Nightwish Album: “Highest Hopes: The Best of Nightwish”

I love Nightwish, and I am glad they released a best-of compilation. However, I think it is unfortunate that to get a cheap price on the CD in North America, you have to buy the Argentinian import, or one from the EU for a higher price. There are sixteen songs in total, making this compilation a fairly complete one. There are some very good songs spanning their entire career are on the album, however a couple of my very favorites aren't on the disc. "Sacrament to Wilderness" and "Come Cover Me" are (in my opinion) the best tracks off "Oceanborn" and "Wishmaster" respectively, are not present. There are three tracks on this hits compilation that are not on the standard editions of the full-length albums. To get more of the rare tracks, one would have to buy the more expensive dual-disc edition (sold on Amazon.com for an outrageous price). Drakkar released a better compilation in Germany that includes more rare songs, and is on a single disc. This German compilation did not have any of the latest tracks off of "Once," as it was produced in 2004. An reviewer on this site wrote in saying that Amazon.com told them the disc was unavailable. While I can't check the reliability of that claim, the only store I saw that CD in was located in Europe. In other words, the better compilations are not widely available in the States, even as an import. To sum up the review, it is a sacrifice to buy the (least desirable) greatest hits compilation, but at least it has a lot of songs (and to be fair, everyone's favorite songs are different). Nightwish is an incredible band, and even a decent compilation is a great one.

Excellent music by Finland's symphonic metal band, Nightwish. Living in the U.S. we are not exposed to many of Europe's best artists and musicians. Don't miss this band. You will love them. Even if you are not a heavy metal fan, you will love this music, because it is symphonic metal. That means it's way more than metal guitars, drums and screaming vocals. Tarja, the female singer, is a trained opera singer. Toumas, the keyboardist, is a musical genius. Toumas writes the music. The bass guitarist, Marco, has what's called a "raucous" voice, but he is outstanding, and also helps compose some of the music. The lead guitarist, Empu is not only extremely talented, he's gorgeous! The drummer is the best I've ever heard! Check out Nightwish!! You will love them. They're touring the US in the Fall. Look for their new album in September.

I love all of the tracks on this album, though it is missing a few songs. But that`s alright, of course. Not everyone likes the same songs. For those who are new to Nightwish, this is a great way to start off. Before this came out, I usually reccomended Once, their most latest album. But now there`s an album that has Nightwish from the full nine years. This is great.

I adore this CD, it contains both peaceful, more mellow songs (Dead Boy's Poem) to stomping tunes (Wish I Had An Angel) from my favourite band, Nightwish.

However, Planet Hell, Gethsemane and She Is My Sin should have been added.

Great CD for first-time Nightwish buyers.