Nuclear Blast has made a habbit of releasing compilations that feature songs from the signed artists.This
time the label chose to put together an "emotional" compilation that is mainly focused to mid tempo and
atmospheric tracks. The CD became pretty tempting after the addition of video collection found in the DVD
that accompanies the audio CD. The first track of "Metallic Emotions" reveals the voice of Annete Olzon who
is the new NIGHTWISH singer. "Eva" was originally released through the homonymous single that is available on
online. The song is a ballad with minor orchestral arrangement. Annete has a sweet voice that reminds me of
Anneke’s work while she was with THE GATHERING and has nothing to do with Tarja’s soprano opera voice. On the
hand, the track cannot be considered as a classic NIGHTWISH song, so my conclusions are by no means safe.
Among the compilation highlights is the previously unreleased track "Alone" by AFTER FOREVER. This song is
definitely emotional and comprises a piano and Floor Jansen’s excellent and powerful vocal performance
especially in the high pitches. The rest of the tracks can already be found in the original releases and
serve nothing more than promotional reasons. So, we find tracks from the latest albums from RAGE, HAMMERFALL,
GOTTHARD, BLIND GUARDIAN or SIRENIA to name a few. The DVD collection is really tempting since it comprises
some really cool video from all the "big" names of the record label. If you don’t mind my saying the DVD menu
is excellent showing the album’s artwork where you get to notice that is really the back of a really slim and
sexy blonde lady (just click Tracklist and see for yourself). The theatrical "Lift ’U’ Up" video from GOTTHARD,
the excellent ala SENTENCED visualized AMORPHIS song "House Of Sleep" and the hilarious "Superheroes" from EDGUY
are some of the DVD’s strong moments. The picture and audio quality is top notch and proves that the label didn’t
just add some MPEG versions to spice things up. Overall, this is a pretty nice package that will introduce to
some of the label’s artists and probably enrich your video collection. As soon as the price is reasonable this
can be a very nice treat.