a penny for the ferryman
just about everyone i play them for ends up a fan, not just metalheads. the vocals are flawless, the guitars are heavy, the keyboards add that great gothic feel and most of the songs are really good. nightwish's one flaw is that they occasionally step a little past the "cheesy" line that so many gothic rock bands have trouble with.
they came through NYC a couple weeks ago and, despite $40 ticket prices and almost no promotion stateside, the show sold out (looking at the tour page on their website, it would appear that most of their shows sell out). i can't say that it was the best show i've ever been to, but it was good enough to make me not feel at all bad about dropping so much money on a ticket.
their newest album, Once, has been out in europe for a while (they're Finnish) but is being released in the states on October 5th.
what i've heard of it so far is very promising. Nemo is the first single from Once and seems pretty representative of the album. and here's a bonus track, White Night Fantasy, from the Nemo single which has a slightly different feel than the rest of the album.
i've got my copy pre-ordered. if you can't wait that long, you could either buy the import version for way too much money or get it off allofmp3.com.