Nightwish, Paradise Lost - Live at Metropolis

Unless Nightwish comes out with a masterpiece album, this was my last time that I go see them in concert. To put it in a less politically correct way: Anette can't sing and this is a catch 22. They can't play old classics I love, like Pharaoh Sails to Orion, Fantasmic or Kinslayer because Anette would butcher them. And since they'll play mostly the garbage from the last album, I'll skip. Then again, she managed to butchered some new songs, more on that later.

Now, on to the show.

Paradise Lost: Poor guys, crowd was dead. No one was really paying attention. It must be hard as hell for some opening bands to play for big names like Nightwish. You guessed it, I didn't pay attention to them either, I just don't like their music, not my cup of tea.

After about 45 minutes of set change (Whiskey Foxtrot Tango?! Does it really take that long or where they waiting for a cheeseburger from Old Dublin pub?) Nightwish finally take the stage. Musically, ambiance and just general showmanship, the concert was perfect. No "technical glitches" like last time, no diva that doesn't want to sing and great crowd in a sold out place.

However, since Nightwish's main selling point and strength is the singer, it proved to be their Achilles' heel. It's sad to see a talented band like this fall from grace...

The setlist was very disappointing, then again, Tuomas had no choice. They can't have Anette sing classics, she would destroy them. There should be a rule that if your latest album sucks, you can't play many songs live. However, this wasn't the case. They pretty much played the most annoying songs off the new album. Which added even more aggravation to the already abysmal performance of Anette.

They even managed to play Wish I Had an Angel something like three times, oh sorry, that was Bye Bye Beautiful and some other boring track off the last album, which are carbon copies of Wish I had an Angel.

For me, the gig started going downhill once she butchered PlayEver Dream. And it's ironic, because a few tracks before she totally nailed PlayDark Chest of Wonders which raised my hopes of a good concert. This high lasted maybe one song.

The saddest part was my realization that she can't even sing the new songs. She was totally off key during Amaranth. Then she went on to destroy She is my Sin, and Wishmaster and ... pretty much most songs.

There were a very few positive moments, as I mentioned, she nailed Dark Chest of Wonders and Slaying the Dreamer was good too. The Islander was also interesting, although the gig was already littered with shitty ballads like Eva.

During the entire show, Anette was trying to "oooh" "aaaah", "yeaaa" and stretch out melodies just to attempt to hide the fact that she can't sing the song.

I personally don't care at all if bands change singers. There is a catch though, the singer must be good. I like Roth era Van Halen and Hagar era. I like Blaze era Maiden, Dianno era Maiden and of course, Air Raid Siren era Maiden. I like Barlow era Iced Earth and Ripper era Iced Earth. I like old singer Sirenia and new singer Sirenia (Sorry don't know their names!). Therion always bring new singers on every tour with maybe one or two exceptions. I don't give a rat's ass who's singing if it's good. However, Nightwish have a serious problem. Their new singer sucks. It's easy to do fifty takes in a studio to record an album and get that perfect voice, in a gig, you have one chance.

Good bands sound great live and their singers are good live. Mediocre bands are good in studio but can't play/sing live. Unfortunately, Nightwish has become the latter.