It was 5:00 AM on November 30th when I decided to drink 7 shots of Bacardi rum (40% alcohol).  By 5:15 AM, I was feeling the effects of the alcohol.  At 5:30 AM, I started my Imaginaerum experience and prepared to enter uncharted territory.

As I had expected, it was more difficult for me to make out the lyrics while listening to the album.  Still, I was able to understand some of the lyrics though.  While listening to the album, I found myself focusing mostly on the actual orchestra, keyboards, and other instruments used in the songs.  I didn't pay too much attention to the actual vocals or lyrics.  For whatever reason, I thought Anette's vocals sounded a little weird when I listened to "Storytime" for the first time.  Maybe it was the alcohol.  Because when I listened to  "Storytime" after I was no longer drunk, her vocals did not sound weird at all.  They sounded like the vocals she's used in DPP.

While listening to "Song of Myself", it felt like the poem part was a lot shorter than 6 1/2 minutes, because I was impaired by the alcohol.  Plus, I had my eyes closed while listening to the album and never looked back at my computer to see how far I was into each track.  I was quite surprised when I later found out that the poem took up 6 1/2 minutes.

After listening to the entire album once while drunk, I immediately spent a few minutes trying to rank each track from my overall favorite to least favorite.  I discovered that ranking the tracks while drunk was a huge challenge for me.  I had to try and remember what each track sounded like after I listened to the entire album.  Being impaired also made it difficult to decide on what order I should rank each track.  Since I still felt drunk after listening to the album once, I listened to it again while I was still drunk.  This was the order I ranked the tracks after listening to the album for the first time while drunk:

Storytime > Turn Loose The Mermaids > I Want My Tears Back > Song of Myself > Scaretale > Last Ride of the Day > Ghost River > Rest Calm > Slow, Love, Slow > The Crow, The Owl And The Dove > Imaginaerum > Taikatalvi > Arabesque

After I became fully sober a few hours after listening to the album, I looked back at my track ranking and laughed at how bad it was.  Even I don't understand some of the choices I made when I did that track ranking.  My current track ranking would be a lot different than the one I made when I was drunk.  So, that was my experience with Nightwish while I was drunk.

I made the decision to listen to Imaginaerum while drunk, because I felt like the alcohol would actually enhance the experience.  Nightwish's music is already quite emotional, and I thought the alcohol would intensify the emotions from the music.  I would say that was true for me, because it did sound slightly better while I was drunk.  Because this was a rare opportunity to listen to the album while drunk for the first time, I embraced that opportunity to have some fun.  I rarely drink in the first place, so what better time to do it when I'm listening to the album for the first time.