Nuclear Blast 20th Anniversary: Into the Light

Nuclear Blast Allstars | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 19, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Nuclear Blast Americ
• ASIN: B000PKG7MA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,981 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Dirty Wings - Tobias Sammet

2. Terrified - Peter 'Peavy' Wagner

3. Ruling the World - Tony Kakko

4. Death Is Alive - Mats Leven

5. Bloodsuckers - Marcel 'Schmier' Schirmer

6. Slaves To the Desert - Hansi Kursch

7. A Perfect Day - Andreas Deris

8. Eternally - Oddleif Stensland

9. Inner Sanctuary - Marco Hietala

10. In the Picture - Tarja Turunen

Disc: 2

1. Hearts On Fire - Hammerfall

2. The Madness Of the Crowds - Helloween

3. El Traidor - Gotthard

4. Sweet Enclosure - After Forever

5. New Protection - Ride The Sky

6. Forevermore - Thunderstone

7. Slipstream - Threshold

8. The Smoke - Amorphis

9. Devil Seed - Candlemass

10. The Other Side - Sirenia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great idea with some good stuff but..., July 26, 2007

By 

stagecrewlizzy "nomisofsiman" (Wheaton, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nuclear Blast 20th Anniversary: Into the Light (Audio CD)

as what would be expected this is definitely a mixed bag. Not trying to say this is not worth it but some tracks definitely are better than others. The standouts I would say would be the Hansi Kursch one and the final track with the woman from Nightwish. I think part of the problem is that all the songs are virtually written by the same person and some of the talents on here are not involved at all except for singing the songs. I think if there was more collaboration, there would be better songs. Another thing is it says all-stars and it does have a lot of great performers but it is definitely geared for the power metal/gothic crowd, which is weird because nuclear blast has more variety. Another thing I thought would've been a good idea would be if not just the singers but that the other musicians were different on each track too which would really help mix the collaboration up. I think putting a singer in with a different guitarist, bassist and drummer from all different bands would be a cool idea.

With this CD there also is an additional disc with some favorites and some unreleased track. This also is a mixed bag. There are some good stuff on here as well but very inconsistent. I think if they were going to add another disc they should've kept it strictly to a "best of nuclear blast" sort of deal or have the entire cd unreleased material. Instead, this second CD just seems rushed.

If you like many of the singers from power/gothic metal bands I definitely recomend picking this up. I also recommend this to people who like hearing a variety of metal because you do get that. I just hope the next time they do this, they put more variety musically and mix up more of the musicians instead of just the singers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anniversary all star melodic metal album, or a Victor Smolski solo album, January 2, 2011

By 

Nikiforos V. Skoumas (Athens Greece, Cambridge UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nuclear Blast 20th Anniversary: Into the Light (Audio CD)

"Into the light" is the anniversary all star project album originally released in 2007 celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Nuclear Blast" as a heavy metal record label. The project features a rather stable instrumental line up with each song featuring a different lead singer. Vocalists participating on this album are Tobias Sammet, Toni Kakko, Peter Wagner, Mats Leven, Hansi Kursch, Andi Deris, Odleif Stensland, Marko Hietala and Tarja Turunen.

Now, as far as songwriting goes, the whole album is composed by "Rage" virtuoso guitarist Victor Smolski with occasional aid in lyrics by his fellow bandmate Peter Wagner. As expected, Victor plays all the guitars on the album while also handling the bass and keyboards on most of them. The drums are performend by Andre Hilgers (who would become the new drummer of "Rage" after the completion of the project). The musical approach of "Into the light" is falls within the melodic metal genre and in fact comes rather close to the style of "Rage" while the mood is bound to change from one song to the next. Favorite tracks include: "Dirty Wings", "Ruling the World", "A perfect day", "and Inner Sanctuary" and "In the picture".

Through a very practical view, one could also regard "Into the light" as a Victor Smolski solo album, being the only consistent presense throughout the album and the master songwriter. He also opens the album's booklet notes welcoming the audience and commenting on the experience; following each of the singers participating, contributes a few liner notes of their relationship with the record label. Overall, "Into the light" is a satsifactory all star project that brings to front the amazing songwriting talent of Smolski while also carrying the essence of "Rage".

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 stars - a cool idea that could have been better executed, May 18, 2009

By 

Justin Gaines (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nuclear Blast 20th Anniversary: Into the Light (Audio CD)

The counterpart to the Out of the Dark album, Into the Light was a project put together by Rage/Mind Odyssey guitarist Victor Smolski to help celebrate Nuclear Blast's 20th anniversary. Where Out of the Dark focused on the label's death and black metal side, Into the Light celebrates Nuclear Blast's extremely strong stable of progressive, power and traditional metal artists. A different vocalist performs on each of the 10 songs on the album, including Tobias Sammet (Edguy), Peavy Wagner (Rage), Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica), Mats Leven (Therion), Marcel Schirmer (Destruction), Hansi Kursch (Blind Guardian), Andi Deris (Helloween), Odlief Stensland (Communic), Marco Heitala (Nightwish) and Tarja Turunen (ex-Nightwish).

Smolski wrote and played guitar on the entire album, and his fellow Rage member Peavy Wagner wrote most of the lyrics, so Into the Light is pretty much a proggy Rage album with a bunch of different singers. The various vocalists certainly put their stamp on these songs, but you could switch the singers around at random and the songs probably wouldn't feel much different. The highlights of the album are the performances by Mats Leven, Hansi Kursch, Andi Deris and or course Tarja, but I don't think anyone turned in a weak vocal performance.

Into the Light is an interesting concept, and one that should prove interesting to fans of the various vocalists who contributed. I think it would have been more memorable if the singers were allowed to write their own lyrics, but I understand why that wasn't possible. Still, that might have been the touch that moved Into the Light from "good" to "great".

NOTE: Into the Light comes with a bonus disc featuring a mix of rarities and singles from (then) current Nuclear Blast artists, including Hammerfall, Helloween, Gotthard, After Forever, Ride the Sky, Thunderstone, Threshold, Amorphis, Candlemass and Sirenia. It would have made more sense if the second disc had album tracks from the bands that each vocalist on the main CD sing for, but this is still a pretty cool addition, even if I already had most of these songs from the regular albums.