REVIEW: NIGHTWISH - OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY

 

NIGHTWISH - OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY (Nems Enterprises, 2001):

Technical data:

Recorded by tero Kinnunen at Caverock and Mikko Karmila at Finnvox - February/March 2001

Live tracks recorded by Transmix Ox at Tullikamari, Tampere, Finalnd 29/12/00

Mastered by Mika Jussila at Finnvox

Cover Image by Sami Vänskä.

Track List: 1- Over The Hills and Far Away, 2- 10th Man Down, 3- Away, 4- Astral Romance (version 2001), 5- The Kinslayer (live), 6- She Is My Sin (live), 7- Sacrament of Wilderness (live), 8- Walking in the Air (live), 9- Beauty and the Beast (live), 10- Wishmaster (live), 11- Sleepwalker (heavy version)  

This is Nightwish latest release and it consists on some new tracks like "10th Man Down" and "Away", some songs that were on other Nightwish albums like "Astral Romance" from "Angels Fall First" and a heavy Version of "Sleepwalker" from "Wishmaster", a cover of Gary Moore´s "Over The Hills and Far Away" and six live tracks recorded in Tampere.

The new tracks follow the path of the bands last studio album "Wishmaster", that is songs that are maybe more calm and introspective than the ones that we could find in "Oceanborn". The new versions of the above mentioned tracks are quite good, specially the version of "Astral Romance" which has a better sound than the one contained in Nightwish´s first album and it has the guest vocals by Tony Kakko (from Sonata Arctica) as well as in the live version of "Beauty and the Beast".

And well, the best part of this CD for me are the live tracks...they are played in an almost exact version as the one in studio, but the sound is rawer (specially Emppu´s guitar). I liked specially the version of "Sacrament of Wilderness" (a little bit faster than in "Oceanborn". Favorite tracks: "Sacrament of Wilderness", "She is My Sin" and "Kinslayer". Contact. Nems@nems.com.ar