album Century Child (2002)

[Fugazi]

Century Child (2002)

YouTube high quality playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVzO-eQh2zU&list=PL35Pn1DA8jXVs1V8fyP4ow_MRxlPSYb4z

 

Track list (with relevant threads when available)

1. Bless The Child (lyrics)  🎞️ official video  🎵 YouTube HD
2. End Of All Hope (lyrics) 🎞️ official video  🎵 YouTube HD
3. Dead To The World (lyrics)  🎵 YouTube HD
4. Ever Dream (lyrics)  🎵 YouTube HD
5. Slaying The Dreamer (lyrics)  🎵 YouTube HD
6. Forever Yours (lyrics)  🎵 YouTube HD
7. Ocean Soul (lyrics)  🎵 YouTube HD
8. Feel For You (lyrics)  🎵 YouTube HD
9. The Phantom Of The Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber cover) (lyrics)  🎵 YouTube HD
10. Beauty Of The Beast (lyrics)  🎵 YouTube HD

Bonus tracks:

1. Lagoon (B-side of "Bless The Child" single, 2002) (lyrics)
2. The Wayfarer (B-side of "Ever Dream" single, 2002) (lyrics)

 

From the band:

 

Tuomas (from 2002 Perkele Magazine interview, http://nightwishtaikatalvi.epizy.com/article42.html)

Bless The Child:
This was the first song I wrote for this CD. I knew this would be the opening track and it's one of my favorites. Hans Zimmer's influence can be heard and the song follows well this soundtrack line, in the line of the movie "Gladiator". The lyrics clarify the theme of the whole album. The discursive parts are made once again by our official "Dead Boy", "Sam Hardwick".

End of All Hope:
Another name for this could be "Hopeless in the Dead Bed". Hope is something that should be preserved, no matter how bad things go. The working title for this song was "ReWishmastered", for understandable reasons.

Dead To The World:
Duo between Tarja and Marco. They both show here what they are capable of.

Ever Dream:
Maybe the only song that isn't connected to the central theme of the CD, in relation to the lyrics. This is another personal expression of emotions. Maybe it's also the most "Nightwish style" music. It's a small sample of the new album, so it's an easy choice as the first single. The string arrangements (classics) at the end of it give me the creeps (in a good way, of course).

Slaying The Dreamer:
A very, very heavy production. The lyrics were written at 5:00 a.m. after a whole night in a bar. I needed to hear how bad a person and what a shit I am etc. So I went home to write it down. The next morning, a little more sober, I read the lyrics, took some exaggerated things out of the middle and this is the result. It should be a live grandeur.

Forever Yours:
If "Bless The Child" is "Gladiator" style, then it follows the line of "Titanic". Anyway, the extra strings and instruments sound very good.

Ocean Soul:
I can barely remember when that term started, and as you know it was already present in "Wishmaster". This is just something deep and part of me. Out of curiosity, I can say that the male choir present in this song, started to "play" (appear) in my head during a trip and has been with me ever since. Mystic!

Feel For You:
This song is hard to comment on, but it's still very powerful and expressive, at least for me. The arrangements were modified at least 66 times during the recording process.

The Phantom Of The Opera:
On the same trip, I went to London (England) to watch the musical "The Phantom of Opera" and was really impressed. I've liked this song for several years and found it a wise decision for us to make our own version for it. And again, I happened to know about another band (Dreams Of Sanity) having recorded it only after we had finished our recordings. But, who cares...?

Beauty of the Beast:
The most ambitious song on the album. A real masterpiece (Translator's note: He uses the term "Isaac's Cathedral"* to classify the song). It was recorded on about 140 channels and ends what "Bless The Child" started.
* From Wiki's Saint Isaac's Cathedral article: "The cathedral took 40 years to construct, under Montferrand's direction, from 1818 to 1858. The building of the cathedral took so long, that it left an idiom to Finnish language: rakentaa kuin Iisakinkirkkoa (To build like the church of Isaac) when speaking of long-term construction projects."

And the bonus track, The Wayfarer:
It's a good song, but it doesn't fit the song on the CD. And you'll always have to remember the Japanese audience. And we also have one more "extra" song from these recordings, which will be used in our second single from Century Child.

 

Marko about some tracks :

(from https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-10-best-nightwish-songs-marco-hietala-once-dark-passion-play-imaginaerum-endless-forms-most-beautiful)

BLESS THE CHILD
“Bless the Child was actually the first song that I worked on when I joined the band. Before Nightwish I was playing bass and doing some background vocals in a band called Sinergy and we were warming up for the band in 2000. They called me when they had some trouble with their former bass player around 2001. They gave me a lot of freedom with the bass lines for this album, and I put in a few fills including the nice bass effects close to the end of this song.”

DEAD TO THE WORLD
“I have many happy memories from making this album and I got to do a lot of the vocals on this song. I’d been playing in bands for quite a while already, and I had a studio engineering side job, but once I joined Nightwish I didn’t really go back to that because I started touring a lot. Being Finnish country boys, we’ve always gotten along really well and this band has felt like home ever since I joined.”

 

[mabla]

This was beside Oceanborn the only Nightwish album I owned (I assume from the release in 2002, because I have seen Nightwish live in 2004 at the Dynamo and was then a bit disappointed Nightwish only played 3 songs from Century Child ........ 🥴 = of course logic when you promote Once 😁) and the only nightwish album I really listened till Floor joined Nightwish...... and I loved this album. Especially the first 5 songs are amazing and I listened them countless times. I listened less often to the other tunes in my memory lane cause I probably repeated the first 5 songs endlessly.

I rate this album with  a 8.5 as a whole = round up to a 9 in the rating above.

🤘

 

[Fugazi]

Yes, as an album it was off to a great start with 5 very solid songs. I can't say I ever got into the rest of the album very much, except Beauty Of The Beast which I like a lot and Phantom of the Opera which was redeemed for me by the live performances.

Marko's voice added a lot of diversity to the album, and it's a huge improvement IMO over any of the previous male vocalists. Tarja's attempts at singing with a more contemporary voice leave me with mixed feelings. On the one hand I welcome more variety in her singing style, but in the process she perhaps lost some of her uniqueness. In general live performances of the songs were superior to the studio version, and I'm a sucker for the live NW sound so it's all good! 👍

[Fugazi]

Added a link to the higher quality playlist as published by @Stargazer. 🤘

[Fugazi]

Here's a modern review of the 20-year old album:

https://tuonelamagazine.com/2002-nightwish-century-child-anniversary-special/

[Fugazi]

New vinyl releases of the first 4 albums plus EP are available for pre-order.

https://www.backstagerockshop.com/collections/nightwish

Presumably these are remastered but are they the same remasters released by Nesi Media earlier this year?