Nightwish

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Nightwish

Nightwish is a Finnish power metal band, formed in 1996. While the songs are mostly written by the band's leader, 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 currently studies opera singing in Germany. In recent songs, Marco Hietala, the bass player, has started to sing as well.

The musical style of Nightwish has been described as opera metal, symphonic metal, and goth 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 1997. 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.

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 third 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.

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. 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 which was formed during his time with Nightwish.

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 on most 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.

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.

A new album entitled Once was released on the June 7 2004, along with their first single, Nemo, from that album. Once is their first album to feature a full length song in Finnish (Kuolema tekee taiteilijan). It has also sold double platinum in Finland and reached #1 on the Greek, German and Norwegian album charts.

Band members

Former members

Discography

Albums

Singles

Compilations

DVDs

Similar bands

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