The muse has finally struck again, and time to take a closer look at a song that has grown on me incredibly fast, and has quickly become one of my favorite songs in my collection. I do tend to have instrumental leanings, and this song by Nightwish from their most recent album Dark Passion Play fits right in to that category. Now, before you may give this song a try, keep in mind that you should probably be predisposed to enjoying the rock genre with distinctive rock guitar riffs, but also some experimental instrumentation that I will get in to later.This song, as I said before, should fit right in to the library of any rock music fan. And by rock I mean actual rock, not Nickleback "lumberjack" rock. From the beginning, as a listener you might feel a bit confused by the first 30 seconds or so, with the use of a very Celtic sounding electronic instrument of some kind. This is also accompanied by an interesting choice in thunderstorm sounds, usually reserved for relaxing rain type piano songs that never make it past the lobby of the dentist's office. But then the old familiar rock guitar, drums, bass, the whole shebang kick in shortly after this moment of uncertainty. This initial introduction of traditional rock instrumentation gives the listener a feel for the kind of drive this song is going to hold throughout its duration.
The guitar of this song gives it most of its driving rock force. The main riff, the solos, and the filler riffs all seem to provide the main backbone of this song. This guitar work is backed by a solid bass line, that sometimes gets lost in the waves of guitar and Celtic instruments. The only lackluster element to this song is the drum line. Not to say this detracts from the song in any way, but it seems the least developed part of this song. It provides a pretty run of the mill upbeat and downbeat pattern without many fills (mind you I am no expert so maybe this is more elaborate than I make it out to be).
When these instruments all combine in this songs powerful "choruses" (if you can have one in an instrumental song), this song becomes undeniably enjoyable for any rock music fan. The combination of the string instrument sounds with the rest of the rock ensemble provides a very unique and very satisfying sound. Props to Nightwish for getting experimental here and pulling it off. Once again, I will highly recommend this song to any fan of rock music out there, at least give it a shot, you never know what kind of instrumental music this may lead you to that you never knew existed.
Vocals: N/A
Drums/Percussion: 65/100
Guitar: 90/100
Bass: 82/100
Lyrics: N/A
Secondary Inst.: 95/100
Overall: 92/100
This song is epic
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