Century Child

Century Child is a work on which NIGHTWISH greatly fused orchestral breadth, heavy guitar and Tarja Turunen’s classical voice. The songs are heavier than before and have increased drama, and fantastical beauty and rock power bind strongly. Welcoming bassist and vocalist Marco Hietala, it is a record on which the band’s sound gained further thickness. On “Bless the Child,” “Ever Dream” and “Beauty of the Beast,” from grand ballads to racing songs, the scale of the songs is consistently large. A cover of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” is also included. Songs like “End of All Hope” and “Slaying the Dreamer” breathe the band’s full playing too. Fully introducing an orchestra, it is an important work that vividly carved the cinematic elation of symphonic metal.