Nightwish - Highest Hopes: The Best of Nightwish

All their best songs on one CD? Can it be true? Am I dreaming this? Well, if I am, don't wake me up! I've been a Nightwish fan ever since I first heard of them two years ago, so take this review for what it is: a biased one written by a fan.

I'm not going to gush over how great they are, yadda, yadda. But I will tell you what I love most about this CD (aside from the fact it's their greatest hits CD, 16 great songs that span their entire music career since they started back in the late 90's). The titles alone on songs like "Elvenpath", "Nemo", and "Wishmaster" show the influence SF has had on this band. Heavy Metal riffs accompanied to the voice of a trained Opera singer (Tarja Turunen) gives them a freshness rarely found in Heavy Metal today.

Best Song: "Dead Boy's Poem" will likely leave you in tears.

Coolest Part: They manage to cover Pink Floyd's "High Hopes" without mangling it, and they play it as a live recording. Yeah, I'd love to see Green Day try to do that!

Gripe: "Slaying the Dreamer" and "Carpenter" are not on the CD; although, they do have "Wish I Had An Angel" and their cover of "Over The Hills And Far Away" on it, so I'm in a forgiving mood. But alas, this will likely be the last Nightwish CD to feature Tarja Turunen as the lead vocalist, so how they'll sound in the future is anyone's guess.

Best to listen to while reading/writing: Contemporary Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Dark Science Fiction, Epic/Heroic Fantasy, Horror, Space Opera, Sword & Sorcery