The Greatest Show on Earth - Nightwish - FULL Piano Cover Arrangement by Vikram Shankar

Well, here it is: my cover of the closing track from Nightwish's brand new album which dropped a couple days ago, and possibly their magnum opus, "The Greatest Show On Earth!" A couple things that I'd like to mention:
1. This was a really challenging cover to put together, not just because of the song's length and complexity, but because of how many things are just unplayable on a piano (esp. the ambient noises used throughout the track). I used some extended piano techniques to do my best to approximate those effects - and for the outro, I chose to improvise in C rather than try to duplicate whale songs on the piano - observant listeners will notice themes from every song on the album here :)
2. Due to the high dynamic contrasts on this recording, I decided to master the recording pretty generously, while still giving it enough heat in the mastering stage. I encourage you all to listen to this on good headphones or speakers, as loud as you want or can, to appreciate all the details.
3. For those who wonder why the video fades out a few moments before the song ends: in a truly frustrating turn of fate, my video recorder ran out of battery right at that point in the recording. Since this is a nebulous fade-out type of ending, I figured it would be okay to just have the final bars play with a blank screen. Hope that's not a deal breaker for anyone!
This is a truly magnificent song, one of the very best I have ever heard from this band. Tuomas has really outdone himself here, creating a staggering epic that has a surprising level of unity, both within itself (building off of themes and progressions in a really satisfying way) and with the rest of the album (conceptually, as well as a couple familiar themes, such as the first snippet of the chorus of Alpenglow and the main riff rhythm of the title track, and some bits of Eyes of Sharbat Gula as well). I truly hope I have done this fabulous track justice with my rendition! If you like what you hear, make sure to let me know in the comments section, give the video a "like", and share with your friends! Thanks so much for watching!

Unfortunately, the only audio version of this track I have is this admittedly not fantastic quality recording - but if you're still interested in downloading this track for your own enjoyment, here's a dropbox link to download the track:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p4cdras0wev...

My website: http://www.vikramshankar.com/
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Check out my electronic/prog EP "The Hammertong Project":
SPOTIFY: http://spoti.fi/2sbkFEa
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YOUTUBE: http://bit.ly/2tvSwez

About me: I'm a 22 year old guy (19 when I filmed this) who plays piano, guitar, drums, bass, and mandolin. You can find out more about me on my website (link above)! :)