Nightwish are, unfortunately to other great metal bands with female singers, advertised as "The heavy metal band with a female vocalist." On Finnish TV, Tarja is always portrayed as an amazing singer, but quite frankly, she is not at the same level as for example the Finnish opera singer
Karita Mattila or even the
Norwegian Vibeke Stene. Though
Anneke van Gieresbergen of
The Gathering is not a mezzosoprano, it should not be forgotten that Nightwish is not the only metal band with female vocals.
Also, it seems to me that Nightwish are simply continuing on the path first created by
Stratovarius. The deliberate mixing in the same studio (
Finnvox Studios) as that band created almost identical sounds, which undoubtedly made Nightwish more succesful. Not that there is anything particularly bad about the Stratovarius
power metal sound in general, but that it has been beat
dead countless times before.