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Nightwish

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Nightwish
File:Nightwish1.jpg
Background information
Years active1996–present
MembersTuomas Holopainen
Marco Hietala
Emppu Vuorinen
Jukka Nevalainen

Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal/power metal band, formed in 1996. In other cases they have been called opera metal. Tuomas Holopainen once described their music as "melodic heavy metal with a female voice". Although they immediately acclaimed fame in their home country with the release of their first single, a broad worldwide support didn't come to be until their 2002 and 2004 releases of the albums Century Child and Once.

With their sound, they helped create the genre symphonic metal, which encompasses similar bands such as Epica [1], Fatima Hill [2] and Visions of Atlantis [3]. The band is currently recovering from a break with their former vocalist, Tarja Turunen. A replacement for the mezzo-soprano vocalist has not yet been found. Nevertheless, the four remaining members plan to seek one in the course of 2006, so that a new album (that is scheduled for 2007) can be released with her vocals assigned to the record. [4]

Band history

Angels Fall First (1996–1997)

File:Nightwish2.jpg
Nightwish's original line-up. From left to right: Emppu Vuorinen, Jukka Nevalainen, Tuomas Holopainen and Tarja Turunen

Tuomas Holopainen got the idea of creating the band Nightwish after spending a night around the camp-fire with some friends. The official formation took place a shortly after that, in Kitee in July of 1996. He knew Turunen because he had attended school with her.

It started out as Holopainen's experiment using keyboards, acoustic guitar and the operatic voice of Tarja Turunen. At this time there were three band members: Holopainen, Turunen and Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen (guitar). The three of them got around to record an acoustic demo-album from October until December 1996. There were only three songs on this demo ("Nightwish", "The Forever Moments" and "Etiäinen"), of which one the band derived its name.

In early 1997, Jukka Nevalainen joined the band, to play drums. The acoustic guitar was replaced with an electric one. In April they went into the studio and recorded seven songs, including a revamped version of their demo-song "Etiäinen". These songs can be found on the limited edition of Angels Fall First. This album is the only one up to date with vocals from Tuomas Holopainen.

In May of the same year, they were signed onto the Finnish record label Spinefarm Records for two records. Angels Fall First was released in November, and reached number 31 on the Finnish album charts. A single entitled The Carpenter had been released beforehand, and it reached number 3 on the Finnish singles chart.

December 1997 also marked their first gig, which was played in their home town. During the winter of '97-'98, the band only performed seven more times, due to the fact that Nevelainen and Vuorinen were in service and Turunen hadn't finished her studies yet.

Oceanborn / Wishmaster (1998–2000)

The cover for the in 2000 released single Deep Silent Complete

In 1998 Sami Vänskä, an old friend of Holopainen, joined the band to play bass guitar. After shooting a video clip of "The Carpenter", they released their follow-up to Angels Fall First — Oceanborn. This album was more technical and progressive than their first album in terms of songwriting and arrangements [5]. The album also featured Tapio Wilska in two songs ("Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean" and "The Pharaoh Sails to Orion"). It reached number 5 on the Finnish album charts. The first single from that album Sacrament of Wilderness, went straight to number 1 on the Finnish single charts, doing better than than it had been expected. The second single to come out was Walking in the Air, a cover after Howard Blake's piece, part of The Snowman soundtrack.

In 1999, they recorded the single Sleeping Sun (Four Ballads of the Eclipse), for the solar eclipse in Germany. This single sold 15,000 copies during the first month in Germany alone. Oceanborn was a certified gold in August. [6]

In 2000, Nightwish participated in the Finnish qualification for the Eurovision song contest with the song Sleepwalker. They ended up in the second place. They won the public televoting, but the jury overruled. In May they released the album Wishmaster. It went straight to number 1 on the Finnish album charts, and stayed there for three weeks. During those three weeks it was certified gold. Wishmaster was, despite long-awaited releases from Iron Maiden and Bon Jovi which happened simultaneously, declared album of the month in the German magazine Rock Hard. The only single from this album was Deep Silent Complete.

Over the Hills and Far Away / Century Child (2001–2003)

File:Overhillsfarawayvideo.jpg
The band in the video clip for Over the Hills and Far Away

In 2001 Nightwish recorded a cover of Gary Moore's Over the Hills and Far Away. Together with a couple of new songs and a remake of an old one, this was released as the EP Over the Hills and Far Away. The record counted with guest performances by Tony Kakko (from Sonata Arctica) and Tapio Wilska (from Finntroll). They also released a VHS, DVD and CD with live material recorded in a special show in Tampere. All of these were entitled From Wishes to Eternity. Shortly afterwards, Sami Vänskä was asked to leave the band by Tuomas, and Marco Hietala from Sinergy joined the band. Hietala had left Sinergy in order to join Nightwish and is also still a part of the band Tarot with his brother Zachary. The newly acquired bassist would, apart from playing bass, also perform male vocals.

In 2002 Nightwish released Century Child, and the singles Ever Dream and Bless the Child. The main difference from previous albums is the use of a live orchestra from Finland on many songs, to get a stronger feeling of classical music. Century Child was certified gold two hours after its release, and platinum two weeks afterwards. It set a record on the Finnish album charts as well; never before had the second been so distant from the first place. After the Bless the Child video, a second one was released, without any single support though. The chosen track was "End of All Hope". The clip contains pieces from the Finnish movie, Kohtalon kirja (English: The Book of Fate).

In 2003, Nightwish released a second DVD, entitled End of Innocence. Tarja also got married during the summer of 2003, and there were rumours abound that the band was about to split up. These rumours were, at the time, proven to be be false, as the band continued on to play gigs for another year and released a new album.

Once (2004–2005)

File:Tuska wed nw.jpg
A poster advertising Nightwish's concert

A new album entitled Once was released on June 7 2004, along with their first single, Nemo, from that album. Once contains a full orchestra throughout 9 out of the 11 songs on the album. Unlike for Century Child, Nightwish decided to look for an orchestra outside the boundaries of Finland this time. And they chose the London Session Orchestra, also used for recording the original soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is also their second album to feature a full length song in Finnish, Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan (English: Death Makes an Artist). Once has sold triple platinum in Finland, platinum in Germany, gold in Sweden and reached #1 in the Greek, German, Norwegian and Hungarian album charts. The following singles were: Wish I Had an Angel (featured on the soundtrack of the Alone in the Dark film), Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan (released only in Finland) and The Siren.

The success of the album allowed them to do the Once World Tour, which enabled them to play at many different occasions and many new countries, many of which they had never been to before. Among these performances was the opening ceremony of the 2005 World Championships in Athletics held in Helsinki.

A "Best of" album was released in September 2005, containing the most successful Nightwish songs, from their entire discography. The compilation is titled Highest Hopes, featuring a live cover of Pink Floyd's hit "High Hopes" (from the Division Bell album) and a remake of "Sleeping Sun" from Oceanborn. There has also been made a new video for "Sleeping Sun", which can be found on the new Sleeping Sun single. This is included in the German release only. Spinefarm released a separate DVD with the new video.

End of an Era (2005–2006)

File:Nw helsinki 0048.jpg
Playing Creek Mary's Blood with John Two-Hawks at the Hartwall Areena

After the recording of the new live DVD (which isn't due for release until June 2006) End of an Era, the four other members of Nightwish decided that it was best to continue Nightwish without Tarja Turunen [7], a feeling expressed through an open letter. This was due to the fact that they felt that her husband – Marcelo Cabuli – and commercial interests changed her attitude towards Nightwish. The rest of the band considered it to not be working well with the vision of how they saw themselves in the future. Tuomas Holopainen gave the letter to her after the band ended their successful world tour with a sold-out performance at Hartwall Areena in Helsinki on the night of October 21st, 2005. The letter was later published on the band's website. The replacement for Tarja Turunen has not yet been announced. Holopainen repeatedly stated in interviews that Nightwish's new singer will be announced in 2006, although many sources on the internet have already begun to speculate who Turunen's successor will be.

Turunen has responded, saying that the incident came entirely as a shock to her [8]. She felt that the personal attacks on her husband were unwarranted, and playing the issue out to the public was "senselessly cruel". She was not consulted or spoken to before this letter was given to her. She wrote a letter saying most of this to her fans and published it on her own website. She was also interviewed by various TV-stations, magazines and newspapers and stated her feelings towards the subject.

Line-up

Former members

Guest musicians

Discography

Albums

Compilations

Singles

[9]

Year Song Finland Germany Sweden Switzerland Album
1997 "The Carpenter" 3 - - - Angels Fall First
1998 "Sacrament of Wilderness" 1 - - - Oceanborn
1999 "Walking in the Air" 10 - - - Oceanborn
1999 "Sleeping Sun (Four Ballads of the Eclipse)" 2 69 - - Oceanborn
2000 "Deep Silent Complete" 3 - - - Wishmaster
2002 "Ever Dream" 1 - - - Century Child
2002 "Bless the Child" 1 63 - - Century Child
2004 "Nemo" 1 6 12 14 Once
2004 "Wish I Had an Angel" 1 36 11 40 Once
2004 "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan" 1 - - - Once
2005 "The Siren" 3 51 30 59 Once
2005 "Sleeping Sun" 1 - - - Highest Hopes

DVDs

Cover songs

Live covers

Album covers

Samples

Reference

Notes

  1. ^ "Wikisource". Open letter from Tuomas Holopainen. October 23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  2. ^ "Tarjaturunen.com". Open letter from Tarja Turunen. October 31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  3. ^ "Rockdetector". Nightwish Discography. December 27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  4. ^ "James Byrd Tribute". Nightwish - Oceanborn. December 27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  5. ^ "Rockdetector". Nightwish Official Biography. December 28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  6. ^ "Jackal Blaster Zine". Fatima Hill. December 28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  7. ^ "Epica Online". Profile Simone. December 28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  8. ^ "Lords Of Metal". Review: Visions Of Atlantis - Cast Away ; Issue 44. December 28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  9. ^ "MetalKings.ru". NIGHTWISH 27.09.03 Moscow. December 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  10. ^ "Dark Tales". NIGHTWISH - 11.01.2003 - Oberhausen “König Pilsener Arena”. December 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  11. ^ "Orkus Online". Das Ende einer Ära und der Beginn einer neuen. December 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)

See also

Wikiquote has quotations related to Nightwish.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nightwish.
For fanclubs, see List of Nightwish fanclubs
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