NIGHTWISH CENTURY CHILD ALBUM SPINEFARM, UNIVERSAL RELEASE: JULY 15, 2002 REVIEW: DECEMBER 3, 2002

No matter how much I like goth metal, no matter how cool I think opera can be, no matter how much luck I wish to the Finnish music scene, I will never forgive the person who put Nightwish together. When heard "Bless the Child" on MTV, I actually thought "This might not be that bad". I was wrong. It is. "Century Child" is the worst piece of crap I had to listen too in quite a while. I lack words describing the true horror it provokes in me. The connotation to the deepest recesses of progressive rock and the crass capitalistic thinking behind it leaves me speechless. "Lets make metal for those that hate metal so they can feel cool and open-minded". Maybe there are a lot of those people around. That would explain the huge success this album has been - at least in Finland, where it went straight in at the top spot on the Finnish chart, selling like six times more than number two.
Imagine that, mixing progressive rock with a good female voice, a bland male voice, boring production and stale songs that makes you want to puke and creating a sale success! I don’t know, maybe it’s me who am narrow-minded and conservative. That doesn’t change the fact that, professional singing aside, this suck. Leave it alone, and hopefully it will go away. HIM, come back! All is forgiven!

KALLE MALMSTEDT