Endless Forms Most Beautiful

Symphonic metal for science nerds who love to rock out!

Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish takes the concept of their eighth studio album from the words of Charles Darwin: “There is a grandeur in this view of life. . . from so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful have been, and are being, evolved.”

Words of luminary evolutionary scientists like Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins permeate this album, which explores the beauty that can still be found within a naturalistic and scientific approach to life. As Nightwish opines in the power metal opener “Shudder Before the Beautiful”: “The music of this awe / deep silence between the notes / deafens me with endless love / This vagrant island Earth / a pilgrim standing bright / We are shuddering before the beautiful / before the plentiful / we the voyagers.” The soaring melodies and powerful sense of awe move throughout the album. This then culminates in the 24-minute closing track journey titled “The Greatest Show on Earth,” which ends sampling Richard Dawkins’ moving words about the beauty of our ordinary lives. 

This gorgeous album has brought me to tears more than once. It’s the perfect album for when you need to be reminded of how beautiful our ordinary lives really are.