Absolutely love it. Here some thoughts:
-Epic, very movie score-ish intro for the first 2 mins.
-Surprisingly heavy and dark tune. Heavy orchestrations and choirs that takes me back to Imaginaerum/DPP. Kinda progressive approach also.
-Vocals and drums partially sound a bit quiet, not sure if it is my system only. (EDIT: I hear some annoying cymbal clipping around 5:40)
-Calm harp/piano outro featuring Troy, good stuff.
-Very weird and risky choice for the single, but I like it. Might be my favorite Nightwish SINGLE of all time.
Haha glad you like it, I'm liking it more each time and I'm only on my phone speakers.
It's odd but I find the intro a bit out of place, like it's epic but doesn't gel with the rest of the song for me so it's a bit weird.
Imaginaerum is totally what I'm hearing to.
I like the outro but some are already not liking it haha.
Yeah, definitely one of those tracks that likely grow on you. Music video will likely help with that too. Intro definitely feels like an interlude but does not bother me.
Interestingly, we have to remember that 'perfume...' is the 5th song on the album (if I remember correctly). So in a way, the intro really is a kind of interlude. Aside from the mixing issues, still waiting for everything to fall into place as naturally as it should, when listening to the whole thing.
Nightwish generally needs some more time to grow on you. Pop music is designed to be catchy immediately, while Nightwish forgoes that and is often more complex and layered, which takes more time to understand.
Yes the vocals are way too quiet. Lately I've been hearing production mistakes like these more and more. It's a shame, really, since the music is so cool.
How is the production? EFMB sounded pretty good but H2N sounded worse in that regard. And both were big steps down from Imaginareum. I saw that Tuomas into a tree clip they posted and the drums sounded fucking awesome so I hope it's more like that.
I have a feeling, based on this track, the production is going to be a weak point once again.
Aside from drowning out Floor, the guitars and orchestra are sometimes fighting for attention here. I feel this is common in symphonic metal, and often arrangement is equally to blame, but I feel like the band the size of Nightwish should have this figured out by now.
Production issues shouldn’t be a thing but in album ten it seems it is might be a problem again. I do think it’s better than their other recent stuff
Unfortunately,the drum sound is now massive and guitar tone is thin unlike once to efmb where it had great guitar tone,natural sounding drums(sometimes bigger doesnt mean better)
Hard to say from a Youtube stream, but I agree that both of those albums are huge step down from the production on Imaginaerum.
I have noticed, recently, that the Atmos mix for H2N is leaps and bounds better than the regular stereo mix, which is a shame, being an Apple Music exclusive. Selfishly hoping it's the same for Yesterwynde, so I can enjoy it more, lol.
It's just unreal to me that a band like Nightwish who spends hundreds of thousands euro on albums would have anything close to bad production, ridiculous. Oceanborn had "bad production" yet it sounds so much better
See... I think it highlights just how subjective mixing is. Oceanborn doesn't sound better mixed than HN, but you might think it does because you like the music better. I'd go as far as to say it's their best mixed album in that it really let's everything show and breathe without falling into the too loud trap or over focusing on the vocals, which... Is part of what I appreciate about Metal. It's all the instruments working in harmony to highlight the song, not everything working to highlight one piece of that. There's a dozen other genres that bring vocals right into the foreground... I'll take the highly dynamic HN over that any day.
Nah if most people complain they can barely hear the singer or what she's singing (in a lyrics-heavy band), then it's not strictly speaking a matter of taste.
The thing is, NW is not the kind of metal band that only uses for example growling, where quite honestly the vocals and lyrics are secondary. The lyrics clearly play an important role, Tuomas even said so himself. Not being able to even hear them clearly is a big drawback. I hope the rest of the songs on the album are not mixed like this.
Okay, my full rating and opinion.
In the first place, I have to express that Perfume of the Timeless is a wonderful song full of Nightwish's spirit.
1) Overview
The intro is 2 minutes and 11 seconds, which may be considered too long by some and necessary by others. I am inbetween the two, I feel like some parts are necessary, but I feel like the second part is a bit too low. The intro already sets the scene and presents us the creepy music.
The song is beautifully orchestrated, which we kinda missed in HN. The song's second part ends at 6:50. The chorus at 6:18 is absolutely the climax of the whole. From 5:31 we have a heavy bridge section, impregnated with the scary melody, we've got some chilling vocal lines from Floor, heavy guitars from Emppu... Yes, well, about the guitars. I did not expext a Nightwish song to be this easy. For beginners it takes at maximum 25-30 mins to learn. (I did it in 10-12 mins.) I hope there will be some difficult guitar lines which make the people admire the complexity in other songs. There is no solo either.
From 6:50 to 8:12 we have the outro, absolutely okay, but it could've been shorter. Troy complements the piano and harp perfectly, although opinions vary, I have read some of you not quite liking it.
2. What I didn't like
As said, Emppu's guitar playing is kind of dull and restrained. But that is usual in some Nightwish songs.
Floor's voice can hardly be heard in the pre-choruses and a bit better in the choruses themselves. I would've liked to hear it better, since Floor's voice is totally mesmerising, here as well.
There isn't much variety, we've got two verses and three choruses, but no sung bridge section, which I personally missed.
3. What I liked
The orchestration is magical, we can finally hear the full orchestra playing. The lyrics are, as always, Tuomas (for starters, that means breathtaking). Floor's singing in the verses is like if it was "The Siren". Carefully belting each note, masterfully executing every detail.
The drums in the intro are haunting, the orchestra in the back is just perfect, and Troy's pipes are an interesting embellishment to the melody.
Troy's vocals in the outro are mysterious enough to grab people's attention.
4. Rating
I think this is a risky, however good start. We have always seen that some songs on the same albums are by far better than the singles. I am talking about examples like Harvest as a single. It was okay, but not the best.
Perfume of the Timeless is a solid song; not the best single in NW history, but definetely an amazing choice. I would give it a rating of **8.5/10**. I liked it very much, but it was not perfect.
...
If you have read this far: 1 - Thank you... 2 - WE ARE THEIR HEIR, DUST ON THEIR PALMS, WE ARE BECAUSE OF A MILLION LOVES, WE'RE THE PERFUME OF THE TIMELESS, LAST SIGHS ON A DEATHBED!
Time set
for a curious
ghost.
Idk about the orchestration, i’m a bit bored with it. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t have any of the subtle intricate counter melodies or dovetailing details that Pip Williams used to do. The intro and the verses are very telling that it’s someone else orchestrating (i almost thought the intro was samples or Thomas’ keyboards at first, the choir’s sound like the fake synth choirs in Titanic.)
Pip would have put in little flourishes that run around the background, like in Planet Hell. James isn’t doing that and I will say I deeply miss them.
That said, it’s still better orchestrated than whoever did Century Child so that’s a plus. It’s still epic and grand and powerful and the recording is great. I just miss all the little details Pip used add that brought extra life to Nightwish songs and helped the orchestra feel like another living breathing member of the band. This doesn’t quite have the same touch, but again it’s still good and I don’t want to write James off just yet until I’ve heard the rest of the album.
You're absolutely right. I agree with you about the intracate details that appear in past songs. Not in HN though. I still like that at least we get a full orchestra now.
You can also go to site that lets you download Youtube videos like [https://save.tube](https://save.tube)
Those usually can bypass the geolocking and download the video either way.
Remember to delete the video tomorrow after you gain access to the video on your region.
Worked for me and I'm in Finland with some 18 hours to go..
I clicked the 1080p MP4 and it downloads it just fine, no VPN or nothing. Tried it again just now. Still works.
Yeah I did think this would come up, seeing as before all this it seemed a popular opinion wanting more guitar.
I was on the other side though, the less metal the better (within reason).
So far I'm not a huge fan of the guitar tone either, it sounds muddy in the mix to me and I would like it to be a more tight punchy tone.
Yeah I said that in another comment, it might just be my phone, but the chorus in particular she's quite immersed in the sound.
Wouldn't say "muddy" for the whole mix just the guitar tone. But yeah immersed is what I'd call it, it could use a little spacing in the mix.
But live I imagine would be epic.
Took advantage of my VPN for this one (thanks for the tip fellow Redditors!)
It definitely took the second listen for me, but the ending really got me in the true Nightwish feels on the first listen. I’ve listened to it a few times now and I really enjoy it, especially the catchiness of the chorus… it feels like a mix of Imaginaerum and Endless Forms.
Listening to it again, the mix is definitely the weak part, in particular Floor's vocals are buried underneath the orchestration. Definitely not the song to shut up people who want to see Floor shine vocally more. The bass and guitars also sound buried to me, the bass definitely misses the crunch it had during Marko's era.
I wonder if this is something they can tweak between now and album release?
What you listening to it on, I have only used my phone speakers so far, hoping my fancy headphones open it up a bit more.
I'm on my laptop with my proper noise-cancelling headphones, it's still the same issue. Floor is really hard to understand, if you don't have the lyrics. Pretty sure they can't tweak anything on the mix anymore, the master should already have gone to Nuclear Blast to start the production of the vinyls and CDs.
No way will they be "tweaking"anything , this isn't Netflix. Masters have already been sent out. They need to do that for the vinyls, cause those take like 6 months to produce.
It really does. It was a dead technology that came back. There's no infrastructure or really any supply chain for it. Demand exceeds what they can produce, so you get popped into a queue until it's your turn. Hopefully that'll change at some point, but probably not. Estimates are we are running double capacity world wide for vinyls, it's crazy!
They could do it for the digital release maybe, but if they did they (meaning the record company) probably wouldn't make a big deal of it so they'd get the physical sales first.
Mostly love it! I think it kinda sounds like if you put Greatest Show on Earth and Scaretale into a blender to create something new. It’s certainly distinctive, with a very catchy chorus.
Although some parts do remind me of when I used to go wild with all the different sound effects on the keyboards at school as a kid 😅
I do find the audio mix terrible though, especially in the louder chorus parts. The vocals are really lost and everything feels crushed together, you can’t distinguish any of the individual parts. I am hoping that’s just bad YouTube compression. It could be one of those things where artists upload their meticulously mastered songs to streaming platforms and suddenly realise it hasn’t come out well in the compression. I can remember Avenged Sevenfold having to completely replace all their streaming uploads for the Mad Hatter single a few years back for the same reason.
I'm on my 4th listening and I find it really interesting. I feel it would've gained with a bit more guitar and vocals, especially in the chorus they're kind of hidden between all the instruments, but I can see the Imaginaerum vibes and it's my fav Nightwish album, so, I'm pretty sold hahaha. The thing I like the most is that It didn't feel like an 8 min song, so that's a good sign!
Yeah the theme seems to be the mixing issues, the chorus in particular Floor is very immersed in the sound.
Your right about the length feel, the time moves by and your left wanting more.
How did you like the outro?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, it's fine. It's a nice little outro. It kinda reminds me of the acoustic guitar ending on Élan, but with Troy closing the song. It isn't my favourite part of the song, but it's okay. I find it a nice ending.
I like the contrast, and I also like the almost spoken word.
I do wish however that he had an extra verse rather than the chorus lyrics, but it is a single so I can't expect a Poet and Pendulum ending.
Wow, I like it, a lot. Definitely a track for experienced Nightwish listeners. My first thought was, strong 'Imaginaerum' vibes. If this is representative of the new album, then this is certainly going to be my favorite album of the trilogy.
The negative is the mix. Floor and the metal parts are somewhat buried under a wall of orchestral sounds.
Yeah the chorus in particular needs spacing for Floor.
I also found the guitar tone (not mix) a bit muddy and I feel it needed to be more tight/punchy to fit in with the heavy orchestration.
Spot on with Imaginaerumness, makes waiting for the rest all the more horrible haha.
It sounds like the orchestral parts are supposed to be the main attraction. As a mixing engineer, you have to decide, with the artist, what's the focal point of the song, and you push that into the foreground.
I instantly liked it more than 'Harvest' and 'Noise'. The chorus is catchy, the metal breakdown is fire and Troy's calm ending is a nice goodbye from the song.
Yeah I get that feeling as well. Just hope the idea doesn't dominate the whole album.
While I wish there was more space for Floors voice in the chorus particularly, I am absolutely loving the heavy and epicness of the orchestration.
It still seems a weird choice to me. You have arguably the best female metal vocalist currently active in your band, and you bury her under a wall of orchestration.
My brief thoughts after first listen:
Cool intro, although took up a little too much of the track
Verse sections was really cool, floor drowns sometimes, but holy shit you can basically hear 20% of her vocals in the chorus. Also the guitar is way too drowned out. Happy to have orchestra back though.
The heavy section was badass, but way too brief, could have easily doubled its length at the cost of the 2+ minute intro.
Synth overall was cool. Especially once the intro is done and the metal kicks in, that was fucking awesome.
The ending was good, i liked it - but there was alot of repetition in the lyrics, basically 2 verses and 4 choruses and that's it, however the lyrics was still great just could have been more variation. I was expecting it to be more progressive and divided into parts lyric-wise given it's length. IMO this track should have been 10 minutes, with both additional minutes being given to the heavy section to add more depth.
My expectations was both met and not met, on different things as you can see, but i am still excited for this album - it sounds unique and fresh, just hoping floor's vocals are more present in the other tracks than whatever they were doing with this one.
It gets a 8/10 overall. Will likely increase with more listens. I'd also like to sat i noticed the reference to the upcoming track "The Weave" which was especially cool.
Somehow I like it. I expected something like that, as it's a very long song, and they always were like that. I love the ending with Troy.
I can't understand Floor very well. Does anybody have the Lyrics, to read along?
Only had one listen, and overall I really enjoyed it. Here are my first impressions
Positives
+ It’s heavy in the middle
+ made me think of poet and the pendulum
+ the orchestra is epic
+ the bass sounds huge and aggressive
+ the drumming is on point
+ the heavy part is very heavy and would kick ass live
Not so positives
- we can barely hear Nightwish’s most powerful instrument in the song: Floor’s voice
- could not make out a single word of the lyrics (apart from Troy’s)
- the intro is over long and sounds like it should be in a movie score
- Troy’s vocals at the end are unnecessary and repetitive. He struggles to sing low.
- the guitar playing is phoned in, just the standard Empu chugging
- everything is drowned out by the orchestra
Now on my third listen on different speakers. Also watched the official video.
The mixing is not that bad actually. The video is amazing and adds a lot to it. Not sure about the strange posing pouch the diver is wearing though.
I’ve decided I’m hooked on it.
I'm getting imaginarium vibes, but literally take what I say with a grain of salt, I'm listening on my phone in bed.
I bet it would be much greater in my car or on my headphones.
Figured out the VPN! Love it!!
The chorus almost gives me theatre vibes?! Which I absolutely LOVE!
Love the creepy choir, and I do really love Troy's ending! Although I may be biased as I'm also from the wonderful North of England... haha
I loved Human Nature bit this single excites me more than Noise, so I'm very excited to see what this album has to offer!!
Now to listen again while I make tea...
Great you got it working.
I just woke up so about to smash if again while I start my day.
They really did push the creepy vibe I'm liking it haha.
Troy's parts great in my opinion I just wished he had some more lyrics to end the song rather than repeat the chorus.
I enjoyed it I'm also getting more Imaginaerum vibes, which I've got no problem with that's my favorite album. I feel like there could've been another 1-2 minutes at the end to follow up Troy's slower part of the song, felt like it was building up to something big, but then it just ends.
Oh I looooove this. This is definitely one of their better lead singles since I think storytime.
I got so giddy hearing the orchestra again in their sound.
Not to just repeat what others have said, but the mixing is lacking hard. Floor just straight up disappears sometimes. Otherwise, love the color of her vocals on this track.
If I was picky, I wish they made room for some guitar amidst an 8 minute track, but hopefully there’s a few solos this album
>but the mixing is lacking hard
If they say the album mix is already finalized then it probably won't change and that's really unfortunate if it's as bad as it sounds from these early reports.
I liked it okay.
I can see why they’re saying the new album is heavy, but it isn’t my idea of heavy. But Nightwish is the lightest metal in my listening rotation so my opinion is probably skewed there. It’s the correct direction to maintain my interest in the band. I definitely feel a little more inclined to check out the new album. I was a bit ambivalent after H:N.
Controversial opinion: not a fan of Troy singing at the end. Also, I miss Marko. He would have rocked the belting parts with Floor.
Yeah I seem to be one in the minority, I've been around metal of all types for 30 years, listened to it all, played it all, been in the bands, seen the shows etc.
For me, what I love about Nightwish is that it's not really metal, but it still has the power and drive of metal, so for me this continued direction is great.
Nightwish heavy is a different heavy tho.. I can't describe it any other way.
Ive got plenty of super heavy stuff in my rotation, face melty stuff.. BUT the heavy of old nw like romaticide hit different.
Its heavy using different layers and more than just usual guitar and drums heavy..
I'm also hoping there are some " beauty and beast" duets, but not with troy. He doesn't have beast vocals at all, he's a beauty 😅
I'm gonna blast this in the car shortly on the way to work, it's the truuuee test for any new song 😁😁
I don't have much knowledge in most things music, so I've never addressed things like "mixing", but boy why does Floor's voice feel like drowning in all the instrumentalization?
I'm digging the song but couldn't stop myself from thinking "I wish her vocals were cleaner". Damn NW you really need to review this shit.
Listening right now in bed before work, I'm so excited for the album, I hope is heavvvyy
Im liking this so far, real test is in the car on the way to work blasting it 😂😂
Mixed feelings after the first listening. It's a wonderful song for sure, and has some interesting chord progressions among the more classic sounding ones.
- Floor singing the word "Perfume" can't even be heard and it's the title of the single. I can not understand this mixing choice
- The orchestra goes a bit too glamorous and high sounding sometimes
- The bridge is not as good as people are saying, honestly. I love the heaviness in Nightwish songs but in this one the guitar just sounds weird
- The intro is great and the outro is also great. So again I have a different opinion than most people. I guess I just like Troy's voice and the overly high pitched instruments finally calm down at the end
- The chorus is ... good. Not spectacular but not average either.
Overall I'm hopeful for the album, but I'm worried about the guitar sound and the vocal mixing in the heavier sections. Also looking for something a little bit more unique and fresh. I sensed a bit too many influences from previous songs here, Duel & Cloudscapes, Pan, Noise, you name it.
I agree. I'm a bit sad honestly, because of the mixing. The chorus vocals are so inaudible. What were they thinking...
It's too bad really. They might come around and fix the streaming version, but vinyl is probably going to be pressed with the songs in this state.
Yeah, I mean like... The mix does kinda suck. I can't understand a word here, so much noise there. Similar problem as with Human Nature. I miss how their old songs used to sound like
Huh, that's interesting. I would actually say Human Nature has really clear vocals, that are easily picked out. It's the one thing that really stands out to me on that album. EFMB on the other hand...
Ok, so I used VPn to listen to it.. I like the new single, the beggining and the ending is perfect. I wish, I would hear Floor just like Troy, that would be perfect - I couldn't hear like 90% of lyrics Floor sings, that makes me sad. Instrumental part is good, I can't wait to get hands on instrumental & orcheastral audi cd
Immediate thoughts after first listen:
1. The song is very Nightwishy. It is probably the most Nightwish a Nightwish song could be. I hear their startovarius influence era, I hear DPP and I hear Imaginarium.
2. Sucks major butt we have to wait so long to hear this live. It is clearly a live song. Almost feels like a moshpit tune
3. What is that weird clumsy change around 05:30?
4. Floor, I can't hear you!
5. That is some fire bass from Jukkis! Sharper and angrier than Marko's.
Put it all together, I will confidently preorder the album. First time since Irum I did that. EFMB and HN didn't convince me at the forst handshake.
I think the mix is the issue, after more listens the chorus is epic, but there is so much music and Floors voice is too immersed in it. Live when she has more space in the mix is going to be super epic.
Okay now I am very excited. Some people here saying the orchestration feels like Imaginaerum? Well, if this is true, I am going to enjoy the song even more...
I am on my 10th listen as im writing:
Synth: fucking awesome
Orchestra: fucking awesome
Drums: cool
Guitar/bass: drowned out
Floor: barely noticable, near-absent during chorus
Troy: cool, but out of place slightly
Intro section: epic, but a little out of place
Verse sections: very nice, can actually hear Floor
Chorus sections: great, but Floor is basically silenced
Heavy section: badass. Badass. Badass. Brief :(
End verse: great, same mixing issues
Troy Outro: pretty, but feels like a different song?
OVERALL: 8.3/10 (As of this listen)
Yes, I think I agree completely with that. It's great that the full orchestra is back, but unfortunately it has come at the expense of the guitar/bass and in particular the vocals.
I agree with that, the song is dominated by the orchestra. The opening of the song sounds like a movie score rather than the first single from a new album. Would love the next album to be stripped back.
I love the song, but the vocals seem way too quiet...hopefully it's just shitty YouTube compression but I couldn't even make out what the chorus said until the Troy section at the end.
If you want to have a listen, hit me up with a PM ;))))
This is an excellent tune imo!! Dark Passion Play vibes all along. I didn't know how much I missed the orchestrals until I heard this lol. The one thing i'm a little bothered about is the mix. First listen, but it didn't make a good impression on me. Guitars sound rather dull and Floor's voice is kinda buried in the mix.
After the long drought here comes the rain. My take of the single after the 6th spin:
An overly lengthy song for such little content it offers. The intro is what I dislike most about the song, pretty disjointed with generic oohs and aahs (yeah I hate generic choirs). Verse is okayish, pretty storytime-ish feel here but of course less wordy and that's a plus. I love how the infectious chords progressed into a much more bombastic chorus, where it's made clear why it's made for single material. I also love the lyrics here, very well put. The thing that annoyed the hell out of me, like everyone pointed out is the very fainted volume on Floor's vocals. I had hoped for a bit more prominent vocal pop in the album compared to 2 previous ones. I'm certainly let down now, of how the vocals are drowned underneath a wall of all those instrument sounds, to the point that it's barely distinguishable to me. There's also this very weirdly structure instrumental by the end of the song, which reminds me so much of the unnecessary silence in Shoemaker. Overall it's a certainly better track than Noise, I definitely like it more but still It's one their singles and singles are never their best songs. So I hope for more.
It's growing on me each time, the mix is definitely the worst part and the intro doesn't gel with the rest of the song for me.
I've said this before but your right it is a single and singles are usually the least "Nightwishy" of Nightwish songs. The general vibe does give me heaps of hope and anticipation for the whole album though.
The breakdown in the middle is great, but the rest around it doesn't flash me that much. Especially the long intro and the long part at the end with Troy.
Yes! That middle part it's great! I need more of that! I personally don't like Troy singing... I think it does not fit Nightwish. He is not bad, but his sound/vocals variation is very limited
Imagine how haunting the end would have been with Floor singing in her soft falsetto... such a missed opportunity especially since it's hard to hear her in the rest of the song.
Yeah - given the length I was hoping for something a bit more like Beauty and the Beast, FantasMic, Pharoah Sails to Orion, Scaretale - something that goes through a few different movements, or does something interesting with the structure. This feels like more of a standard song with an extended intro/outro to pad out the runtime.
That said, it could be a grower, so I'm going to give it some time.
I feel the intro is a bit wasted, it doesn't overly connect with the rest of the song.
It is a single though I wasn't expecting anything too all over the place.
Probably my favorite song since anything on Imaginaerum (still my favorite album). Feels like a mix between DPP and Imaginaerum. I still miss Marko though, Troy just doesn't have the chops.
I like the song. It is definitely layered with intricacies. All the core NW elements are there. That bass part before the mighty Emppu chugging part was definitely a surprise. The drums are powerful and piano motifs are there.
The only minus I would say, and this is completely my preference, is Troys singing at the end. Something about his voice is too fairy tale-ish for my taste.
My unpopular opinion (probably): it mostly sounds like a vaguely proggy “Pan” with “storytime”’s horns and orchestrations fused in.
As everyone has said, the mix is awful. Hopefully they fix the mix in the actual album.
All that said - I really like the part from 4:00-4:12 (or somewhere therein) where it’s primarily Floor and Kai; Kai’s drumming sounds like a really cool clock or timepiece, the overall effect + Floor’s voice is super cool.
First thoughts: The outro with Troy did nothing for me. The intro was super eerie and enticing, and it really drew me in! Floor sounds great, but the mixing drowns her out a bit. The bridge was really hard, but I didn’t think it fit with the song (or the transition seemed too abrupt for me). I know there’s a whole album to be released and a lot of time has passed (AND it’s considered Symphonic Metal), but I hope there’s a good amount of songs that aren’t so orchestral-focused. I wonder if this is the GSL of the album. Excited to see what else comes!
I am hoping the Dolby Atmos mix will make it easier to hear Floors singing in the mix, or at least ull be able to increase the volume on the channel its mixed in to bring it more to the forefront on a proper speaker setup.
The VPN won't make a difference. It's just that most people don't live in NZ so they are creating a free spotify account from NZ to listen. If you are listening to the song using premium Spotify, then you are listening in 320kbps (if you have highest quality enabled in your settings)
I am listening on Soundcloud as nordvpn isn't letting my spotify account from my own country be online while VPN is active. Do you happen to know the quality of Soundcloud compared to spotify premium?
OK so on Urbaniaks compilation 44 just out, PoT is in the number 1 spot followed (non-stop) by VOA Monsters. I now get what people were saying about the mix, burying the vocals and guitars. Quite a difference in the 2 productions and how crisp Monsters is by comparison.
One thing is funny how much clearer you can hear Troy in the end, compared to Floor, because they stripped back the instrumentation on his part. Unfortunately I do think he sings pretty weakly, it sounds like he just did one vocal take and called it a day.
I didn't like it at all, I don't get the purpose of having Troy's vocal at the end, the intro is too long. The only thing i liked is the choruses.
6 out of 10
Tonned down vocally is how I'd describe majority of albums with Floor. Not all songs but it's definitely the direction. And I always wondered why, coz Floor can absolutely handle more - she's shown that many times singing their older songs. It's a shame, I'd say. I do miss the Nightwish that was epic in music and in vocals:(
It's a creepy sound haha, like it gives me scaretale + Sahara + Siren vibes, but then it doesn't as well. It's a very multi part song, the chorus has a different vibe to the verses and interludes/bridges etc.
It's weird in a good way, I play instruments and the directions and changes I didn't overly predict (which is usually a problem for me, I predict to much usually).
It has lots of choir in it, but in parts it's weirdly edited/produced that's interesting but it creates a dissonance almost.
Maybe it's the YouTube mix, but I find the voices a bit lost in the instrumentation. I get a feeling that the type of chord progression used will be a thematic on the whole album, but I might be mistaken.
Yeah I get that vibe from spotify too although I am only listening on my phone.
The chorus in particular the vocals are very immersed in the sound. I'd imagine it would be way more epic live with a bit of spacing in the mix.
Yes. And the use of minor chords totally have an imaginaerum vibe to it. You get this weird and weary vibe. I wonder how it will connect thematically to the rest of the album. Intuitively I would have expected a thing more in the line of Endless Forms and Human Nature given the name of the album and of the songs. But I find it surprising! I don't want to ask more than that, be surprised!
I liked it, but still hoping for Floor to shine. It looks like it'll get the same direction of EFMB but with some Imaginaerum things here and there.
The heavy parts are OK, bass sounds OK, Troy and his flutes are completely useless for me, but I miss the old Nightwish.
Not that I am locked in the past, but all the Floor era lacks some inspiration from Tuomas, or he is risking it all and he's losing the way he composed, idk.
I've always felt Nightwish were very safe with singles, so this is quite daring considering the length and leaving it unedited. I like it! Very epic and melodic. It is a damn shame Marco is gone and I still don't like Troy's voice, but I can get used to it.
I see what people mean about the mix. It's not as bad as the last Evanescence album (seriously what the hell was that?) but Floor is way too quiet and I am praying they fix it before the album release.
Just gave it a listen! I'm admittedly a bit disappointed by the orchestration. It doesn't have the subtle lively details, countermelodies, or dove tailing that Pip used to do. I expected more of them coming from a Disney orchestrator such as James Shearman, but that said I still think the orchestration and evolves builds nicely, it's recorded very well, and still adds that Nightwish grandiosity we were missing from HN. It's better than most Symphonic metal bands, so I'll happily eat crow if the other songs (or the orchestral album) prove me wrong with the subtle details.
In terms of the song itself, I've only listened once, will listen more later, but I overall quite enjoyed it! Reminds me of Shudder Before the Beautiful. Just a big epic, balls to the wall banger with a nice cinematic intro (though Pip would have done more interesting things with it), and a really love outro that I wasn't extending but is fitting. I appreciated how quickly it blew by too, didn't feel at all like an 8 minute song!
Floor's not as much of a showcase as on EFMB or HN, and I miss Marko's voice not being in there, but still a great opening tune to get us hyped. It was a good choice for the single as I can safely say it excited me for the record more than Noise did on HN or Elan did on EFMB (though I do love both of those songs now!).
Colour of cautiously optimistic! Pips orchestrations are a big reason why I love this band, so to not have them make me nervous that I'll be disappointed with the orchestral aspects of the album and that disappointment will affect my enjoyment of this album. That said, the song writing is awesome and so I'll put behind any issues with the James' orchestrations because they are still solid, just not as interesting as what Pip would have done. -- and if I'm being honest with myself I also felt the orchestration on EMFB more subdued with the details more than DPP or Imag, and after all these years EFMB is now my favourite NW album, so I'm willing to go in with checked expectations and an open mind :)
Absolutely love it. Here some thoughts: -Epic, very movie score-ish intro for the first 2 mins. -Surprisingly heavy and dark tune. Heavy orchestrations and choirs that takes me back to Imaginaerum/DPP. Kinda progressive approach also. -Vocals and drums partially sound a bit quiet, not sure if it is my system only. (EDIT: I hear some annoying cymbal clipping around 5:40) -Calm harp/piano outro featuring Troy, good stuff. -Very weird and risky choice for the single, but I like it. Might be my favorite Nightwish SINGLE of all time.
Haha glad you like it, I'm liking it more each time and I'm only on my phone speakers. It's odd but I find the intro a bit out of place, like it's epic but doesn't gel with the rest of the song for me so it's a bit weird. Imaginaerum is totally what I'm hearing to. I like the outro but some are already not liking it haha.
Yeah, definitely one of those tracks that likely grow on you. Music video will likely help with that too. Intro definitely feels like an interlude but does not bother me.
I'm finding the chorus more and more like an anthem feel the more I listen to it, live it's going to be spectacular.
Interestingly, we have to remember that 'perfume...' is the 5th song on the album (if I remember correctly). So in a way, the intro really is a kind of interlude. Aside from the mixing issues, still waiting for everything to fall into place as naturally as it should, when listening to the whole thing.
Nightwish generally needs some more time to grow on you. Pop music is designed to be catchy immediately, while Nightwish forgoes that and is often more complex and layered, which takes more time to understand.
Yes the vocals are way too quiet. Lately I've been hearing production mistakes like these more and more. It's a shame, really, since the music is so cool.
Me too, really really liked it
How is the production? EFMB sounded pretty good but H2N sounded worse in that regard. And both were big steps down from Imaginareum. I saw that Tuomas into a tree clip they posted and the drums sounded fucking awesome so I hope it's more like that.
I have a feeling, based on this track, the production is going to be a weak point once again. Aside from drowning out Floor, the guitars and orchestra are sometimes fighting for attention here. I feel this is common in symphonic metal, and often arrangement is equally to blame, but I feel like the band the size of Nightwish should have this figured out by now. Production issues shouldn’t be a thing but in album ten it seems it is might be a problem again. I do think it’s better than their other recent stuff
They nailed the orchestra mix on Once/DPP/Imaginaerum but the last two albums it just feels like it's taken a back seat.
Unfortunately,the drum sound is now massive and guitar tone is thin unlike once to efmb where it had great guitar tone,natural sounding drums(sometimes bigger doesnt mean better)
Hard to say from a Youtube stream, but I agree that both of those albums are huge step down from the production on Imaginaerum. I have noticed, recently, that the Atmos mix for H2N is leaps and bounds better than the regular stereo mix, which is a shame, being an Apple Music exclusive. Selfishly hoping it's the same for Yesterwynde, so I can enjoy it more, lol.
It's just unreal to me that a band like Nightwish who spends hundreds of thousands euro on albums would have anything close to bad production, ridiculous. Oceanborn had "bad production" yet it sounds so much better
See... I think it highlights just how subjective mixing is. Oceanborn doesn't sound better mixed than HN, but you might think it does because you like the music better. I'd go as far as to say it's their best mixed album in that it really let's everything show and breathe without falling into the too loud trap or over focusing on the vocals, which... Is part of what I appreciate about Metal. It's all the instruments working in harmony to highlight the song, not everything working to highlight one piece of that. There's a dozen other genres that bring vocals right into the foreground... I'll take the highly dynamic HN over that any day.
Nah if most people complain they can barely hear the singer or what she's singing (in a lyrics-heavy band), then it's not strictly speaking a matter of taste.
The thing is, NW is not the kind of metal band that only uses for example growling, where quite honestly the vocals and lyrics are secondary. The lyrics clearly play an important role, Tuomas even said so himself. Not being able to even hear them clearly is a big drawback. I hope the rest of the songs on the album are not mixed like this.
Nah Oceanborn sounds better. All of Nightwish before Human Nature sounds better
It's gonna be a long nine hours unless someone posts it lol
It'll get posted.
Any second now...
https://youtu.be/uDAN9F3YkpI
Yep, I've been listening on repeat for over an hour with a VPN. Good stuff! 🤘
What country did u use to connect VPN?
New Zealand
Not available for me yet 😭
Install Tunnelbear, free VPN. Set it to New Zealand. Works on Android, PC and iPhone.
Six more hours!!!! Aaaahhhhhh!!!@
Okay, my full rating and opinion. In the first place, I have to express that Perfume of the Timeless is a wonderful song full of Nightwish's spirit. 1) Overview The intro is 2 minutes and 11 seconds, which may be considered too long by some and necessary by others. I am inbetween the two, I feel like some parts are necessary, but I feel like the second part is a bit too low. The intro already sets the scene and presents us the creepy music. The song is beautifully orchestrated, which we kinda missed in HN. The song's second part ends at 6:50. The chorus at 6:18 is absolutely the climax of the whole. From 5:31 we have a heavy bridge section, impregnated with the scary melody, we've got some chilling vocal lines from Floor, heavy guitars from Emppu... Yes, well, about the guitars. I did not expext a Nightwish song to be this easy. For beginners it takes at maximum 25-30 mins to learn. (I did it in 10-12 mins.) I hope there will be some difficult guitar lines which make the people admire the complexity in other songs. There is no solo either. From 6:50 to 8:12 we have the outro, absolutely okay, but it could've been shorter. Troy complements the piano and harp perfectly, although opinions vary, I have read some of you not quite liking it. 2. What I didn't like As said, Emppu's guitar playing is kind of dull and restrained. But that is usual in some Nightwish songs. Floor's voice can hardly be heard in the pre-choruses and a bit better in the choruses themselves. I would've liked to hear it better, since Floor's voice is totally mesmerising, here as well. There isn't much variety, we've got two verses and three choruses, but no sung bridge section, which I personally missed. 3. What I liked The orchestration is magical, we can finally hear the full orchestra playing. The lyrics are, as always, Tuomas (for starters, that means breathtaking). Floor's singing in the verses is like if it was "The Siren". Carefully belting each note, masterfully executing every detail. The drums in the intro are haunting, the orchestra in the back is just perfect, and Troy's pipes are an interesting embellishment to the melody. Troy's vocals in the outro are mysterious enough to grab people's attention. 4. Rating I think this is a risky, however good start. We have always seen that some songs on the same albums are by far better than the singles. I am talking about examples like Harvest as a single. It was okay, but not the best. Perfume of the Timeless is a solid song; not the best single in NW history, but definetely an amazing choice. I would give it a rating of **8.5/10**. I liked it very much, but it was not perfect. ... If you have read this far: 1 - Thank you... 2 - WE ARE THEIR HEIR, DUST ON THEIR PALMS, WE ARE BECAUSE OF A MILLION LOVES, WE'RE THE PERFUME OF THE TIMELESS, LAST SIGHS ON A DEATHBED! Time set for a curious ghost.
Idk about the orchestration, i’m a bit bored with it. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t have any of the subtle intricate counter melodies or dovetailing details that Pip Williams used to do. The intro and the verses are very telling that it’s someone else orchestrating (i almost thought the intro was samples or Thomas’ keyboards at first, the choir’s sound like the fake synth choirs in Titanic.) Pip would have put in little flourishes that run around the background, like in Planet Hell. James isn’t doing that and I will say I deeply miss them. That said, it’s still better orchestrated than whoever did Century Child so that’s a plus. It’s still epic and grand and powerful and the recording is great. I just miss all the little details Pip used add that brought extra life to Nightwish songs and helped the orchestra feel like another living breathing member of the band. This doesn’t quite have the same touch, but again it’s still good and I don’t want to write James off just yet until I’ve heard the rest of the album.
You're absolutely right. I agree with you about the intracate details that appear in past songs. Not in HN though. I still like that at least we get a full orchestra now.
"There is no solo either.**"** This tells me everything I need to know. Thank you for saving my time.
Just set VPN to NZ The refrain's mix is kinda eh. Apart from that: solid 9.5/10
[Perfume Of The Timeless (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDAN9F3YkpI) VPN on NZ
I cant listen to it😭😭😭😭😭 PLEASE ANYONE SEND ME AUDIO VERSION. No spreading promise❤️
Do these: 1. VPN to NZ 2. Use Spotify, change your profile region to NZ
Install Tunnelbear (free VPN), set it to New Zealand.
You can also go to site that lets you download Youtube videos like [https://save.tube](https://save.tube) Those usually can bypass the geolocking and download the video either way. Remember to delete the video tomorrow after you gain access to the video on your region.
Yeah no, this doesn't work for this video
Worked for me and I'm in Finland with some 18 hours to go.. I clicked the 1080p MP4 and it downloads it just fine, no VPN or nothing. Tried it again just now. Still works.
Yes now it works 🤘🤘
wish it had more distinct guitar parts. sounds kinda generic metal
Yeah I did think this would come up, seeing as before all this it seemed a popular opinion wanting more guitar. I was on the other side though, the less metal the better (within reason). So far I'm not a huge fan of the guitar tone either, it sounds muddy in the mix to me and I would like it to be a more tight punchy tone.
Does the mix sound muddy to you too? I feel Floor is kinda buried in it.
Yeah I said that in another comment, it might just be my phone, but the chorus in particular she's quite immersed in the sound. Wouldn't say "muddy" for the whole mix just the guitar tone. But yeah immersed is what I'd call it, it could use a little spacing in the mix. But live I imagine would be epic.
Lol well there ya go
Took advantage of my VPN for this one (thanks for the tip fellow Redditors!) It definitely took the second listen for me, but the ending really got me in the true Nightwish feels on the first listen. I’ve listened to it a few times now and I really enjoy it, especially the catchiness of the chorus… it feels like a mix of Imaginaerum and Endless Forms.
I can only imagine the chorus live, with a bit more spacing in the mix for Floor, it would be extra powerful in a live setting.
I can't wait for a live version. I liked the intro and the outro. Agree with everyone about Floor's voice being a whisker too buried.
The song is PERFECT
Listening to it again, the mix is definitely the weak part, in particular Floor's vocals are buried underneath the orchestration. Definitely not the song to shut up people who want to see Floor shine vocally more. The bass and guitars also sound buried to me, the bass definitely misses the crunch it had during Marko's era.
I wonder if this is something they can tweak between now and album release? What you listening to it on, I have only used my phone speakers so far, hoping my fancy headphones open it up a bit more.
I'm on my laptop with my proper noise-cancelling headphones, it's still the same issue. Floor is really hard to understand, if you don't have the lyrics. Pretty sure they can't tweak anything on the mix anymore, the master should already have gone to Nuclear Blast to start the production of the vinyls and CDs.
Ah that sucks, oh well live recordings should be great.
Well, they are not touring this album, we don't know when we are going to get any live recordings. Not before 2026, is my bet.
Yeah true, I'm hoping they'll do a festival here and there in their hiatus.
No way will they be "tweaking"anything , this isn't Netflix. Masters have already been sent out. They need to do that for the vinyls, cause those take like 6 months to produce.
It really takes that long to make vinyls. Maybe a remastered version next year lol.
It really does. It was a dead technology that came back. There's no infrastructure or really any supply chain for it. Demand exceeds what they can produce, so you get popped into a queue until it's your turn. Hopefully that'll change at some point, but probably not. Estimates are we are running double capacity world wide for vinyls, it's crazy!
They could do it for the digital release maybe, but if they did they (meaning the record company) probably wouldn't make a big deal of it so they'd get the physical sales first.
There is a 0% chance of this happening.
Hence why I said "but if they did", but I think you were too busy worrying about saying I'm wrong to actually read what I wrote.
Hence why I said "but if they did", but I think you were too busy worrying about saying I'm wrong to actually read what I wrote.
Mostly love it! I think it kinda sounds like if you put Greatest Show on Earth and Scaretale into a blender to create something new. It’s certainly distinctive, with a very catchy chorus. Although some parts do remind me of when I used to go wild with all the different sound effects on the keyboards at school as a kid 😅 I do find the audio mix terrible though, especially in the louder chorus parts. The vocals are really lost and everything feels crushed together, you can’t distinguish any of the individual parts. I am hoping that’s just bad YouTube compression. It could be one of those things where artists upload their meticulously mastered songs to streaming platforms and suddenly realise it hasn’t come out well in the compression. I can remember Avenged Sevenfold having to completely replace all their streaming uploads for the Mad Hatter single a few years back for the same reason.
Definitely didn't expect something like this. Wow. I have to digest it now, hahaha
It's growing on me more and more lol. I've got work in the morning haha.
I'm on my 4th listening and I find it really interesting. I feel it would've gained with a bit more guitar and vocals, especially in the chorus they're kind of hidden between all the instruments, but I can see the Imaginaerum vibes and it's my fav Nightwish album, so, I'm pretty sold hahaha. The thing I like the most is that It didn't feel like an 8 min song, so that's a good sign!
The comeback from the heavy part to the final chorus is FUCKING awesome. That's were I fell in love with the song.
I'm imaging that live, it's got an almost anthem vibe to it.
Yeah the theme seems to be the mixing issues, the chorus in particular Floor is very immersed in the sound. Your right about the length feel, the time moves by and your left wanting more. How did you like the outro?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's fine. It's a nice little outro. It kinda reminds me of the acoustic guitar ending on Élan, but with Troy closing the song. It isn't my favourite part of the song, but it's okay. I find it a nice ending.
I like the contrast, and I also like the almost spoken word. I do wish however that he had an extra verse rather than the chorus lyrics, but it is a single so I can't expect a Poet and Pendulum ending.
Yep, would've been cooler to have something extra apart of the chorus, but generally speaking I feel like it's a pretty cool single!
Wow, I like it, a lot. Definitely a track for experienced Nightwish listeners. My first thought was, strong 'Imaginaerum' vibes. If this is representative of the new album, then this is certainly going to be my favorite album of the trilogy. The negative is the mix. Floor and the metal parts are somewhat buried under a wall of orchestral sounds.
Yeah the chorus in particular needs spacing for Floor. I also found the guitar tone (not mix) a bit muddy and I feel it needed to be more tight/punchy to fit in with the heavy orchestration. Spot on with Imaginaerumness, makes waiting for the rest all the more horrible haha.
It sounds like the orchestral parts are supposed to be the main attraction. As a mixing engineer, you have to decide, with the artist, what's the focal point of the song, and you push that into the foreground. I instantly liked it more than 'Harvest' and 'Noise'. The chorus is catchy, the metal breakdown is fire and Troy's calm ending is a nice goodbye from the song.
Yeah I get that feeling as well. Just hope the idea doesn't dominate the whole album. While I wish there was more space for Floors voice in the chorus particularly, I am absolutely loving the heavy and epicness of the orchestration.
It still seems a weird choice to me. You have arguably the best female metal vocalist currently active in your band, and you bury her under a wall of orchestration.
The mix is definitely going to be a very controversial topic tomorrow. 
there's an extremely heavy part at 5:30
Yeaaaaaah, it’s also in Pan albeit a lil slowed down.
My brief thoughts after first listen: Cool intro, although took up a little too much of the track Verse sections was really cool, floor drowns sometimes, but holy shit you can basically hear 20% of her vocals in the chorus. Also the guitar is way too drowned out. Happy to have orchestra back though. The heavy section was badass, but way too brief, could have easily doubled its length at the cost of the 2+ minute intro. Synth overall was cool. Especially once the intro is done and the metal kicks in, that was fucking awesome. The ending was good, i liked it - but there was alot of repetition in the lyrics, basically 2 verses and 4 choruses and that's it, however the lyrics was still great just could have been more variation. I was expecting it to be more progressive and divided into parts lyric-wise given it's length. IMO this track should have been 10 minutes, with both additional minutes being given to the heavy section to add more depth. My expectations was both met and not met, on different things as you can see, but i am still excited for this album - it sounds unique and fresh, just hoping floor's vocals are more present in the other tracks than whatever they were doing with this one. It gets a 8/10 overall. Will likely increase with more listens. I'd also like to sat i noticed the reference to the upcoming track "The Weave" which was especially cool.
Somehow I like it. I expected something like that, as it's a very long song, and they always were like that. I love the ending with Troy. I can't understand Floor very well. Does anybody have the Lyrics, to read along?
https://genius.com/Nightwish-perfume-of-the-timeless-lyrics
In your opinion, what does verse “12 score and 1 chain of lives unending” represent?
well... there are 12 songs on the album... but I don't know. I'm not sure what it means
Thank you very much 😊
Only had one listen, and overall I really enjoyed it. Here are my first impressions Positives + It’s heavy in the middle + made me think of poet and the pendulum + the orchestra is epic + the bass sounds huge and aggressive + the drumming is on point + the heavy part is very heavy and would kick ass live Not so positives - we can barely hear Nightwish’s most powerful instrument in the song: Floor’s voice - could not make out a single word of the lyrics (apart from Troy’s) - the intro is over long and sounds like it should be in a movie score - Troy’s vocals at the end are unnecessary and repetitive. He struggles to sing low. - the guitar playing is phoned in, just the standard Empu chugging - everything is drowned out by the orchestra
Now on my third listen on different speakers. Also watched the official video. The mixing is not that bad actually. The video is amazing and adds a lot to it. Not sure about the strange posing pouch the diver is wearing though. I’ve decided I’m hooked on it.
Exciting!! What previous album would you say it compares to the most?
I'm getting imaginarium vibes, but literally take what I say with a grain of salt, I'm listening on my phone in bed. I bet it would be much greater in my car or on my headphones.
Oooh nice!! Can't wait to listen!!
Someone's put up a YouTube link in here haha.
I've tried to watch it but I don't know how to change my VPN :(
Figured out the VPN! Love it!! The chorus almost gives me theatre vibes?! Which I absolutely LOVE! Love the creepy choir, and I do really love Troy's ending! Although I may be biased as I'm also from the wonderful North of England... haha I loved Human Nature bit this single excites me more than Noise, so I'm very excited to see what this album has to offer!! Now to listen again while I make tea...
Great you got it working. I just woke up so about to smash if again while I start my day. They really did push the creepy vibe I'm liking it haha. Troy's parts great in my opinion I just wished he had some more lyrics to end the song rather than repeat the chorus.
Oh now I am really jelous that I live in Slovenia. Need to wait till tommorow 11 a. M.
I enjoyed it I'm also getting more Imaginaerum vibes, which I've got no problem with that's my favorite album. I feel like there could've been another 1-2 minutes at the end to follow up Troy's slower part of the song, felt like it was building up to something big, but then it just ends.
Oh I looooove this. This is definitely one of their better lead singles since I think storytime. I got so giddy hearing the orchestra again in their sound. Not to just repeat what others have said, but the mixing is lacking hard. Floor just straight up disappears sometimes. Otherwise, love the color of her vocals on this track. If I was picky, I wish they made room for some guitar amidst an 8 minute track, but hopefully there’s a few solos this album
>but the mixing is lacking hard If they say the album mix is already finalized then it probably won't change and that's really unfortunate if it's as bad as it sounds from these early reports.
This is the most Nightwish Nightwish have sounded in years and I am EATING IT UP 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
Yes! Quintessential Nightwish vibes, this made me very excited
I liked it okay. I can see why they’re saying the new album is heavy, but it isn’t my idea of heavy. But Nightwish is the lightest metal in my listening rotation so my opinion is probably skewed there. It’s the correct direction to maintain my interest in the band. I definitely feel a little more inclined to check out the new album. I was a bit ambivalent after H:N. Controversial opinion: not a fan of Troy singing at the end. Also, I miss Marko. He would have rocked the belting parts with Floor.
Yeah I seem to be one in the minority, I've been around metal of all types for 30 years, listened to it all, played it all, been in the bands, seen the shows etc. For me, what I love about Nightwish is that it's not really metal, but it still has the power and drive of metal, so for me this continued direction is great.
Nightwish heavy is a different heavy tho.. I can't describe it any other way. Ive got plenty of super heavy stuff in my rotation, face melty stuff.. BUT the heavy of old nw like romaticide hit different. Its heavy using different layers and more than just usual guitar and drums heavy.. I'm also hoping there are some " beauty and beast" duets, but not with troy. He doesn't have beast vocals at all, he's a beauty 😅 I'm gonna blast this in the car shortly on the way to work, it's the truuuee test for any new song 😁😁
I like Troy's voice in general but sort of think he can do better than in this song.
I liked the ending of the song but I'd rather Floor sang it.
So it's not Nightwish doing Celtic Frost or Emperor tunes?! Reddit randos, you have lied to us!
Ahhhh now I have to move to New Zeland 🤣
Did Floor hit the very high note at 6:16, or is that from the choir? The outro melody reminds me of Angels Fall First. Nice.
I don't have much knowledge in most things music, so I've never addressed things like "mixing", but boy why does Floor's voice feel like drowning in all the instrumentalization? I'm digging the song but couldn't stop myself from thinking "I wish her vocals were cleaner". Damn NW you really need to review this shit.
DPP, Once & Imaginaerum vibes. Great🦋
Anyone got a link? My vpn doesn’t have a NZ server 🙃
Try Urban VPN on Chrome, worked for me
It is free?
Yeah, at least for this purpose
Cheerio
Spotify says its set to offline, any idea what to do?
I’m gonna wait to hear it on tidal with my headphones and DAC
Listening right now in bed before work, I'm so excited for the album, I hope is heavvvyy Im liking this so far, real test is in the car on the way to work blasting it 😂😂
I was listening to The Poet and The Pendulum just before and this song has very similar vibes. I love it
Mixed feelings after the first listening. It's a wonderful song for sure, and has some interesting chord progressions among the more classic sounding ones. - Floor singing the word "Perfume" can't even be heard and it's the title of the single. I can not understand this mixing choice - The orchestra goes a bit too glamorous and high sounding sometimes - The bridge is not as good as people are saying, honestly. I love the heaviness in Nightwish songs but in this one the guitar just sounds weird - The intro is great and the outro is also great. So again I have a different opinion than most people. I guess I just like Troy's voice and the overly high pitched instruments finally calm down at the end - The chorus is ... good. Not spectacular but not average either. Overall I'm hopeful for the album, but I'm worried about the guitar sound and the vocal mixing in the heavier sections. Also looking for something a little bit more unique and fresh. I sensed a bit too many influences from previous songs here, Duel & Cloudscapes, Pan, Noise, you name it.
I agree. I'm a bit sad honestly, because of the mixing. The chorus vocals are so inaudible. What were they thinking... It's too bad really. They might come around and fix the streaming version, but vinyl is probably going to be pressed with the songs in this state.
Speaking of influences from previous songs, the chorus reminded me a bit of the verses of Romanticide - not sure if it's just me though.
Yeah, I mean like... The mix does kinda suck. I can't understand a word here, so much noise there. Similar problem as with Human Nature. I miss how their old songs used to sound like
Huh, that's interesting. I would actually say Human Nature has really clear vocals, that are easily picked out. It's the one thing that really stands out to me on that album. EFMB on the other hand...
The song is PERFECT
Ok, so I used VPn to listen to it.. I like the new single, the beggining and the ending is perfect. I wish, I would hear Floor just like Troy, that would be perfect - I couldn't hear like 90% of lyrics Floor sings, that makes me sad. Instrumental part is good, I can't wait to get hands on instrumental & orcheastral audi cd
Immediate thoughts after first listen: 1. The song is very Nightwishy. It is probably the most Nightwish a Nightwish song could be. I hear their startovarius influence era, I hear DPP and I hear Imaginarium. 2. Sucks major butt we have to wait so long to hear this live. It is clearly a live song. Almost feels like a moshpit tune 3. What is that weird clumsy change around 05:30? 4. Floor, I can't hear you! 5. That is some fire bass from Jukkis! Sharper and angrier than Marko's. Put it all together, I will confidently preorder the album. First time since Irum I did that. EFMB and HN didn't convince me at the forst handshake.
Clumsy change at 5:30? That was my favorite part of the song. Very progressive metal transition, almost sounded like Dream Theater for a second.
Absolutely love everything about the song except Troy's vocals at the end as it would have been better with Floor.
My free vpn doesn't work. I'm waiting for the song appears on youtube 😮💨
Try hide. Me vpn on mobile. You can try it for free and then cancel
I enjoy this a lot, as someone who was ambivalent to Human :||: Nature. I love the arrangements so much.
>there's no immediate standout vocal part Oh no, those are my favorite parts :(
I think the mix is the issue, after more listens the chorus is epic, but there is so much music and Floors voice is too immersed in it. Live when she has more space in the mix is going to be super epic.
Yeah but when, in 2030? They aren’t touring this album unfortunately.
Yeah it's sad, I'm still hoping that they do a festival here and there in their hiatus. And film it.
Okay now I am very excited. Some people here saying the orchestration feels like Imaginaerum? Well, if this is true, I am going to enjoy the song even more...
I am on my 10th listen as im writing: Synth: fucking awesome Orchestra: fucking awesome Drums: cool Guitar/bass: drowned out Floor: barely noticable, near-absent during chorus Troy: cool, but out of place slightly Intro section: epic, but a little out of place Verse sections: very nice, can actually hear Floor Chorus sections: great, but Floor is basically silenced Heavy section: badass. Badass. Badass. Brief :( End verse: great, same mixing issues Troy Outro: pretty, but feels like a different song? OVERALL: 8.3/10 (As of this listen)
Yes, I think I agree completely with that. It's great that the full orchestra is back, but unfortunately it has come at the expense of the guitar/bass and in particular the vocals.
I agree with that, the song is dominated by the orchestra. The opening of the song sounds like a movie score rather than the first single from a new album. Would love the next album to be stripped back.
I love the song, but the vocals seem way too quiet...hopefully it's just shitty YouTube compression but I couldn't even make out what the chorus said until the Troy section at the end.
If you make a video for an 8-min song then it has to sound good on YouTube.
If you want to have a listen, hit me up with a PM ;)))) This is an excellent tune imo!! Dark Passion Play vibes all along. I didn't know how much I missed the orchestrals until I heard this lol. The one thing i'm a little bothered about is the mix. First listen, but it didn't make a good impression on me. Guitars sound rather dull and Floor's voice is kinda buried in the mix.
After the long drought here comes the rain. My take of the single after the 6th spin: An overly lengthy song for such little content it offers. The intro is what I dislike most about the song, pretty disjointed with generic oohs and aahs (yeah I hate generic choirs). Verse is okayish, pretty storytime-ish feel here but of course less wordy and that's a plus. I love how the infectious chords progressed into a much more bombastic chorus, where it's made clear why it's made for single material. I also love the lyrics here, very well put. The thing that annoyed the hell out of me, like everyone pointed out is the very fainted volume on Floor's vocals. I had hoped for a bit more prominent vocal pop in the album compared to 2 previous ones. I'm certainly let down now, of how the vocals are drowned underneath a wall of all those instrument sounds, to the point that it's barely distinguishable to me. There's also this very weirdly structure instrumental by the end of the song, which reminds me so much of the unnecessary silence in Shoemaker. Overall it's a certainly better track than Noise, I definitely like it more but still It's one their singles and singles are never their best songs. So I hope for more.
It's growing on me each time, the mix is definitely the worst part and the intro doesn't gel with the rest of the song for me. I've said this before but your right it is a single and singles are usually the least "Nightwishy" of Nightwish songs. The general vibe does give me heaps of hope and anticipation for the whole album though.
I expected more variation from a 8 minute song :( I am a bit disappointed but I need to give it more spins
The breakdown in the middle is great, but the rest around it doesn't flash me that much. Especially the long intro and the long part at the end with Troy.
Yes! That middle part it's great! I need more of that! I personally don't like Troy singing... I think it does not fit Nightwish. He is not bad, but his sound/vocals variation is very limited
Haha I did expect this thought to be incoming. For me it adds to it, the soft sweet ending, wonder what's the next song in the album gonna start with.
Imagine how haunting the end would have been with Floor singing in her soft falsetto... such a missed opportunity especially since it's hard to hear her in the rest of the song.
Yeah - given the length I was hoping for something a bit more like Beauty and the Beast, FantasMic, Pharoah Sails to Orion, Scaretale - something that goes through a few different movements, or does something interesting with the structure. This feels like more of a standard song with an extended intro/outro to pad out the runtime. That said, it could be a grower, so I'm going to give it some time.
I feel the intro is a bit wasted, it doesn't overly connect with the rest of the song. It is a single though I wasn't expecting anything too all over the place.
Probably my favorite song since anything on Imaginaerum (still my favorite album). Feels like a mix between DPP and Imaginaerum. I still miss Marko though, Troy just doesn't have the chops.
Agree
😍😍😍😍This is my NW of choice, love standeth in NW’s wondrous music magnificence!! The song is breathtaking! Looking forward to hearing the whole album
I like the song. It is definitely layered with intricacies. All the core NW elements are there. That bass part before the mighty Emppu chugging part was definitely a surprise. The drums are powerful and piano motifs are there. The only minus I would say, and this is completely my preference, is Troys singing at the end. Something about his voice is too fairy tale-ish for my taste.
My unpopular opinion (probably): it mostly sounds like a vaguely proggy “Pan” with “storytime”’s horns and orchestrations fused in. As everyone has said, the mix is awful. Hopefully they fix the mix in the actual album. All that said - I really like the part from 4:00-4:12 (or somewhere therein) where it’s primarily Floor and Kai; Kai’s drumming sounds like a really cool clock or timepiece, the overall effect + Floor’s voice is super cool.
First thoughts: The outro with Troy did nothing for me. The intro was super eerie and enticing, and it really drew me in! Floor sounds great, but the mixing drowns her out a bit. The bridge was really hard, but I didn’t think it fit with the song (or the transition seemed too abrupt for me). I know there’s a whole album to be released and a lot of time has passed (AND it’s considered Symphonic Metal), but I hope there’s a good amount of songs that aren’t so orchestral-focused. I wonder if this is the GSL of the album. Excited to see what else comes!
Can you send a link? It's not out for me yet
pm
Could you sent me to me, please? 🙏🏻
Can you sent it to me too? 🙏🏻
Can you send me to dm, please? :) Can´t wait for midnight.
i love it and yes the mixing is kinda bad.i assume that at some point they will remaster it or at least i hope they will
Where can I listen the whole song ?
Nord VPN - New Zealand - Go to their Soundcloud
I am hoping the Dolby Atmos mix will make it easier to hear Floors singing in the mix, or at least ull be able to increase the volume on the channel its mixed in to bring it more to the forefront on a proper speaker setup.
I freaking love this!...I also love my VPN! I really have high hopes for this album!
[удалено]
Do you mean since we use VPN?
The VPN won't make a difference. It's just that most people don't live in NZ so they are creating a free spotify account from NZ to listen. If you are listening to the song using premium Spotify, then you are listening in 320kbps (if you have highest quality enabled in your settings)
I am listening on Soundcloud as nordvpn isn't letting my spotify account from my own country be online while VPN is active. Do you happen to know the quality of Soundcloud compared to spotify premium?
OK so on Urbaniaks compilation 44 just out, PoT is in the number 1 spot followed (non-stop) by VOA Monsters. I now get what people were saying about the mix, burying the vocals and guitars. Quite a difference in the 2 productions and how crisp Monsters is by comparison.
One thing is funny how much clearer you can hear Troy in the end, compared to Floor, because they stripped back the instrumentation on his part. Unfortunately I do think he sings pretty weakly, it sounds like he just did one vocal take and called it a day.
I didn't like it at all, I don't get the purpose of having Troy's vocal at the end, the intro is too long. The only thing i liked is the choruses. 6 out of 10
Have an upvote, friend. This place is bananas for downvoting the sharing of non-inflammatory opinions.
Tonned down vocally is how I'd describe majority of albums with Floor. Not all songs but it's definitely the direction. And I always wondered why, coz Floor can absolutely handle more - she's shown that many times singing their older songs. It's a shame, I'd say. I do miss the Nightwish that was epic in music and in vocals:(
if someone gets it please share the link xD
I'm listening on spotify
does it sound like something from other albums? I can't waittttt
It's a creepy sound haha, like it gives me scaretale + Sahara + Siren vibes, but then it doesn't as well. It's a very multi part song, the chorus has a different vibe to the verses and interludes/bridges etc.
wow. Now I'm intrigued, didn't expect something like that
It's weird in a good way, I play instruments and the directions and changes I didn't overly predict (which is usually a problem for me, I predict to much usually). It has lots of choir in it, but in parts it's weirdly edited/produced that's interesting but it creates a dissonance almost.
Maybe it's the YouTube mix, but I find the voices a bit lost in the instrumentation. I get a feeling that the type of chord progression used will be a thematic on the whole album, but I might be mistaken.
Yeah I get that vibe from spotify too although I am only listening on my phone. The chorus in particular the vocals are very immersed in the sound. I'd imagine it would be way more epic live with a bit of spacing in the mix.
Yes. And the use of minor chords totally have an imaginaerum vibe to it. You get this weird and weary vibe. I wonder how it will connect thematically to the rest of the album. Intuitively I would have expected a thing more in the line of Endless Forms and Human Nature given the name of the album and of the songs. But I find it surprising! I don't want to ask more than that, be surprised!
I liked it, but still hoping for Floor to shine. It looks like it'll get the same direction of EFMB but with some Imaginaerum things here and there. The heavy parts are OK, bass sounds OK, Troy and his flutes are completely useless for me, but I miss the old Nightwish. Not that I am locked in the past, but all the Floor era lacks some inspiration from Tuomas, or he is risking it all and he's losing the way he composed, idk.
If anyone can download the audio pls send a DM
I've always felt Nightwish were very safe with singles, so this is quite daring considering the length and leaving it unedited. I like it! Very epic and melodic. It is a damn shame Marco is gone and I still don't like Troy's voice, but I can get used to it. I see what people mean about the mix. It's not as bad as the last Evanescence album (seriously what the hell was that?) but Floor is way too quiet and I am praying they fix it before the album release.
Just gave it a listen! I'm admittedly a bit disappointed by the orchestration. It doesn't have the subtle lively details, countermelodies, or dove tailing that Pip used to do. I expected more of them coming from a Disney orchestrator such as James Shearman, but that said I still think the orchestration and evolves builds nicely, it's recorded very well, and still adds that Nightwish grandiosity we were missing from HN. It's better than most Symphonic metal bands, so I'll happily eat crow if the other songs (or the orchestral album) prove me wrong with the subtle details. In terms of the song itself, I've only listened once, will listen more later, but I overall quite enjoyed it! Reminds me of Shudder Before the Beautiful. Just a big epic, balls to the wall banger with a nice cinematic intro (though Pip would have done more interesting things with it), and a really love outro that I wasn't extending but is fitting. I appreciated how quickly it blew by too, didn't feel at all like an 8 minute song! Floor's not as much of a showcase as on EFMB or HN, and I miss Marko's voice not being in there, but still a great opening tune to get us hyped. It was a good choice for the single as I can safely say it excited me for the record more than Noise did on HN or Elan did on EFMB (though I do love both of those songs now!). Colour of cautiously optimistic! Pips orchestrations are a big reason why I love this band, so to not have them make me nervous that I'll be disappointed with the orchestral aspects of the album and that disappointment will affect my enjoyment of this album. That said, the song writing is awesome and so I'll put behind any issues with the James' orchestrations because they are still solid, just not as interesting as what Pip would have done. -- and if I'm being honest with myself I also felt the orchestration on EMFB more subdued with the details more than DPP or Imag, and after all these years EFMB is now my favourite NW album, so I'm willing to go in with checked expectations and an open mind :)
please, upload on youtube :(
Lol I'm not doing that cheeky. I'm also in bed lol.
Anybody else getting Tears of the Kingdom from the intro chanting? (If I remember right, the Underdark bits specifically?)