Pre-Owned Over the Hills and Far Away [US Bonus Tracks] (CD 0727701821221) by Nightwish

0727701821221. Pre-Owned: Good condition. CD. Finally released stateside, a few years after first emerging in Europe and Japan, and boasting additional tracks to boot, Nightwish's Over the Hills and Far Away combines four studio cuts with six live offerings from the unconditional lords of Finnish wimp-metal. With the imposing operatic wail of classically-trained soprano Tarja Turunen's leading the way as always, the band starts off covering the secondary hit from Irish guitar hero Gary Moore which lends its name to this release, and it goes without saying that Nightwish's affected take on an already dramatic song pushes the cheese-o-meter rating into the bursting red. By comparison, ensuing band originals like the power metallic "10th Man Down," the power balladic "Away," and the 2001 remake of "Astral Romance," actually sound rather grounded, if that's possible, and certainly boast all of the sterling musicianship and diverse songwriting that has made Nightwish a Scandinavian power. The same broad range and variety pervades the remaining live material (highlights including "She Is My Sin," "Beauty & the Beast," and "Wishmaster"), which, perhaps most interestingly, proves to recent arrivals that the band was already remarkably advanced within their craft all the way back in 2000, from when these recordings date. In conclusion, as with everything Nightwish, the contents are always over-the-top, wildly histrionic, but strangely as likely to appeal to unsuspecting pop consumers as they are to actual metal-heads -- therein lies the group's secret. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, Rovi