Nightwish, “Once” (2004) review
Cheesy symphonic metal bands are dime a dozen, but even in a pile of trash you find a treasure
Nightwish are an incredibly popular symphonic metal band hailing from Finland. While Norway is known for black metal, Sweden for melodic death metal and thrash metal, Finland is perhaps most well known in metal for its symphonic metal and folk metal bands.
The only problem is there’s so much shit in symphonic metal and folk metal. I mean, what do you expect? These two genres are basically the LARP of the metal subgenres, and bands in these subgenres are even worse than black metal satanic LARPing (except black metal bands are usually not LARPing and really do follow Satan or Anton LeVay).
Why is Scandinavia such a hotbed for weirdo metal people? Most would blame the dark and cold weather. That’s part of it. As someone who has lived there, I can assure you there’s just a vibe in Scandinavia. It’s hard to put my finger on it. The people are kind of closed off and timid. It’s easy to get lost in your own head there. These countries are also some of the least religious in the world, further adding to the existential emptiness that is a common theme of metal lyrics.
Also some folks wouldn’t necessarily call Finland Scandinavia but whatever. They’re culturally…
