After a much talked about split with their lead singer Tarja Turunen, every Nightwish fan was wondering if the band could go on without Turunen’s trademark operatic vocals. And after a search that included more than two thousand demo tapes and a lot of secrecy, the band announced Anette Olzon as their new front woman, one day before the release of “Eva”, the new album’s first single. “Eva” was followed by another single “Amaranth”.

After topping European charts for a while the band finally released “Dark Passion Play”. I must say the wait and patience the band took in finding a new singer has paid off. “Dark Passion Play” is an album that has every Nightwish sound you can think of; great guitar riffs, huge orchestral parts that are nothing less than epic, catchy choruses that you’ll be singing along for some time and off course a great voice to accompany the great music being played. Many will probably want to spit in my face after what I’m about to say, but the truth is Olzon is a much better singer than Turunen. Her voice may not be as operatic or powerful as Turunen’s, but the emotion and energy she puts into every song is exhilarating, her voice is more akin to someone like Amy Lee of Evanescence. She is not trying to imitate Turunen in any way, instead she creates her own voice for Nightwish, and quite frankly she does a better job of connecting with the audience than her predecessor.

Now to the music, “The Poet and the Pendulum” is one of Nightwish’s more elaborate songs to date, it clocks at 13:53 and not once during this astounding epic can you stop thinking how much energy this band has with Anette Olzon. The song features great speedy guitar work and orchestral melodies that just complement each other by creating layers of sound that overlap onto each other without diminishing any of the performers, something which is more present than ever and is a clear statement to the bands former singer; Nightwish is not one person, but a collaborative effort. True, Tuomas Holopainen does write most of the music and lyrics, but his compositions allow enough room for everyone in the band to shine. This is also a very heavy effort by the band; the opening track mentioned earlier, “Bye Bye Beautiful”, “Cadence of Her Last Breath” and “Master Passion Greed” are fast and fiery songs that display everything that makes headbangers love this band. The album also doesn’t go without having the gentle and melodic ballads, which are more intense than ever and come in the form of “Eva” “For the Heart I Once Had” and album closer “Meadows of Heaven”.

Pretty much, this is one of Nighwish’ best albums as it towers above the bands previous releases like “Once” and “Century Child”. With Anette Olzon the band has rediscovered a level of energy that hasn’t been present since “Wishmaster”. Hopefully the band will continue this road and keep making records that are both heavy as hell and musically inspiring just as “Dark Passion Play” is.