Customer Reviews

Nightwish: Made in Hong Kong (and in Various Other Places)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm grateful for a Nightwish live release representing the Annette-fronted version of the band, but this could have been better. It's a bit skimpy. There are 8 live tracks from the Dark Passion Play tour, 2 B-sides and a demo. The live tracks are great. They sound excellent and the band rocks hard. Don't expect a whole lot of variation from the album versions though. Of course, there are no songs from the Tarja albums. If that's what you're looking for, there is a wonderful live release called End of an Era that is well worth checking out. This disc is a bit short. Not to mention the glaring omission of Meadows of Heaven, my favorite song from Dark Passion Play. The DVD is fluff. A short documentary about the tour and three music videos. I hate these CD/DVD combos. The DVD content is rarely worthwile and only serves to jack up the price as is the case here.

So although the content is good, this just isn't a very good value. I would like to have seen a complete live show. The CD is only 66 minutes long. They could have dropped the three "bonus" tracks and included probably 4 or 5 more live tracks. And dropped the DVD entirely. But that's record companies for you. For live Nightwish, End of an Era is certainly the way to go.

I have not gotten to the DVD yet since I am listening at work. The Disc is good, the live material is all top notch, however I feel a little flat that some of the older material that they have been playing on the tour is not included. Annette absolutely owns "Everdream" and I wish it had been on this Disc. HINT: To this Band and all Bands if you put out Live releases that don't include the actual content of your shows, and the songs that fans like to hear if they can't get them from you they WILL get somewhere.

A reviewer said that the lack of older material on this new live CD was due to the fact that the new singer couldn't handle the older songs, well I happen to have 6 full length live Nightwish concert videos featuring Anette Olzon, that say otherwise, in fact, I'll go as far as saying that she not only nails the older songs, but in several cases, sounds better then Tarja does live (or in studio for that matter). I'd say the reason for the lack of older material on this new CD is that they where concentrating on songs from the new album in an attempt to move forward.

Another thing that strikes me is how happy Anette looks while singing the classic songs, as opposed to Tarja's performance on the, End of an Era live DVD, where she looks like she's just doing a job (which is apparently all that Nightwish had become to her, a job).

And for all of the boo-hooers out there pining for Tarja, there's a post Nightwish press conference with Tarja (which you can find on You Tube with subtitles) where she states that she had told the Nightwish guys that she was going to leave the band to pursue a solo career after the next album (which would have been the Dark Passion Play album) which means that she had no intention of continuing on with the band in the future, so all the band did was fire her before she quit, so that they could find a replacement and move on since she no longer considered the future of the band a priority.

So I think that fans should give Anette Olzon a chance, because she has a beautiful voice, which is giving Nightwish a new palette of sound to play with, and should also keep in mind that she's a innocent bystander in Tarja's departure from the band, having not been hired till well after Tarja was gone

P.S. I'm a new fan, having only come upon Nightwish about 2 months ago, and the first song I heard was, Wish I Had An Angel, which wet my appetite, but it was hearing the song, Amaranth that really blew me away and hooked me, and now I can't get enough of them >^..^<

So this is a short review from someone who has listen to and seen the whole thing.

The live stuff sounds awesome. Oh, and it's 8 live songs. Not 9, like this other review says. I really wish there was some older songs on here, but it's still rockin. The B-side stuff is pretty good aswell. "Escapist" and "While Your Lips Are Still Red " are great songs that I've wanted to have on a disc for a while now. The demo version of "Cadence of Her Last Breath" has a pretty interesnting sound with Marco on vocals. Of course, being a demo, it's not really up to par with the other stuff sound wise. But it's still cool.

The DVD is a little on the short side, but not bad at all. It talks about how things have been going with Anette and how the Dark Passion Play tour has been overall. Quite a few interviews, both serious and funny. Some real amazing "Drunken Uno" games are played. I found myself laughing quite a bit. Then there are the music videos. Which, well... they're just music videos.

Overall it's a pretty good buy if you really dig the new stuff, any live stuff, or just want to see some good stuff about the band. I have hopes that this will hold me over for a while. I can't wait for these folks to release a new album

The good: The live songs sound amazing, I would go as far as to say 7 of the 8 songs sound better live than on the original album. If you are a fan of Dark Passion Play, you can't afford to be without this. The B-sides are also quite good, especially "While Your Lips Are Still Red", a moving ballad sung by Marko.

The bad: Only 8 live songs (and no previous DPP songs). A full live set would have been amazing. While a demo of Cadence Of Her Last Breath is interesting, I would prefer a live version of a previous DPP song instead.

Overall: Ultimately if you are not a big fan of Dark Passion Play, I would probably skip this. I haven't gotten to the DVD part of the album yet, but the CD itself makes this a winner in my book. 5/5

The music is still good. Anette sings very confidently and in key. She's better than most live singers, but her style is not for me. Although her tone is good, it's an airy, light, pop voice. Which can "reach" more listeners, right? Well, not me, though.

And Marco just sounds terrible, wailing through his notes. lol. "Reach" is a good name for that demo he sang on, he's really "reaching" for those notes! Poor guy is getting old and maybe too much partying has left his voice in tatters!

So, yeah, listen to End of an Era or From Wishes to Eternity. Or go and watch/listen to Nightwish on Youtube for free. I wouldn't buy this album. It does seem early to be releasing a live album with Anette when she's only been on one album. In the past they do a live album after every 2-3 studio albums.

Somewhat celebrating the new era of Nightwish and their world tour in support of Dark Passion Play this CD/DVD set is a pretty good package especially if you can get it for no more than just a standard disc. So like all things it's gonna depend on your budget. The long and the short of it is that you get a CD with eight live tracks that hang together pretty well even though they were recorded at varying locations (all hail the mini disc). All the tracks are from Dark Passion Play - just to underline you know what - and so if you liked that collection of tunes you are in safe hands here. You also get some interesting little curios that should make the completists happy - two album b-sides and a demo version of Cadence of Her Last Breath. Demo versions I can usually live without but it's a nice touch to add some value with these b-sides (though knowing Nightwish they'll surface again on a rarities disc in a couple of years).

The songs are pretty darn good stuff and some of the grandiose nature of them is hewn off them by the live environment and I have to praise a band with the gumption to attack numbers like The Poet and the Pendulum live. Though the length of track after track means that there is some listener fatigue as the album plunges on but for all that it's nice to hear the band cut it up live and having caught this tour this disc has a bit of sentimental value to me (there, I admitted it).

The DVD component to the album is pretty handy. The 37 minute documentary is quite good as there is some quite honest and revealing interview footage with Tuomas and Ms Olzon that is above what you'd normally expect in your usual `love-in' style doco and there is also time to show some of the less glamorous aspects of touring. And drunken uno.... by Vainamoinens beard these Finns can drink! Added to the interviews and drunken uno exploits the DVD also contains all three promo clips for the singles from Dark Passion Play - Amaranth (cool vid); Bye Bye Beautiful (cool vid) and The Islander. Note that there is also a video clip to the song While Your Lips Are Still Red and the only place I've seen this was on the 20 Years of Nuclear Blast product.

So all up this is a good package and the only real down side is that it's all going to depend on how much really think you need yet another live Nightwish album. I mean this is what... the third or something? And after all with the net nowadays you can track down promo videos easily enough. But as a fan I got good use out of this and feel it is way worth four stars.

NOTE--I have not yet heard the whole album, and I haven't seen any of the DVD. This is sort of a first impression review aimed at people familiar with the band.

Nightwish fans--we're being cheated. Severely. This 11-track album features 9 live songs (yep, that's it), 1 B-side and a demo. What kind of live album is this for a band that has released something like 6 albums? Not ONE Tarja-era song is included, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. Annette sounds fantastic live (much better than she did on the album, in my opinion) and she definitely performs the songs on stage, so why can't we hear them? And way to open with "Bye Bye Beautiful," a very catchy song that should have been titled "F**k You Tarja You Greedy Argentine-Marrying B*tch of a Frontwoman Who Apparently Didn't Realize That Tuomas Loved You More Than Life Itself And Fired You Because You Didn't Reciprocate." Well, it is a little long, admittedly.

Anyway, back to being serious. The songs sound great--they're incredibly heavy so you can bang your head. However, if you take issue with excessive playback then this album will give you fits. Most of the orchestra parts are used, along with the choirs and backing vocals. You'll hear two Annettes at once! I do want to reiterate that Annette's voice on this album is great. I know a lot of Nightwish fans haven't taken to her yet, but this just might help. She's also very good with the crowd, which is a definite plus. She does need a little help with her wardrobe though, because she looks like Avril Lavigne raided Hot Topic.

The demo track at the end is "Cadence of Her Last Breath," one of my favorite songs on the album, but here it's sung by Marco Hietala and not Annette. (Like the demo version of "Amaranth" on Dark Passion Play.) Marco has a great voice, and his band Tarot sounds fabulous, but on this demo he sounds INCREDIBLY overwrought. He usually does when performing in Nightwish--his vocals in the live songs are the same way. ("Phantom of the Opera" anyone?) No big deal I guess, because the music is pretty overwrought too but it does get wearisome.

We're screwed yet again on the DVD. It features a documentary and 3 videos. Ladies and gentleman, the documentary is 37 minutes long. That's it. Would it have been TOO hard to actually give us, oh, maybe AN ACTUAL LIVE CONCERT? Apparently. Or maybe we could have gotten videos that aren't splashed all over the internet. Apparently not. Roadrunner is awfully stingy when it comes to things like this. On Within Temptation's "Black Symphony" you get the whole show on DVD, half a show on CD. Here you get half a show on CD and nothing on DVD. Roadrunner, please just give us the whole thing at once. And don't pull your usual stunt by releasing some special edition a year from now and making us buy the album yet again just to have something we should have gotten in the first place, mmkay?

All in all, the CD is definitely worth buying even if the track list is miniscule, and the DVD doesn't really cost anything so what the heck. Still, if you're a true Nightwish fan this is liable to leave you a teensy bit disappointed.

Finally, after a considerable amount of hype, we have the new Nightwish CD/DVD. Okay, this really isn't anything to get excited about because it doesn't really include much new material. However, it's kind of interesting to hear the live sound of the new Nightwish.

The CD side of Made in Hong Kong consists of 11 songs: eight are live recordings of Dark Passion Play songs from the tour, two previously released b-sides ("Escapist" and "While Your Lips Are Still Red") and the previously unreleased demo version of "Cadence of Her Last Breath," where bassist Marco Hietala provides the vocal work.

The live tracks have studio-quality sound and don't include too much of that semi-annoying audience yelling or applause. Even though I was a little annoyed by the famous "Hep!" chant during "Amaranth" for covering up the music, it didn't appear in any other songs. I also think that Anette sounds better here than on any other live version I've heard....and even better than on the album. She's really done a great deal of work and it shows. Her voice is considerably stronger and has a pure, rockin' quality to it that makes me want to sing along with her. She also comes across so personable and nice here that I just can't make myself dislike her. I was most pleased at the fact that she's getting away from that "little girl" sound that seemed to plague her in previous performances.

The slower songs did especially well in a live context. I found that "The Islander" and "Last of the Wilds" were among my favorite songs on this CD (and among my least favorites on the DDP album). Hearing the songs live just gave them this warm, intimate feel.

The DVD side is kind of disappointing -it consists of the official music videos for "Amaranth," "Bye Bye Beautiful" and "The Islander" as well as a 37 minute documentary featuring concert footage from Israel to South America, directed by Ville Lipiäinen. Even though all three of these music videos are of amazing quality and really showcase the new sound of Nightwish, I found them a little dissatisfying because, well, I've seen them before. The documentary footage is well put together, but seems like it goes by too fast. I just wish there was more of it -as well as more new material overall.

The biggest issue I had with this CD/DVD is the fact that it didn't include any "remakes" of older Nightwish songs (pre-DDP). I really wanted to see how Anette made those songs her own and, well, kind of what to expect when I go to a concert as far as the older songs go.

Overall, a good addition to a Nightwish fan's collection, but won't really appeal to non-hardcore fans. The live tracks let Anette show off how much she's matured as a singer on the DDP tour and gives me hope that Nightwish will only continue to get better over time.

Nightwish: Made in Hong Kong (and in Various Other Places) being a live album with Nightwish could have been great but with Anette Olzon singing live it becomes obvious just what a great vocalist Turunen is. Allmusic gave the album 3.5/5 which is way to high. The booklet contains some nice photographs of the band but beside this contains not so much more. 2/5.