Listeners of symphonic metal are most likely familiar with Nightwish, since this band has been one of the trailblazers of the genre. With five studio albums under their belt, Nightwish has definitely more than enough material for a "Best of" album. Titled as Highest Hopes, this collection features some peak moments of Nightwish's career. In spite of all, I reckon the band easily could have included another disc to this collection.

Offering an extensive cross-section of Nightwish's career, this record handles its job rather well. The songs vary from touching ballads to grand metal epics. Ironically Nightwish wasn't originally even intended to play metal. Luckily the band made the choice of playing symphonic metal, as I certainly doubt that Nightwish would be as known as they are currently if they'd sticked to their original plan of playing camp fire folk music.

Production - yet being strong on their records - leaves some room for improvement... for example, the drums aren't always that well-mixed. Nonetheless, this record has been engineered rather proficiently. The sounds are full and fairly atmospheric.

All in all, Highest Hopes is a very good record if one hasn't listened to Nightwish before. Regardless, those who already own every Nightwish album won't have much to hear (therefore the reduced overall rating)... this collection contains only one new song, which is a live cover of Pink Floyd's "High Hopes". In addition, there's a new version of Sleeping Sun.

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- MAGE (October 9th, 2005)

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LINE-UP:
Holopainen, Tuomas: Keys & Piano, Backing Vocals on "Over the Hills and Far Away" Vuorinen, Emppu: Guitars, Bass on "Elvenpath" Turunen, Tarja: Vocals Hietala, Marco: Bass on Tracks 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 16 and Vocals on Tracks 1, 4, 9 & 16 Nevalainen, Jukka: Drums & Percussion Vänskä, Sami: Bass on Tracks 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15 with Kakko, Tony: Backing Vocals on "Over the Hills and Far Away" Vil, Ike: Kinslayer Voice on "The Kinslayer" Hardwick, Sam: Dead Boy's Voice on "Dead Boy's Poem" and Spoken Word on "Bless the Child" Joensuu City Orchestra on Tracks 4 & 6 London Session Orchestra on "Nemo" Metro Voices, London: Choir on Tracks 1 & 7
Producer:	Holopainen, Tuomas & Kinnunen, Tero
Mixing by:	Karmila, Mikko; Kinnunen, Tero (Track 5) & Hemmi, Risto (Track 8)
Mastering by:	Jussila, Mika

	TRACKLIST:
	01. Wish I Had an Angel 02. Stargazers 03. The Kinslayer 04. Ever Dream 05. Elvenpath 06. Bless the Child 07. Nemo 08. Sleeping Sun (2005 Version) 09. Dead to the World 10. Over the Hills and Far Away 11. Deep Silent Complete 12. Sacrament of Wilderness 13. Walking in the Air 14. Wishmaster 15. Dead Boy's Poem 16. High Hopes Length: 78:12