The live DVD of this wildly popular Finnish gothic metal group is not called End Of An Era for nothing. Immediately after the concert recorded here in a stiffly sold-out Finnish Sportpaleis (the end of a one-year world tour), the unaware singer Tarja received a letter of resignation from her band members. This public letter contains quite a bit of dirty laundry and was posted on the Nightwish website.
But a few hours earlier, according to this DVD, nothing seemed to be going on. With many theatrical effects such as smoke and bombs, Nightwish puts on an overwhelming show in which they present a cross-section of the repertoire built up over ten years. The classically trained soprano Tarja Turunen shines fully, also in a version of the Lloyd Webber composition Phantom Of The Opera. In addition to the full concert, the DVD includes a tour diary. In short, End Of An Era is a beautiful DVD that does justice to the group. But it remains bitter, after all, that letter was already written before they entered the stage. A deluxe edition of End Of An Era was also released in digipack, to which the full concert was added as an extra on two CDs. (MR)more
