Tuomas Holopainen of Nightwish Releases First Solo Video: "A Lifetime of Adventure"

Fans of Nightwish may be interested to know that Tuomas Holopainen, the band's keyboardist and primary composer, is set to release a solo album entitled Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge, which pays homage to The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa (click on the link I gave, it gives tons of details about this upcoming album). The first single is called "A Lifetime of Adventure," which features Johanna Kurkela on vocals.

 

The official music video has just been released, and it even includes Don Rosa himself, for he is the illustrator of the album. There isn't some epic story that goes along with the video or anything like that, it's just a sneak peak of everything this album is about. There's some beautiful imagery along with the musicians recording their parts for the record, singers in the studio, photos of the process, Don Rosa painting... My description may sound like a complete clustersnub, but like I said, it gives us a picture of the album as a whole. It's a nice preview.

 

The track itself is absolutely perfect for winter; it easily could've been on the Chronicles of Narnia's soundtrack (which I loved to death). Great timing since the Winter Olympics are just beginning! Johanna Kurkela's voice is very pretty and fits the track well, and I must admit I'd never heard of her before this song. (I believe Johanna Iivanainen is the other woman that comes in, correct?) "A Lifetime of Adventure" is a relaxing piece of music; it doesn't show itself off too much. There's a magical, lighthearted feel to it that I really enjoy.

 

I'm not familiar with The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, so I can't really say anything about how the music fits the story, and I can't really be excited about the concept of the album, but the point is that it's Tuomas. He's proved time and time again that he's a fantastic songwriter, and I couldn't be happier to hear his work in a score-like setting.

 

If you've enjoyed the classical elements of Nightwish's music, I definitely recommend this. Or, if you're just embracing this particularly frigid weather up here in the northern hemisphere, chill out to this as you shiver under a blanket/Snuggie.

Within Temptation and Tarja Release "Paradise (What About Us?)" Music Video

"Paradise (What About Us?)" is the first single from Within Temptation's upcoming album, which features Tarja Turunen, another highly popular force of symphonic metal. For many fans of the genre, the two doing a song together is a dream come true, and this finally brings an end to the constant teasing by the band, for they've released a few snippets of the song and video off and on for what seems like eternity.

 

In a few days, I will review the digital EP of the same name that "Paradise (What About Us?)" will be part of, which will include demos of a few songs that will appear on the January LP. But for now, I ask everyone to just enjoy the song and video. It's a bit heavier than the singles from their previous album, The Unforgiving, and I haven't heard anything too negative about it thus far. I honestly believe that anyone who wasn't a fan of The Unforgiving will see this as an improvement - even I do, and I really loved The Unforgiving. The video is definitely one of my favorites; it's very epic and we get a little twist at the end. Truthfully, it's possibly their best music video.

 

So, here it is. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

 

Evanescence's "Lost in Paradise" Video Includes Live Footage from Fans!

Evanescence loves their fans! This was definitely the best way to capture the song's meaning, in my opinion. Seeing the outfit Amy wore to my show kind of makes me feel represented even though I didn't submit a video. I'm so happy we did indeed get a video of some sort for this pretty song.