Nightwish, Yesterwynde Review
By Christopher Paul Snyder
September 12, 2024
YESTERWYNDE
The film reel sound effects immediately remind me of the game Epic Mickey, a 2012 platformer published by Disney Interactive Studios for the Nintendo Wii. The game follows Mickey Mouse as he travels through the wasteland of Disney’s old and forgotten worlds and attractions. While most of the game takes place in a 3D platformer, a major part of the game is running through 2D sections inspired by Disney’s old animated shorts like Steamboat Willie. The sounds of the rolling projector make me feel like I’m Mickey running through Disney’s wasteland or about to watch a movie in an ancient theater. Beyond that, The angelic choirs make me feel as if I’m about to enter a sacred cathedral, filled with paintings of dreams.
As a whole, the opening track prepared my mind to continue the album going on a grand adventure from start to finish. It reminded me heavily of the opener for the bands 2012 album Imaginaerum. Both soft, lovely ballads that make the listener feel comforted and warm, even when the world outside can be cold and tough. Much like heavy rain and thunder or sitting by a fire on a snow day home from school. Yesterwynde reminds me of sitting by a warm fireplace while reading an illustrated children's book, or perhaps some of the books I read as a child, like Artemis Fowl, The Ranger’s Apprentice, or Peter and the Starcatchers.
Out of all of the songs on the album, this is one where I feel Troy’s voice fit’s the best. Combined with Floor, they create gentle, calming harmony’s weaving in and out with one another. It reminds me a lot of several tracks from Auri, the other band with Tuomas, Troy and Johanna Kurkela (Tuomas’s wife). I love how Troy’s voice fits on the debut album from Auri, and in turn I think that’s why I like it so much here.
AN OCEAN OF STRANGE ISLANDS
The best way to listen to this is with the lyric video in front of you, without that, it’s not nearly as interesting. The main reason for this is that the lyrics are very difficult to understand otherwise. This is present throughout the album and it’s a really shame because when reading the lyrics I can see how beautiful they really are. The chorus is wonderful, one of the best on the album. The transition at about 3:00 minutes in is also quite great. It reminds me of several passages on Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Human Nature, especially tracks like Weak Fantasy, Shudder Before the Beautiful, and Tribal.
Floor’s cackling witch-like laugh at close to the 5:00 minute mark feels wicked and sinister and I love it! Even though it only lasts for mere seconds, it reminds me of Scaretale from Imaginaerum. After this the song begins to down, the orchestral elements and instruments all die away allowing Floor’s voice to charge ahead for a few more seconds before she fades away. Sadly, the song could’ve ended at 7 minutes instead of 9. The outro was far too long and unnecessary for only the second song on the album. It feels a lot like the ending to The Greatest Show On Earth, but that was the end of the entire album. After 70 minutes, it felt like you had just traveled around the world with a view from space, and this was the cathartic end. With An Ocean of Strange Islands this isn’t the case and the song could have easily been cut by the last 2 minutes.
THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM
This one keeps me conflicted. On one hand I enjoy Troy’s vocals and Floor’s deeps growls, although again I wish her vocals were more clear and even her growls, while enjoyable I wish were far more amplified and present. The chorus falls flat without the lyrics in front of me, it’s not clear enough to get it stuck in my head. My favorite part of the song is the transition about half way through to wildly different instrumentals more reminiscent of Weak Fantasy. Overall, this track also reminds me somewhat of Shoemaker from the previous album, although thankfully without the long outro.
THE DAY OF…
While I wasn’t amazed at first, this one has grown on me significantly. The lyrics, like most tracks are complex and intriguing. Where this track shines is allowing Floor’s vocals to be clear and understandable while also remaining bombastic. I know I’ve compared this album to their previous one’s quite a lot already, but this track reminds me quite a bit of Noise from their previous entry.
Again, just like track 2 the music video enhances this one tremendously. With the video I love it, without it I feel much less invested. I think part of this is the heavy use of keyboards and digital synthwave types of sounds that reduce the cohesion between this and the other songs on the album.
PERFUME OF THE TIMELESS
The intro is too long. It makes me want to make an edit that cuts out the first 2 minutes. The song should have cut straight to 2:15 and started from there. With that out of the way, the rest of the song is wonderful. The chorus is infectious, and floor’s voice really shines.
[Chorus: Floor Jansen]
We are their heir, dust on their palm
We are because of a million loves
We're the perfume of the timeless
Last sighs on a dеathbed
Time set for a curious ghost
The transition that begins at 5:30 I find a bit boring and unnecessary. I tend to wish this part could be skipped on most plays and jump right to Floor’s beautiful wailing at around 6:15. After the transition, Floor’s final repetitions of the chorus hit home with plenty of power and end beautifully with her vocals outlasting just a few seconds longer extending beyond the instruments as they quickly die away. As to Troy’s contributions at the end, sometimes I love them, sometimes I which it ended before them, depending on how I feel.
SWAY
I think this song would have been better with Floor’s and Troy’s voices alternating with one another rather then being sung together. Sway also reminds me heavily of a track like See or The Name of the Wind on the debut album from Auri. I do enjoy When the gentle guitar comes back in around 2:30. It brings a calming and relaxing presence acting as a gateway, a safe haven in between the intensity of the other songs we’ve heard so far. I think the final chorus would have been better sung without Troy’s voice and just with Floor instead.
THE CHILDREN OF ‘ATA
This song cycles through several distinctly different genres all of them sounding great! It begins with the chanting of Tongan singers, alone without instruments. It quickly transitions to a repeating dichotomy between Floor’s independent vocals and what sound like electronic strings or keyboards flipping back and forth between Floor and the instruments. This is something that should have been much more present on the album as a whole. The back and forth combination allows both Floor’s vocals to stand out along with and alongside the intricate orchestral while remaining separate, allowing both to shine without overpowering one another and sounding like a mess. The isolation allows the distinction of individual elements that are extremely interesting on their own and I love it.
Less then a minute in the tempo picks up and 80’s and 90’s sounding synths join the mix. The chorus in this one is also wonderful. Although it took 2-3 listens to have it hook me, by the 4th listen the chorus has become infectious. The transition at 2:45 is something that I honestly love about the band. It sounds a lot like elements of Weak Fantasy, which some could criticize as repetitive, but this, along with many other things on the album are things I have never heard by any other band in my life, in a good way. I have seen several people say parts of some songs remind them too much of other works by the band from years past, including myself. But all of the things I’ve found like this are things, as far as I can tell, completely unique to Nightwish. Because of that, many of the similarities I’m okay with. Overall this song is one of my favorites on the album.
SOMETHING WHISPERED FOLLOW ME
This song is a slow build. The lyrics beckon me to follow my dreams, to heed my call to adventure, to unlock the abilities within me. Really one of my only wishes is that it was repeated a few more times because of how good it sounds. It really does feel motivational and inspiring in a positive way. The guitars in this are well played as usual, but I do find them along with the rest of the instrumentals to be somewhat boring and repetitive, especially in the middle and ends of the song. Even Floor’s parts become a bit too repetitive for my taste when she begins to mostly repeat “Follow me” with different inflections. Instead of this, I wish the corus as a whole was repeated instead.
[Chorus: Floor Jansen]
Then one day, something whispered, "Follow me."
One life, one strike to follow something real
Once there was something hidden within me
Stardust to dust, a tapestry in between
SPIDER SILK
This song is immediately intriguing. The acoustic guitars sound like the beginning of a beach rock themed classical composition. About a minute in Floor’s vocals enter with subtle notes from a distant choir. Her singing flutters like the wings of a butterfly. Throughout the song they layer on top of one another adding complexity like a spider slowly weaving it’s web around me. “Spider silk, a beautiful spin”. In a rare turn of events, I don’t find the chorus that exciting but do find most of the other lyrics far more enthralling and exciting. Around 3 1/2 minutes in we carry on to a transition that sounds just like the bridges on half the songs on the album. It sounds good, but by this point in the album, it starts to become a bit repetitive. Sadly, out of all the songs on the list, this one suffers the most from Marko’s absence. I think he would of fit far, far better then Troy did in the second half of the song. I surprisingly enjoy the outro to the track quite a bit. It hearkens strongly back to the beginning and feels like I’m not exactly at a beach, but perhaps a shadowy tiki hut from Epic Mickey.
HIRAETH
While this starts as one of the weakest songs, it dosen’t stay that way. When Troy says the title of the song a few seconds in, I really don’t like it. It dosen’t fell natural or blended in, it sounds tacked in like having Google speak the definition of a word to you. The best parts of the track are when Floor is able to sing on her own. Her voice is heavenly here. Troy’s voice on the other hand, while I can see why he was included, dosen’t really sound that great. I love his instrumentals, but his voice is just a bit too rough around the edges for my taste in this one.
About 3 1/2 minutes in the track suddenly rocks into full gear like a roller coaster taking off and this is where Troy really shines. His instrumental from here to the end of the song are beautiful, energetic, and complex. They’re a very refreshing change from many of the instrumental sections we’ve heard earlier in the album. This track reminds me most of How’s The Heart from the band’s previous entry.
THE WEAVE
This is one of the weakest songs on the album. The chorus is boring and the instrumentals uninteresting. The best part is the wild orchestral bridge at 2:45. I’ve noticed several people mention the mirrored lyrics and while they may be interesting in theory, in practice it dosen’t make the song any better. There dosen’t seem to be as central of a theme or story to this one as there is with many of the other tracks, and it really just dosen’t stand out in any meaningful way. This is probably my least favorite of the entire set.
LANTERNLIGHT
In my opinion, this is a great way to end both the album but also the trilogy that began with Endless Forms. Lanternlight is a sad, melancholy filled tragedy. It reminds me strongly of The last half of Song of Myself of their 2012 album, or Go Slowly Now, Sands of Time from the Life and Times of Scrooge. Floor’s voice is truly haunting and really delivers a cathartic punch to the senses. For someone who isn’t normally emotional, this honestly made me tear up a bit. As has happened twice before in the band’s history, It really does feel like another end of an era. As the projector fades in, our story has come to an end.