Well… here we are again… another year, another live release. Looking back at their discography, it seems the last few (including this one) have been every three years. Nice and steady release schedule. Again, it will primarily be the already established fans that buy this (and I don’t need to persuade them) so this is mostly for the few of you who AREN’T diehard fans, per se.

Also to note: as with most live album reviews, this is only of the audio. We don’t get the video for it. So I can’t comment on that outside of what is already on YouTube. And that clip, see below, looks to be VERY high quality.

So what does this one bring us that the last couple haven’t? Like the Decades album that this tour was based on, this concert is a crawl through Nightwish’s history. And there is a lot of the older stuff! With one key difference, the prior Decades album had remastered versions of the originals with the original singers, which was cool of them to do (also cool was the give away of the album at the concerts with the ticket purchase). On this live show, and this really is a “duh” comment, you get most of the same songs, but all with Floor. And, as expected, Floor shines nicely on this release too.

I don’t need to do a play by play of each track but I will note a few things:

I know that Nightwish fans seem to be divided into camps. Some like Tarja, some Annette, and some Floor. Granted the split doesn’t seem to be as divisive as Portnoy/Mangini (anymore, at least), but there are always a lot of people bitching about one over the other. And in all of that I see, Annette gets the most of the complaints. I say all this as I want to note the song Amaranthe as presented here. Floor is without a doubt one of the most amazing and talented singers I have heard and I am totally happy that she is their singer. BUT… as can be heard on this song on this release, she is not infallible. The chorus seems to be a beast of a vocal melody to pull off live as Floor seems to have trouble with it at times. So, for those giving Annette a hard time, maybe not so much?

But outside of noting that, the band are in top form and sound incredible. Overall, this is another great slice of history from my favorite band off all time. But, as someone who prefers their later material to their earlier stuff, this one doesn’t hold a whole lot on it to make me rush out to get it that the last live ones don’t already have. But, man, am I looking forward to their new album next Spring.

Songs that were on the Decades Remastered release set that aren’t represented here:

Nightwish

Rating: 9/10

Tracklisting:

21. Ghost Love Score

*** Songs in this show that weren’t on the Decades Remastered set.

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