The year 2005 became somewhat of a turbulent year for Finnish Metallers Nightwish and their fans with the departure of long time vocalist Tarja, but the band soon found a great singer to fill Tara’s shoes in the form of Anette Olzon who with the rest of the band Tuomas, Emppu, Marco and Jukka, gave us the fantastic album 'Dark Passion Play' in 2007.  And now here tonight the masses of Nightwish fans would finally see how the new line-up and new album sound live.

But first the guest artist Pain.  A project put together by Peter Tägtgren, musician and producer. The band are pure bred Dark Metal and as they opened up with ‘Same Old Song’ from the 'Dancin' With The Dead' album, it was clear that the vast majority of the youngsters in the crowd were well into Tägtgren and his musical companions as they powered through the set like an express train.

The band had a definite power and style about them, they seemed to lift the whole venue with great ease and when they gave the Beatles classic 'Eleanor Rigby' a truly mind blowing metal makeover, you knew that Tagtgren has created something truly special with this band.  They continued their assault with eight blistering metal masterpieces, the best of them being the Beatles cover and the tremendous ‘Hate Me’. This is what I expect from a support band, they were real crowd pleases and went down a storm and I’m hopeful they will be back to these shores with a tour of their own.

Now there was a certain atmosphere around tonight’s sold out show, as the audience waited with baited breath for theirs, and for that matter my heroes, to come on stage the anticipation was well worth all the waiting.  As 9.05 pm came the lights went down and the first signs of life hit the stage as drummer Jukka got behind his kit.  Then Thomas (donned in a top hat) entered followed by Emppu, both getting monstrous cheers from the crown, and this was before they'd even played a note!  Then the time came for Marco to hit the stage, again to another rousing applause although the biggest cheer went out for Anette Olzon.  As the intro faded out the band ripped into ‘Bye Bye Beautiful’ and instantly the mood was set for what was about to be one hell of a show with Olzon showing why us all exactly why she was picked to front the band.  She had the presence on stage and seemed to be really enjoying being a part of Nightwish, this was indeed a unified band.

The real test for most of the fans would be how would Olzon stand up with the older material and all the ghosts of Tarja were thrown aside as they continued with ‘Dark Chest Of Wonders’.  I for one was well impressed with Anette’s vocal style live.  She has a different stage persona to Tarja and this is what impressed me the most.  Olzon’s vocals may not have the operatic style of Tarja, but there’s no doubting her ability when it comes to performing in the live arena.

The set continued with something from the new album the soaring ‘Whoever Brings The Night’, again with everyone in the band on top form, as they have been on every occasion I’ve seen them over the years, and with Emppu covering almost every inch of the stage at every given opportunity ... and we were just three songs in!

It was back to 'Once' for another slice of classic Nightwish ‘The Siren’.  This one ranks up there as Tuomas’s finest compositions and tonight it sounded just superb as each and every member of the crowd sang along in perfect harmony.

Returning to the latest album for a couple of my personal favourites off ‘Dark Passion Play’, firstly it was the haunting melodies of ‘Amaranth’, then absolute splendour of the epic 'The Poet And The Pendulum', a true masterpiece.

We were then treated to a sixth member of Nightwish was a very talented and serene looking flautist Troy Donockley, who joined the rest of the band for ‘The Islander’.  Marco showed off his more mellower side vocally with this almost Jethro Tull folkish tune which with went down a storm with even the hardened Metallers in the crowd.  Troy remained on stage a little longer as the band gave us the instrumental ‘Last Of The Wilds’, a real mellow almost mesmerising track with their special guest musician performing on the pipes as well as the flute.

But it was soon back to the heavier side as Marco once again took up the mike for the monster ‘Master Passion Greed’, after all the angst of Marco it was time for one of fans favourite tracks and one which really broke the band into the major phenomena that they have become over the past few years, the excellent ‘Nemo’ which right from the very first notes from Tuomas, the place erupted as a choral of voice from the crowd joined Anette to sing the song.

As the last few notes of Nemo faded away and the band left the stage the cries for more were almost instantaneous.  Luckily it wasn’t long before they returned for a three-song encore. Getting things underway with the anthemic ‘7 Days’ before ‘Wishmaster’ and rounding off what is sure to be one of the shows of the year, with what else but the magnificent ‘Wish I Had An Angel’.  This one really got my stamp of approval as Anette really it gave her all on this one, as did the rest of the band. This is one show you must beg steel of borrow money to see as Nightwish once again show the rest of the Progressive/Symphonic bands how it's done.