"He knew, without an alibi, / tomorrow's night would mourn his freedom…" Woo, can you say The Count of Monte Cristo meets, um, militaresque hard rock? (Seriously, if you like that style of music, it's a fun song, as evidenced by all the covers of it! Nightwish's version is only one of five that I can find record of.)
Okay, so strictly speaking, the tale's a bit different from Monte Cristo. Sure, the guy's wrongly accused—of robbery, with his pistol found at the scene—but he had no alibi for that night because he was with his best friend's wife. And the song laments the twosome waiting the "ten long years" so "back in his arms again she'll be." Uh, has nobody learned anything? And am I the only one who thinks it maybe a bit convenient that the man's pistol was at the scene of a robbery on a night he was with his best friend's wife, suggesting that maybe we're supposed to assume that the best friend himself planted the evidence?
Nightwish covered Gary Moore's 1987 song in 2001 for an EP. The "new" version had the same tune, but Nightwish updated it slightly. The two versions are therefore very similar (if you ignore Gary Moore's tenor vs. Tarja Turenen's operatic soprano). …It's not Tarja's best singing, honestly, but it's nice. If you can get into hard rock with an opera singer. Some people can't.
What gets fun in the song is the kinda martial quality to it. (The music video for the original by Gary Moore even has a row of presumed soldiers at their drums in some of those uniforms from a century or two ago.) The funniest thing for me is it sounds like something Nightwish would write, sounds like some bands that some parents now tsk over their kids listening to, and the original song's as old as I am!
As I mentioned in my coverage of the story, it's not exactly… edifying, unless you want to listen and snort at the "Aw, isn't that sweet that they're gonna make the exact same mistake that resulted in his ten-year incarceration in the first place?" So the message can be a bit disturbing, if that bothers you. But overall, it's one of those songs that sticks with you if you happen to like the sound. And the language is clean, as is standard for Nightwish even when they get into some of the topics that some people like avoiding.
Nightwish also kindly keeps its music video clean. Strange, confusing, and kinda silly if you happen to think about it, but nicely, er, dressed. (If that comment confuses you, don't worry; people who like knowing that kinda thing will get it.)
Overall, I suggest the song if you like hard rock, symphonic metal, or operatic metal and aren't easily swayed by lyrics.
Lyrics: 4/5
Music: 5/5
Vocal(s): 4/5
Overall: 9/10
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