They're still amazing, even without Tarja
This is the first Nightwish album to be released after the public firing of former vocalist Tarja Turrunen. Although Tarja will be sorely missed, it is time we give our full attention to the new vocalist, Annette Olzon. Though the rabid Tarja fans out there still refuse to give Annette a chance, I found myself quite impressed with her, and am looking forward to hearing more from her in the future.
The first thing you'll notice is the difference in their vocal styles. Annette has more of a soulful rocker approach, as oppossed to Tarja's beautiful soprano. Though Tarja definately has more range, Annette has a lot of enthusiasm and energy that's hard not to like. Her vocals are reminiscant of a storyteller, which is very approapriate for a lot of the songs in this album.
But the band's sounds have evoled as well. Band leader Toumas has really evolved as a composer, utilizing a full orchestra for this album. Bass player Marco also get's to contribute many more vocals than in past albums, even having his own solo song, Master Passion Greed. I highly reccomend this album, even to those who are sceptical of the band being good without Tarja. I assure that they are, and are more than capable of evolving further.
Reccomended tracks: Poet and the Pendulum, Sahara, Amaranth, 7 Days to the Wolves, Meadows of Heaven.

Still Nightwish
While not nearly as strong an effort as Once, Dark Passion Play is still a brilliant CD in it's own right. Marco's has a much stronger presence here as a singer and sounds strong all the way through. The white elephant in the room is obviously the new singer, who holds her own quite nicely. I thought a few of the songs were weak, but I don't point the finger at Annette for that one.

Epic.
Not many albums out there that can give me goosebumps, but this certainly is one of them. Funny how I didn't like it too much at first, but it really grows on you after a few listens!

Great Heavy Metal/soundtrack with vocals
I heard these guys on a college radio station and was floored, so I bought the album. I play a few instruments, not particularly well, but well enough to know that NW's arrangements were completely nuts for a metal band.

I wasn't disappointed when I bought the album. The first track "The Poet and the Pendulum" is worth the price of the album even if all the other songs were terrible. Fortunately though, they're not. "Amaranth" is an amazing standout too. There honestly isn't a song on this album that's bad, and there are two that I'd consider truly great.

This is kind of a weird album because the writer is clearly influenced as much, if not more, by movie soundtracks than heavy metal. He's really good at arrangements (the musicianship here is on par with Dream Theater and most Broadway stuff). Production is also some of the best I've heard since some of the classic Iron Maiden albums (high quality, but not overproduced). Oh, and whatever the controversy is over the lead singer, I can tell you she has a great set of pipes that fits this music well.

Only 2 downsides to the album (and they're minor). The guy who sings backup sometimes is pretty bad, especially compared to their lead singer. Also, the lyrics are written by a guy who's read too much LOTR and alternate between typical power metal stupidity and bitterness over his ex-bandmate or ex-gf or something (though it doesn't reach the laughably stupid heights goth music so readily ascends). Minor quibbles, though.

If you play music, or listen to classical music, movie soundtracks, or heavy metal, work in musical theater (this kind of music really would carry over into that) or just really like music - you owe it to yourself to buy this album. Very highly recommended.

Dark Passion Play
Got posted as a kids review somehow, my mistake. here's my review again, as it should be

I was given this cd as a gift. Orginally, i only liked Amaranth, and then, i decided to give the other songs a try. I'll name a few of my favorites.

For an almost 14 miute long song, The Poet And The Pendulum was excellent! I put off listening to this one simply because it was so long. Now i know what I was missing. It's broken up into a few parts, but the parts fit together wonderfully, and the chorus links it all. The instruments and the vcals are just incredible

After that, there's Amaranth, which is a interesting song to say the least! Its not a good as my personal favorite, 7 Days to the wolves, but its still a good song
Whoever Brings the night- really its the only song on this cd i don't listen to again and again. The songwriter seems to like the word whore in there.

Eva, is simply beautiful, and sad. It breaks your heart.
For The Heart I Once Had-(may have the title confused) Another good one, something i could listen to over and over.

Bye Bye Beautiful-i can dance to this, i love the male vocals on this one.

7 Days to the Wolves- the male and female vocals together on this song are pretty cool. its a longer song(7 minutes) but the instrumental interlude is great.

A very excellent band, and a wonderful cd. i loved it.