I hope the Holidays were as kind to you as they were to me. I've got a new alarm clock that plays from my iPod Touch, a keyboard with a built-in mouse for my Home Theatre PC, amongst other fantastic gifts. I hope people enjoyed my gifts as much as I'm enjoying theirs. I make fudge for most of my family every year, and this year I baked 20 pounds. That's only 6 hours of my life right there!
Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
Nightwish is a fantastic Finnish symphonic metal band that I discovered years ago from Rachel. They formed in 1996, and I think I heard of them shortly before Evanescence became popular. I think I just like rock bands with female lead singers. Some of my other favorite bands include Evanescence, Garbage, Paramore, Flyleaf, and The Donnas.The lead singer was forced from the band a few years ago, and I thought the band would meet an end since the lead singer, Tarja Turunen, had all kinds of national recognition, such as the official voice of Finland. Surprisingly, I found a brand new album from Nightwish on iTunes of all places. With a quick visit to their homepage, it seems they'd found a new female singer. She doesn't have the former's edge, but the music is definitely fresh and kick current American garbage's ass.
They have some fairly extensive bios on the band members as well, and their interests aren't far off from my own at all. First, it'svery interesting to find that they sing everything in English. Secondly, it's more interesting that some of their interests seem so American. I mean, my kind of American, not American pop culture. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to move to Europe (provided we're in the Scandinavian region).
On a semi-related note, maybe Europe wouldn't be so bad. With music videos such as Crazy Loop from Dan Balan (another European artist), I can only imagine seeing what MTV would be like there. Free of all the Hip Hop, Rap, and R&B garbage that appears here. Oh, Europe.
Tarja - My Winter Storm
Tarja is the former lead singer of Nightwish. Since her departure from the band, she's also released a new album. The music and theme is reminiscent of Evanescent, but somewhat darker. She hasn't departed the style that was Nightwish. The music is obviously much more focused around her vocals, but it's still metal in some aspects. I'm glad to see that she's sticking to those roots.I recommend anyone who has an interest in Rock music look at both albums on iTunes or whatever other music downloading program they may have. I'm not encouraging piracy, as I do support these groups. Just check it out, yo!
