Highest Hopes: The Best of Nightwish

I'd never thought I'd review a compilation album, but here we are. Reason for the writing, I believe the best Nightwish-purchase for people who are just getting into the band is this one. I did and I still listen to it more than their full-lengths.

Let's establish some things. The symphonic gothic genre is a tricky one. You have a couple of great bands (Epica, Autumn, Within Temptation, After Forever, ...), but soon come the countless other bands, trying to cash in. In which category you'd like to place Nightwish, I'll leave up to you. To me they were never all that great. In fact, all the songs I like by them are on this compilation, except for "Dark Chest of Wonders", "Planet Hell" and "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan". But that's easily made up for by "Over the Hills and Far Away", the Gary Moore cover through which I've gotten to know them. But I should get to my point, the reason why you should buy this compilation.

If you already own most of their albums, it may be pointless; but if you don't, this album can be your own reminder of what Nightwish used to be. Whether you like/dislike the new singer doesn't even matter, this compilation will just be there to take you back to the best bits of Nightwish's past. The only bad part about this album, in fact, is the bonus DVD with a couple of live songs, which are brought rather poorly.

The better reason to buy this however, is for those among you who have yet to get into Nightwish. If you're looking for an album to get to know this artist, against my principles, I'd advise this one. Where usually I try to suggest full-lengths, for a band like Nightwish, I resort to compilations. You can get to know the band's best songs and choose afterwards which ones you liked most, to purchase the albums. All in all, this is actually one of their best releases, simply because every full-length has too many downsides to really enjoy them.

Final plus point of this release? Not a single note of the current singer, who totally doesn't fit with Nightwish.