The Kinslayer

This is among the more interesting songs to come off the “Wishmaster” album in that it was pretty well uninterested in conforming to typical songwriting conventions. It clearly remains well within the operatic/symphonic paradigm that the rest of the band’s material is in, but there isn’t really anything on here that can be fully qualified as a verse or chorus section. Comparisons could be made to “Devil And The Deep Dark Ocean” off the last album, mostly due to the trading parts between Tarja’s soaring soprano and a spoken narration, but there is much more attention also paid to the whole arrangement, where a melody is surrounded by choir voices and bombastic, yet rhythmically unified instruments.

The subject matter of the song is perhaps the only case where Tuomas departs from his fictional poetic realm to put forth his views regarding current events, in this case the Columbine shooting. The insanity of the perpetrators is well accomplished through the random fits of pseudo-esoteric and apocalyptic ravings of the narrator, while Tarja functions as the voice of both reason and tragedy. The song is epic sounding, but compact in nature, getting right to the point yet still making time for the composer’s hopeless love of metaphorical language and literary symbolism.

Like all once prevalent yet now impossible to find promotional releases, this is not worthy seeking out unless you have an obsession with owning all the different album arts out there under the Nightwish moniker. But regardless, an excellent song off an excellent album that any fan of opera and metal being merged together should enjoy.