Nightwish's Lyrics and Sound
Amaranth - Nightwish
Symbolism
Amaranth
Like they lyrics this song is very influenced by religion, the video starts out with two boys finding a wounded angel in a creek. The angel’s eyes are bleeding so the boy bandages them, giving her an eerily similar appearance to justice statues. Toward the end of the video the boys walk across a bridge filled with older individuals who all look at the procession with distain. This could be because they don’t believe that the boy should’ve found her because he is a non-believer. Or they are disapproving because he interacted with her because she was wounded and God wouldn’t have allowed the scarring of an angel unless she had done something wrong. Regardless the boy only wants to help her, he bandages her wounds and takes her to a place in which he believes she will be safe. As retaliation the other villagers drag the boy away from the blind angel and light her haven on fire, this could be symbolizing the belief of Christians that there can only be one entity of worship and that this angel is probably a fake so they must burn her like the witches of Salem.
Sound Analysis
Nightwish like almost every Symphonic Metal band is highly centered on the vocal portion of songs. This group as well as Epica both utilize two main voices in order to achieve the Beauty and the Beast aesthetic. However, there is still a heavier emphasis on the female vocals than the male vocals. In regards to the rest of the musical elements, there is a distinct lead guitar part played in most of their songs which is backed by the rest of the band. The elements sans the vocals and guitar are mostly balanced throughout the music, they blend together to the point that they are almost unintelligible from one another. This isn’t a bad thing by any means, it allows for any other instruments which are meant to stand out in a specific song to do so. For example, in Élan Nightwish uses a piano and a flute as solo instrument so the other sound has to be able to fade into the background enough that they are able to be heard above everything else.
Lyrical Analysis
Bye, Bye Beautiful
This song is actually really difficult to decipher if you don’t know Nightwish’s history. This song was released on the album following the departure of their first vocalist, Tarja Turunen. This song is meant to be a farewell song to her from the band. This certainly wasn’t a clean break, which is showed by the lines “It’s not the tree that forsakes the flower / But the flower that forsakes the tree” the tree in question is the band and the flower is Tarja. “They used to love having so much to lose / Blink your eyes just once and see everything in ruins” this seems to be a moment from Tarja’s perspective, she seemed to be surprised when the band decided to move on without her. The lines “Jacob’s ghost for the girl in white, blindfold for the blind / Dead siblings walking the dying earth / Noose around a choking heart, eternity torn apart / Slow toll now the funeral bells” are further describing the breaking of the band. Bands are often seen as families and when one of those individual leaves, they leave their mark on the group, similar to that of a ghost lingering about. So the mentioned funeral isn’t necessarily a true funeral just the death of an individual’s influence in or on the band. Finally we have the closing lines of “How blind can you be, don’t you see / You chose the long road but we’ll be waiting” which show that eventually Tarja will realize that she will always be part of the band family but she must first understand why they decided to break the group.
Élan
Élan is the only song I chose to use that was create after Nightwish split with their second female vocalist. As a result the listener can identify elements that are absent in the older songs. This song has a heavy emphasis on natural imagery and the overall theme is living life to its fullest, enjoying the moments you have. This is prevalent throughout the whole song though it is most noticeable in these lines “Come, drink deep, let the dam of mind seep / Travel with great Élan, dance a jig at the funeral.” Élan is enthusiasm or excitement. These lines, specifically the last one are focused on experiencing only happiness, they’re essentially saying don’t let something like sadness at a funeral keep you from dancing. After all a funeral is meant to be a celebration of someone’s life not a place to cry. Another moment in which this theme is identified is about halfway through the song, “Building a sandcastle close to the shore / A house of cards from a worn out deck / A home from the fellowship, poise and calm / Write a lyric for the song only you understand.” These are essentially saying to be sure to enjoy life even if some of that time is spent in solitude, because it is necessary to know one’s self in order to be happy.
Amaranth
From the first lines of this song the listener is able to determine that this song has a heavy emphasis of religion “Baptized with a perfect name / The doubting one by heart / Alone without himself.” This implies that the character was raised to believe in the religion of his parent but began doubting his faith. This continues to be depicted in the following line “War between him and the day” the imagery here is depicting the religious individuals as the day and the outcast is essentially a scapegoat for them. In the chorus the Never Fading and the hidden amaranth are the same entity, by definition an amaranth is a non-existent never fading flower. From the lyrics the audience can determine that the outcast visits this amaranth as a method of coping with his doubts and the abuse from the religious majority. The lines “Reaching, searching for something untouched / Hearing voices of the Never Fading calling” seem to depict the interference of one of the religious individuals. It can be inferred in the lyrics that once the amaranth was found that the religious individuals destroyed it, or at least attempted to, because there can in their eyes be only one entity that can be worshiped in the way that the outcast was worshiping the Never Fading.