I've been listening to the Nightwish "Once" CD and I love it. It's the first time I've heard their music. Are their earlier CD's as good? And, what other bands are just as good? Of course I don't actually know what genre of music it is. It's a mixture of metal and symphonic, I think. Anyway, I absolutely love it and want more.

Dark Chest Of Wonders , Wish I Had An Angel ,Nemo ,and,Planet Hell are my favorite songs on the CD.

Thanks in advance

To anyone who likes Nightwish I always recommend Within Temptation - Mother Earth. Not quite the same style but in my opinion WT takes the cake when it comes to female fronted metal bands. I can't recommend that album highly enough. Unfortunately you'll have to import it or download it... they don't have a US distribution deal yet.

Lacuna Coil is also quite popular although their music is a lot more gothic sounding.

"Oceanborn" is my favorite Nightwish album, with "Wishmaster" coming in second.

I haven't heard "Once" yet so I can't say how the sound compares.

Other bands of a similar nature (Euro-metal with clean feamle vocals) would be Lacuna Coil (think Evanescence raised on Iron Maiden and The Cure instead of Linkin Park), The Gathering, and Tristania.

Might be a little more "edgy" metal-wise but, I would recommend checking out:

Iced Earth (newer)
Lacuna Coil (newer, stated earlier)
Savatage (older)

(and for an odd kick, Trans-Siberian Orchestra - story telling, but good in a similar vein)

Theatre Of Tragedy (girl/guy interchanging vocals backed by classical/doom/goth metal) smokes all those bands.

Well, until they went techno.

Got these on the way from Amazon.

"Oceanborn"
NightWish


1 "Odyssey"
Symphony X


1 "Hellfire Club"
Edguy

I checked out samples from Symphony X, and Edguy and liked them a lot.

I'll look around for everyones recommendations. Thanks.