Nightwish, an operatic symphonic metal band from Finland, can only be described as beautiful, and this collection of their best songs is fantastic.  Highest Hopes ranges in style from the older, more operatic vocals by former band member Tarja Turunen (“Tarja” pronounced “Tar-yah”) to the newer, clearer style in her last days with the band, interspersed with the more traditional metal sound with vocals by Marco Hietala.

For those of you who don’t know, Nightwish originally meant to sing only campfire folk songs.  They invited Tarja to sing with them, and, once they heard her voice (sometimes described as “bombastic”), they knew that simply wasn’t an option. Therefore, they decided to create a symphonic metal band.

Highest Hopes, the self-proclaimed best of Nightwish, is indeed very good. Some of the songs are just strange, like Elvenpath (where Tuomas Holopainen, the song-writer, waxes lyrical about a lot of famous fantasy things like Lord of the Rings and the movies Willow and Snowman) or Wishmaster (where Toumas talks about an apprentice becoming a wishmaster, whatever that is).

Aside from the lyrics that don’t make any sense in my mind but are beautiful nonetheless, the song Over the Hills and Far Away actually tells a story.  It’s about a man who is arrested for robbery because the police found his pistol at the scene of the crime, and is therefore sent away to prison for ten years, where he mourns the loss of his lover--who also happens to be his best friend’s wife.  Despite the somewhat dubious morality of the main character, the song is absolutely gorgeous with fantastic keyboard and guitar parts.

One of the more troubling aspects of Nightwish is also one of their best: I have absolutely no idea what the band as a whole thinks about life, the universe, and everything.  This means that, while I can happily sing along to lyrics that somehow involve Lord of the Rings and hydrogen lakes, I also have no clue whether I agree with what I’m singing or not.

The best example of this is The Kinslayer.  As best as I can tell, this is Nightwish deploring all of the religious wars that go on all over the world.  You have a chorus chock full of a lot of differing viewpoints on God and life, almost all of them completely off-base.  At the same time, there are numerous references to things like “Adam’s frailty” and the fact that “good wombs hath borne bad sons” and “the Child” (capitalized on purpose).  I’m not saying that Nightwish is a Christian band, because they definitely aren’t, but it’s not all wrong, either.

Since Tarja is gone, the band is in the process of finding a replacement soprano vocalist, and all that I can say is this: God help the woman who has to fill Tarja’s shoes, because it’s nearly impossible.  Highest Hopes is a look back at the band’s past, and it also places the bar very high for future albums.

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