Once

There's a strange satisfaction that can be gained by looking the hipster population in the eye and saying, "I listen to operatic power metal. What are you going to do about it?" It helps when you can back that statement with a band that actually knows what they're doing.

Nightwish hails from Finland and has been around since 1996. Once is their most recent release, hitting the shelves earlier this year. The record combines the grinding guitars and pounding drums of the harsher side of rock with some of the most technically gorgeous vocals in the rock genre. Lead singer Tarja Turunen doesn't just have a pretty voice; she's trained it at the Finnish Sibelius Academy, where she studied classical singing. Her immense vocal power is really what carries the band. While the rest of the members are talented enough, they would be just another pretty good metal band drowning in a sea of other pretty good bands.

This balance of genres is pulled off exquisitely in the album itself. Opera and metal actually have a good deal in common. Neither of the genres deals well with understated, restrained feelings. Combine the two, and the result is exponentially more dramatic than either separately ? which can be good or bad.

If you're the kind of person who will stare dolefully into space for hours in the corner of a crowded bar, pouring anguished prose into a notebook, this isn't the kind of album for you. This is music to scream at the ocean by.

Leaving aside the issue of taste, though, the album is nothing to be sneezed at. Most of the tracks combine the traditional recipe for hard rock (drums, bass, guitar, keys, etc.) with an interesting mix of orchestral and choral backgrounds, and the result is surprisingly pleasing. Turunen's vocals (as well as bass player Marco Mietala's on some tracks) put the finishing touch on a fantastic musical spectacle.