absence of Marco’s vocals on this album. True, his contribution to Human :II: Nature was minimal, but to lose them entirely is a big part of the sound now missing for longtime fans. However, while Troy’s vocals don’t replicate Marco’s incredible stadium-filling bombast, his serene voice provides a wonderful sense of serenity to compliment Jansen’s epic vocals. Expertly demonstrated on Perfume of the Timeless. After one of the album’s many epics, and one of the strongest choruses, he leads us out with a calming rendition of the song’s main melody. It’s a delicate balance that few bands can pull off. We also get a beautiful duet with the two vocalists on the more acoustic led tracks Sway and Hiraeth. Marco’s contribution may be missed, but Troy’s vocals have always been a hidden gem of Nightwish in their later years so it’s satisfying to hear them have the spotlight at last.
Nightwish are no strangers to being epic on their albums. However starting from Endless Forms Most Beautiful the band seemed to want to be the definition of that word. As said previously, Yesterwynde forms the end of the trilogy that began with that album. In many ways it takes what the previous two albums did so well and showcases them once more. But in other ways it elevates far beyond them. Yesterwynde is absolutely epic, but it’s also focused. Far more so than the last album. It’s thematically consistent, showcases some of the best vocals in this genre, the mix of symphonic and metal are still more satisfying than any other band and it’s paced perfectly. Its seventy one minute runtime absolutely flies by. There are plenty of new ideas, but nothing distracts from the fact that you are listening to a Nightwish album and all the symphonic brilliance that should come with that.
