Patrick Rothfuss meets the band Nightwish (Edema Ruh)

[Rik]

I'm sure you all know who Rothfuss is but many may be mystified by Nightwish. They are a symphonic metal band (metal with guitars and drums but backed by a symphony and at times is like Progressive rock only symphonic) from Finland and are extremely popular in Europe and in their genre. They recently released a new album and one of their songs is called Edema Ruh which apparently is directly from a Rothfuss novel. Disclosure: I've never read Rothfuss but I know many of you have so I figured it might be of interest. Nightwish is my current favorite band (I just saw them in concert a few days ago) and this song while good is nowhere near their best (its more mellow and less symphonic than their best). Should it interest anyone enough to look up other stuff then ask and I'll suggest where to start as they are nine albums in and incredibly on their 3rd but by far best lead singer and are only better for it though it can leave the unfamiliar confused given how different all three singers sound (first was overly operatic, second was great in some songs but was equally limited in that she couldn't do the old stuff, while the third can do either because she is amazing).

The song Edema Ruh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bfak...

[Dlrdon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjo4M...
if you want to view it

[D.L.]

I have no idea who Partick Rothfuss is, but I've been listening to Nightwish for years. They're currently touring the U.S. and I plan to be at one of the shows. :-)

[AndrewP]

I have a few of their albums and the 'End of an Era' DVD. The posted YouTube video is a bit strange and looks like it must have been re-cut from older ones (It features the original singer Tarja, who left years ago.) Good song though.

Personally I like some of the early overly operatic stuff. Their version of 'Phantom of the Opera' is a perfect example of symphonic metal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VgLK...

[D.L.]

AndrewP wrote: "I have a few of their albums and the 'End of an Era' DVD. The posted YouTube video is a bit strange and looks like it must have been re-cut from older ones (It features the original singer Tarja, w..."

I agree. I also have the 'End of an Era' DVD, which I understand was Tarja's final performance with them. I had hoped that bringing on Floor Jansen as the new singer would return the band to the grand, operatic stuff. (I first heard her when she was singing with the band After Forever.) She certainly has the voice for it, but the new album doesn't really utilize it. It's still good, but not like the stuff they did on the earlier albums. For that operatic sound, Xandria and Epica are probably my favorites now.

[AndrewP]

D.L. wrote: "For that operatic sound, Xandria and Epica are probably my favorites now. "

Wow thanks for the tip. Somehow I had never heard of Xandria. Another one I quite like is the German band Haggard.

[D.L.]

Yep, Haggard is pretty good. They have a unique take on metal. I have two of their albums. The one about Galileo is my favorite. Xandria's last two albums are quite good. I think they're also German. They have a sound somewhere between Nightwish and Epica. Give them a listen if you have a chance.

[Rik]

AndrewP wrote: "I have a few of their albums and the 'End of an Era' DVD. The posted YouTube video is a bit strange and looks like it must have been re-cut from older ones (It features the original singer Tarja, w..."

Yeah that video is obviously put together by someone who ten years later still hasn't gotten over Tarja getting fired.

Right now there is only one video from the new album and thats Elan. They've made a second video for the song Endless Forms Most Beautiful but it hasn't been released yet.

[Rik]

D.L. wrote: "I have no idea who Partick Rothfuss is, but I've been listening to Nightwish for years. They're currently touring the U.S. and I plan to be at one of the shows. :-)"

Their concert was amazing. All three acts in fact were great. Delain, a dutch rock band, was great. Sabaton is a group I'd never heard of and are much harder than what I typically listen to but they put on a great show with great energy. And then Nightwish was just beyond great. I'd watched their live concert Showtime, Storytime DVD but seeing them in person is much better as Floor has really worked out well. I just hope she doesn't develop the same kind of Diva complex that led to Tarja and Anette getting fired.

[D.L.]

I also had never heard of Sabaton before this, but I found some of their videos on YouTube. They seemed pretty good. I discovered Delain several years ago and liked them. I'm looking forward to the show here in a couple of weeks. I've only seen Nightwish live once. It was when Anette was with them.

[Joanna Chaplin]

Ah, Nightwish. I like some of their stuff, but most of it is too over the top for me. Last of the Wilds is my current favorite of theirs, but I know I've only been exposed to a small piece of their repertoire.

[Joe Informatico]

I was a huge fan of this genre about a decade ago but I've fallen out of it. Even Floor Jansen, my favourite singer in this genre, can't really make Nightwish's newer stuff stick for me, alas.

D.L. wrote: "I agree. I also have the 'End of an Era' DVD, which I understand was Tarja's final performance with them. I had hoped that bringing on Floor Jansen as the new singer would return the band to the grand, operatic stuff."

It's really hard for a touring rock singer to maintain an opera-quality voice. Tarja was the only one who came close, and she needed hours of solo warm-up every night to pull it off. Floor started dialling back the operatic stuff after After Forever's 3rd album, and when I saw them years ago, she also had the good sense to excuse herself from the stage for a number and let one of the guitarists sing a cover song so she could rest her vocals. This is something I noticed Amy Lee (Evanescence) probably should have done in her performances--she'd belt out songs for over an hour and you could really hear the strain in her voice by the end.

[Millie]

I have both seen Nightwish live (2018 SSE arena) and read the name of the wind but only made the correlation today while looking at their Endless Forms Most Beautiful album.

[Jemppu]

Just recently posted on another GR SFF group the band's more recent piece 'Ad Astra', which quotes Sagan.

Another release from the new album in the same vein: Shoemaker (with Floor's operatic vocals).