Nightwish - The Islander

Music and good days come hand-in-hand in my experience.  My faith has been restored in HMV today, as they had Eluveitie's The Early Years on sale for ten dollars.  And then there's Nightwish.  Always Nightwish.  I'm long going to be nostalgic about Anette.  She's the complete package of the symphonic metal genre, and I'm following her personal blog closely for when she posts some new solo tracks.  In the meantime, I have Dark Passion Play and Imaginaerum to keep me occupied, today's feature coming from the former.

Okay, "The Islander" isn't an Anette-centered track, but she's still there in the background.  Lead vocals come courtesy of bassist Marco Hietala.  He's gotta have some of my favourite clean male vocals in the metal genre.  His pipes are matched with an acoustic feel to the song.  It's a little Celtic too, which I have no issue with.  "The Islander" is mysterious; kind of along the lines of "Turn Loose The Mermaids" (look it up if you have no clue what I'm talking about).  This is evidence of the versatility that Nightwish has a band, even if they're lead singer-less for the moment.