Album Info Hide Show Artist: Nightwish Album: Imaginaerum Released: Europe, 2024 Tracklist: A1 Taikatalvi A2 Storytime A3 Ghost River A4 Slow, Love, Slow B1 I Want My Tears Back B2 Scaretale B3 Arabesque B4 Turn Loose The Mermaids C1 Rest Calm C2 The Crow, The Owl And The Dove C3 Last Ride Of The Day Song Of Myself D2 Imaginaerum Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. 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If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show Nightwishs seventh album, Imaginaerum, arrived in late 2011 as a grand, slightly mad carnival of ideas, and it still feels like a world you can step into. Tuomas Holopainens symphonic vision had already stretched big on Once and Dark Passion Play, but here he folds in the sweep of film, fairytales and childhood fears, then ties it to the bands sharpest songwriting of the Anette Olzon era. It was released through Spinefarm and Nuclear Blast at the end of 2011, with a US date following early 2012, and the timing felt apt. It sounds like winter lights and theatre drapes, heavy boots kicking up snow. The album starts with Taikatalvi, a brief, twinkling prologue sung in Finnish by Marco Hietala, and its like the curtain being pulled. Then Storytime crashes in with clockwork precision, choral blasts and Olzon sailing over the top. As a lead single it worked because its pure Nightwish, but with a brighter, almost childlike rush that suits the albums theme. Ghost River answers with grit. Marcos bellow and Olzons clear tone play tug of war while choirs crack open the chorus. The arrangement never sits still. That restlessness is the point. For all the orchestra and choir, Imaginaerum lives or dies on songs. I Want My Tears Back has become a fan favourite for good reason. Troy Donockleys uilleann pipes and whistles turn the jig into a gallop, and the call and response vocal hooks make it a live detonator. Turn Loose the Mermaids takes the Celtic thread softer, a fireside ballad with a taste of Ennio Morricone in its melody. Slow, Love, Slow is the left turn that stuns. A smoky jazz lounge number, brushed drums and muted guitar, Olzon in torch-singer mode. It should not work on a symphonic metal record, yet it does, and it gives the album a human heartbeat between the bigger set pieces. Those set pieces are still the draw. Scaretale struts in like a crooked ringmaster, with carnivalesque strings and childlike voices that twist the melody into something gleefully wicked. Song of Myself stretches past ten minutes, borrowing lines from Walt Whitman as spoken word passages drift through the final movement. It is indulgent, but it earns the sprawl, swelling to a finale that feels like a farewell to the character at the centre of the story. Then the instrumental Imaginaerum circles back through earlier themes, a cinematic curtain call that makes sense once you learn this album was conceived alongside the feature film of the same name, directed by Stobe Harju and released the following year. The production is lavish without turning to mush. Longtime mixer Mikko Karmila gives the guitars bite and keeps Jukka Nevalainens kick drum punchy, while Mika Jussilas mastering at Finnvox holds the whole thing together at volume. Pip Williams orchestral arrangements were tracked in London with choir and session players, and you can hear the care in how strings tuck under Emppu Vuorinens riffs, or how brass hits line up with the drums. It is big-budget symphonic metal that still feels like a band playing. Olzon deserves special mention. Imaginaerum is her finest Nightwish performance, nimble and warm, capable of cutting through the densest passages without losing character. Hietala anchors things with that weathered snarl and tasteful bass lines, and Holopainens keys colour everything without crowding it. Donockleys parts are used like spices, bright and aromatic. The album also became a hinge in the bands history. The Imaginaerum World Tour rolled into 2012 and Olzon exited mid-run, with Floor Jansen stepping in and later joining full-time. Knowing that, the record plays like the closing chapter of one era and the setup for the next. Spin it on a good system and the layering rewards attention. On Imaginaerum vinyl, Slow, Love, Slow breathes in a way the digital release sometimes pinches, and the low end on Ghost River blooms nicely. If you are crate-digging in a Melbourne record store, or browsing vinyl records Australia wide, keep an eye out for clean copies. Nightwish albums on vinyl hardly sit long on shelves. If you prefer to buy Nightwish records online, this one is worth prioritising. It captures the band at their most playful and ambitious, marrying blockbuster scale to folk charm and a generous pinch of theatre. Nightwish vinyl can be a rabbit hole, but Imaginaerum is the record that turns that hole into a fully built funhouse. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review