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Nightwish

Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band, formed in 1996. While the songs are mostly written by the band's keyboard player, Tuomas Holopainen, their success is also widely attributed to the vocals. These are performed by Tarja Turunen, who has studied classical singing in the Finnish Sibelius Academy, and in Germany. Currently, backup vocals are performed by bass player Marco Hietala.

The musical style of Nightwish has been described as power metal, opera metal and symphonic metal, amongst others. Tuomas Holopainen once described their music as "melodic heavy metal with a female voice".

Band history

Nightwish's formation officially took place in Kitee, Finland in July of 1996. 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 name Nightwish came from one of the songs on their very first acoustic demo ("Nightwish", "The Forever Moments" and "Etiäinen").

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. These songs can be found on the limited edition of Angels Fall First.

In May 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 position 31 on the Finnish album charts. A single entitled The Carpenter had been released beforehand, and it reached position 8 on the Finnish singles chart.

In 1998 Sami Vänskä joined the band to play bass guitar. This year they released the album Oceanborn. This album was a little heavier than the previous one. It reached position 5 on the Finnish album charts. The single from that album, Sacrament of Wilderness, went straight to the first place of the Finnish single charts. This album did better than anyone 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 eclipse in Germany. This single sold 15.000 copies during the first month in Germany alone. Oceanborn was certified gold in August.

In 2000 Nightwish participated in the Finnish qualification for the Eurovision song contest with the song Sleepwalker. They ended up in second place. They won the public televoting, but the jury overruled. In May they released the album Wishmaster. It went straight to first position in 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, at the same time declared album of the month in the German magazine Rock Hard. The only single from this album was Deep Silent Complete.

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. 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 left the band for personal reasons, and Marco Hietala from Sinergy joined the band. Hietala left Sinergy to join Nightwish, however, he is also a part of the band Tarot.

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 blockbuster movie, Kohtalon Kirja (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 have been proven to be false, as they have played an entire year of gigs and released a new album since.

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 (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.

A Best Of will be released in September 2005, containing the most successful Nightwish songs, from all their five albums. It will be entitled Highest Hopes, also featuring a live cover of Pink Floyd's hit, High Hopes and a remake of Sleeping Sun.

The next Nightwish full release is expected for early 2007.

Line-up

Tarja Turunen - Vocals
Tuomas Holopainen - Keyboards, piano
Marco Hietala - Bass, vocals
Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen - Guitar
Jukka Nevalainen - Drums

Former Members

Sami Vänskä - Bass

Guest Musicians

Tapio Wilska (Finntroll) - Oceanborn and Over the Hills and Far Away
Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica) - Over the Hills and Far Away
John Two-Hawks - Once

Discography

External links

Official sites

Fan sites

@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 ====Guest Musicians====
-* [[Tapio Wilska]] ([[Finntroll]]) - ''[[Oceanborn]]'' and ''[[Over the Hills and Far Away]]''
+* [[Tapio Wilska]] ([[Finntroll]]) - ''[[Oceanborn]]'' and ''[[Over the Hills and Far Away (album)|Over the Hills and Far Away]]''
-* [[Tony Kakko]] ([[Sonata Arctica]]) - ''[[Over the Hills and Far Away]]''
+* [[Tony Kakko]] ([[Sonata Arctica]]) - ''[[Over the Hills and Far Away (album)|Over the Hills and Far Away]]''
-* [[John Two-Hawks]] - ''[[Once]]''
+* [[John Two-Hawks]] - ''[[Once (Nightwish_album)|Once]]''
 ==Discography==

Revision as of 12:58, 16 August 2005

Band history

Line-up

Former Members

Guest Musicians

Discography

Albums

Singles

Compilations

DVDs

External links

Official sites

Fan sites