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 NIGHTWISHsinger. 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.