Nightwish
Biography
Following in the footsteps of the Gathering and Lacuna Coil (goth-influenced "symphonic" metal bands with female vocalists), Nightwish was formed in Kitee, Finland, in 1997 by keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen. Initially attempting to create acoustic music, he recruited trained opera vocalist Tarja Turunen, but soon added full metal-band instrumentation in the persons of guitarist Emppo Vuorinen, bassist Sami Vänskä, and drummer Jukka Nevalainen. The band's demos landed them a contract with the Finnish label Spinefarm, which released their debut album Angels Fall First in late 1997 (it appeared in the rest of Europe the following year). The follow-up, Oceanborn, appeared in late 1998 and made Nightwish a bonafide mainstream success in their homeland; the album reached the Finnish Top Five and spun off three Top Ten singles. The band toured Europe heavily, consolidating their success, and in 2000 recorded their third album Wishmaster. Not only did it top the Finnish charts, but it also became the group's first album to be released in the U.S. (by Century Media, which reissued their previous albums in 2001 as well). ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Selected Discography
Dark Passion Play
2007
Highest Hopes
2005
Once
2004
Over The Hills And far Away
2004
Century Child
2002
Wishmaster
2000
Oceanborn
1998
"Last of the Wilds" and "The Islander" are two of my favorite songs on DPP. And also, the Celts were not just from Ireland.
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Last Of The Wilds can do that too. :)
I LOVE Celtic music. Therefore, Nightwish + Celtic sound= EPIC WIN! |
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I thought that as well... ^_^'
at the time when I first heard the song, I forgot that Nightwish was from Finland... oopsies... XD |
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I finally got around to The Islander, pretty good song. I see why people would be fooled into thinking they're Irish from that song.
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...and that my biggest complaint is the lousy guitars since Marco came along.
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Okay, I think I'm just going to go back to talking about how awesome and adorable Emppu is. It's safer. |
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well, this Tarja vs Anette discussion is better than the wars on Youtube. this is not bloody at least. :)
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Exactly, and as a team they should be be able to work and flow as one. From the letter it sounds like they were not.
Angel has a point, the letter being open is perhaps not very kosher. I believe they posted it for their fans so they understand the decision, but the matter could have been left private. Anette vs Tarja: The old and new NW have completely different sound. The old is timeless and classic and as such will never die. This doesn't take anything away from what the future may bring. |
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It will take the band time to accommodate a new vocalist. But that usually happens when there are any new members in a band. They still sound great, but they'll get better once they've gotten more used to Anette. She has a completely different voice from Tarja's, and a band is a team, which means they'll have to work together in whatever they do.
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i go along with that plague...the passion is gone even if they used the word on the last lp-lol-i wish i had seen tarja when she came to my city last spring...
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Here's your Anette vs. Tarja debate, 12nights!
@angel: I've got mixed feelings about the whole split. I miss Tarja and old NW (Oceanborn and Wishmaster Era), but I still have hopes that the band can pull it together and produce something great. The talent is there, they just haven't been using it. |
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maybe your a comedian-bla c k humour-there goes the spelling again-drats !anyway black humor is not etnic-its dark-is that what you meant
amy annette noit even close your funny |
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of evanescence- h o p e i spelled that rite-anyway marco is a jerk-just fire her and move on-don't write a letter-thats so boring.i read it and i almost barfed.he did it to not alienate his incredibly popular singer and put the blame and guilt on her.doesn't take a genius to figure that out.
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dear twelth night-amy lee-not annette-im trying to srart an old feud-im a fan of music not a spelling twerp or a computer just a simple music fan-i love annette by the way and when i hear her voice i can't spell the emoiten the way i feel-i just feel...
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Angel:
I don't think you are in the right to insult Anette if: 1.You call her "Amy" 2.Then you spell her name incorrectly. |
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and at leat when they named the song''bye bye beautiful''t h e y called her beautiful-fa c e reality annette is here-and that open letter was written by a bunch of cowardly b**ches.
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the more you listen to symph metal you realize how great Nightwish is.for example''ble s s the child''start s with a haunting chorus and then tarja's voice-oh that voice-heaven l y - h e a r t b r e a k i n g - w e l l , s h e s gone but what she accomplished cant be denied.amy is a child compared to tarja.
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He's a decent songwriter, just not for NW. I didn't mind him with Tarot at all, it's just that since he joined, NW has stopped sounding like NW, and started sounding like NW trying to be Tarot.
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Say what you like about Marco, but the man can pull of a Celtic-influ e n c e d ballad convincingly enough to fool everyone I know who's heard me play The Islander (which he also wrote) into guessing "Ireland" when I then ask them where they think the band is from, heh.
They've started just automaticall y guessing Finland ever since I got them with Poets of the Fall too, ha ha. |
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Calm down 12nights, I am by no means comparing the 2 singers!
Lol. J/K. Anette is new and adjustment is always uncomfortabl e . Things will settle. |
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@omw: She probably was blindsided. The letter says she was threatening to leave if she didn't get her way, so she probably thought she was indispensibl e and that would never happen. Then it did. Oops. Probably popped her ego bubble and decided to continue on solo. It will be interesting to see if she tries to rub her success in Nightwish's face, or if she just lets it go. Either way, I have to side with the rest of the band on this one.
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If someone at my work acted like that and said those things, they would be fired too. Granted, it would take longer due to paperwork and be more private, but everyone would know the story. In fact, a few people have "left" in the past year for only a few of the reasons that Tarja was fired. She got Lead Singer's Disease.
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Yeah, Marco's okay in Northern Kings, but I think it's more because he lends a rough edge on the high end of the spectrum. Tony Kakko's vocals are so sugar-coated anymore that it would be overly cheesy if there wasn't something a little rougher up there.
I'm personally fond of Mathias Blad from Falconer, Vortex from Arcturus, and whoever does the clean male vocals for Sirenia...th e y ' r e not great, but I'd like to think that I sound like that when I'm actually trying to sing well, so I like 'em |
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Tony Kakko as the Phantom? Now THAT would be awesome! Admittedly the studio version of that cover sucks, but the live one from End Of An Era is pretty good.
However, I do love Marco... when he's singing in Tarot or the Northern Kings. He does have a very nice and powerful voice, but it feels somewhat.. extra in NW. He IS a great singer though! (Although I think my favorite male singer would be either Tony or Osten from Tristania.) |
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I wasn't talking about Annette vs. Tarja, I was talking about Tuomas, Marco, and Emppu writing poppy nu-metal-esq u e riffs and poppish metal in general.
Personally, I think Marco's a crappy singer too. His addition to their rendition of "Phantom of the Opera" is pretty disgraceful. They should have got Tony Kakko to do the studio version of that with them. |
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yeah, it would have just sucked for everyone in Nightwish to get into a huge cat fight with Tarja. good thing it was settled some-what cleanly...
anyway, I'll add no more to that topic. *washes hands* I think my biggest complaint is the... boring guitars, I guess. but heck, Nightwish is Nightwish is Nightwish. they're good. |
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I've always been fond of 'The Kinslayer' and 'Dead Boy's Poem' from that album.
I read Tarja's letter and have to comment (sorry halloween). She sounds completely blindsided by the decision. This makes me wonder how much of the problem was miscommunica t i o n and how much is genuine. How much Tarja is being honest and how much this is a front for her image. Regardless, I give her credit for not retaliating and exacerbating the situation. |
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Lachoneus:
Actually, from what I've heard, Tarja didn't write that song. It was given to her by her record company. Apparently the only song she wrote herself was Oasis. GETTING AWAY FROM THIS FRUSTRATING TOPIC... *clears throat* Let's talk about something else. You know what song I think is really underrated? Wanderlust. It's one of my favorites, yet it seems to be usually overlooked. I've only heard it performed live twice. It seems very demanding instrumental l y , especially for Emppu. |
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AHHHHHHHH!!! ! ! I leave for five minutes and this place is drowning in a tide of Tarja VS Anette conversation ! *Shakes head* Why do I even try?
Since I infinitely prefer to talk about Sami then Tarja, Fangirl, you make a good point. I found that, since Wishmaster actually, the guitar/bass riffs went from complex and fast to somewhat boring. This isn't necessarily a BAD thing, when the band still makes great music, but it is noteworthy. |
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hey, I still haven't heard all of DPP and the Tarja stuff, but I find that musically the band kind of went on a decline since the bassist (Sami?) left and Marco replaced him.
as for Anette, I don't mind her, but she makes Nightwish sound softer than what I'm used to. I thinking something with Marco's coming and Tarja's leaving might be why Nightwish might be going "downhill" in a sense. then again, it's too soon to tell. but that's my few cents. |
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Just read the letter, shame she turned out that way. Kinda poetic that both Nightwish and Tarja would both right songs about this event. Nightwish made the obvious BBB and DPG, then Tarja came out with "I Walk Alone." I miss her, but they found a great replacement.
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DPP is more pop, true, which begs the question ... did the band really avert disaster after all? Only time will tell. For now I will enjoy the continuation of what I still believe to be one of the most powerful and influential symphonic metal bands in existance.
BBB is sorrowful, regretful, but also resentful that the choice was forced upon them. |
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...and yet, as soon as they kicked her out, they started writing crappy riffs with strong pop appeal...
It seems to me that they weren't really blasting her in "BBB", but were rather expressing the fact that it was unfortunate that they HAD to part ways. |
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While the whole situation is sad and frustrating, it shows the courage of a band who wants to make music from their heart and soul and not put success and money top priority. The open letter to Tarja was more a message to fans explaining the split than a message to Tarja.
I for one am happier about their decision having read the letter. Clearly Tarja did not have the proper motives and had she continued with Nightwish, would have been the band's death ... in one form or another. |
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I'd just like to know why they blasted her in Bye Bye Beautiful when they had asked her to leave the band. Realisticall y , it just means that the matter's much more complicated than we've seen from the media.
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I can attest that, even with no prior knowledge of the song's meaning, anyone roughly familiar with Tarja's departure from Nightwish will quickly work out what Bye Bye Beautiful is about (I did and I was only halfway listening to the chorus while playing an MMO). The lyrics LOOK a lot angrier than the actual delivery of the song ends up making them sound, should you go look those up. More disappointme n t than anger really.
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As distasteful as the letter was, Tarja was being a bit of a diva. I still like her, though.
@12nights: I saw your comment about Sami on the pages not shown. I've been wondering the same thing. It's pretty dumb that a big deal wasn't made when Sami left. Why not????? |
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I just read the open letter to Tarja, wow! Sounds like Tarja needed to get a grip on life and stop basing every decision solely on what she and/or her husband wanted.
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True. Haven't heard Bye Bye Beautiful yet but Master Passion Greed is angry.
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