This CD blew me away from first listen. Nightwish's debut album "Angels Fall First" was brilliant so I expected a lot from the follow-up, but honestly I didn't expect it to be THAT good. They made a huge step forward, after listening to nothing else than this album since I got it a week ago I have to say that this is one of my favourite albums of all time.

A rough description of the music would be a cross of Angra, Symphony X and Stratovarius, thus symphonic, melodic and fast, executed with the same technical skills as the mentioned bands, yet developping their own sound. On top of that, what makes Nightwish's style absolutely unique, the performance of Tarja, a female opera singer with an angel-like voice. Her singing perfectly fits in with the music, in slow quiet parts as well as in fast ones with heavy guitar rhythms. You'll find a lot of great melodic keyboard parts with piano and strings sounds on this album, combined with heavy guitar riffs and fast double bass drumming. Most of the songs are up-tempo, yet including slow atmospheric parts.There's one instrumental song, "Moondance", that sounds like a heavy version of a scandinavian folk dance (and that's probably exactly what it is). The beautiful ballad "Walking On Air" perfectly rounds off the album. The production is crisp and clear, the only drawback of the album might be the short running time (48 minutes), although there's something new to dicover with each listen. Every song is a highlight, no "fillers" are to be found. Nightwish will make their way with this album. There's no excuse, check it out!