Nightwish is a Finnish heavy metal band. The group is distinguished by a combination of academic female vocals with heavy music.
The Nightwish team manages to reserve the right to be called one of the most successful and popular bands in the world for a year in a row. The group's repertoire is mainly composed of tracks in English.
The history of the creation and composition of the Nightwish group
Nightwish appeared on the scene back in 1996. Rock musician Tuomas Holopainen is at the origins of the band. The history of the creation of the band is simple - the rocker had a desire to perform exclusively acoustic music.
One day Tuomas shared his plans with guitarist Erno Vuorinen (Emppu). He decided to support the rocker. Soon, young people began to actively recruit musicians for the new band.
Friends planned to include several musical instruments in the band. Tuomas and Emppu heard acoustic guitar, flute, strings, piano and keyboards. Initially, the vocals were planned to be female.
This would allow the rock band to stand out, since then rock bands with female vocals could be counted on the fingers. The passion for the repertoire of The 3rd and the Mortal, Theater of Tragedy, The Gathering influenced the choice of Tuomas.
The role of the vocalist was adopted by the charming Tarja Turunen. But the girl possessed not only appearance, but also strong vocal abilities. Tuomas was not happy with Tarja.
He even admitted that he wanted to show her the door. As a vocalist, the leader saw someone similar to Kari Rueslotten (The 3rd and the Mortal band). However, having performed several tracks, Tarja was enrolled.
Turunen has always been interested in music. Her teacher recalled that the girl could perform any musical composition without preparation.
She especially managed to rehash the hits of Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin. Then the girl became interested in the repertoire of Sarah Brightman, she was especially inspired by the style of The Phantom of the Opera.
Anette Olzon is the second vocalist after Tarja Turunen. Interestingly, more than 2 thousand people attended the casting, but it was she who was enrolled in the group. Annette sang in the band Nightwish from 2007 to 2012.
Composition
At the moment, the rock band consists of: Floor Jansen (vocals), Tuomas Holopainen (composer, lyricist, keyboards, vocals), Marco Hietala (bass guitar, vocals), Jukka Nevalainen (Julius) (drums), Erno Vuorinen (Emppu) (guitar), Troy Donockley (bagpipes, whistle, vocals, guitar, bouzouki) and Kai Hahto (drums).
Creative way and music of Nightwish
The debut acoustic album was released in 1997. This is a mini-LP, which includes only three tracks: Nightwish, The Forever Moments and Etiäinen.
The title track was named after the band. The musicians sent the debut album to prestigious labels and radio stations.
Despite the fact that the guys did not have enough experience in creating musical compositions, the first album was of high quality and the professionalism of the musicians.
Tarja Turunen's vocals sounded so powerful that the acoustic music simply "washed out" against his background. That is why the musicians decided to invite a drummer to the group.
Soon the talented Jukka Nevalainen took the place of the drummer, and Emppu replaced the acoustic guitar with an electric one. Now heavy metal sounded distinctly in the band's tracks.
Angels Fall First album
In 1997 Nightwish released their first album called Angels Fall First. The collection includes 7 songs. Several of them were performed by Tuomas Holopainen. Later, his vocals were not heard anywhere. Erno Vuorinen played the bass guitar.
The album was released in 500 discs. The collection sold out instantly. A little later, the material was finalized. The original collection is a huge rarity, which is why collectors “hunt” for the collection.
At the end of 1997, the first performance of the legendary group took place. In winter, the musicians held 7 concerts.
In early 1998, the musicians released their first video clip, The Carpenter. Not only the soloists of the group, but also professional actors took part there.
In 1998, Nightwish's discography was enriched with a new album, Oceanborn. On November 13, the band performed in Kitee, where the musicians recorded a video clip for the track Sacrament of Wilderness.
The guys started working on a new record. Recording the album was accompanied by difficulties. However, music lovers liked the Oceanborn compilation, taking the 5th position in the official chart in Finland. The album later reached platinum status.
The soloists of the cult group first appeared on television. On the air of the TV2 - Lista program, they performed the compositions Gethsemane and Sacrament of Wilderness.
A year later, the team toured their native Finland. In addition, the musicians participated in all prestigious rock festivals. Such activity increased the number of fans.
At the end of 1999, the musicians presented the single Sleeping Sun. The composition was dedicated to the topic of a solar eclipse in Germany. It turned out that this was the first custom song.
Tour with Rage
The team has gained loyal fans not only in their native Finland, but also in Europe. In the fall of the same 1999, the musicians went on tour with the Rage group.
A huge surprise for the Nightwish band was that some listeners left the concert immediately after the performance of their band. The Rage team lost in popularity to the Nightwish group.
In the 2000s, the group decided to test their strength in the qualifying round for the international Eurovision Song Contest. Track Sleepwalker confidently won the audience vote. However, the performance of the guys did not cause significant delight among the jury.
In 2000, the musicians presented a new album, Wishmaster. In terms of sound, it turned out to be much more powerful and “heavier” than previous works.
The top tracks of the new album were the tracks: She Is My Sin, The Kinslayer, Come Cover Me, Crownless, Deep Silent Complete. The record took the 1st position in the music charts and held the leading position for three weeks.
The band's first solo tour
At the same time, Rock Hard magazine chose Wishmaster as their compilation of the month. In the summer of 2000, the band went on their first solo tour.
The musicians delighted their European listeners with quality music. At the concert, the band recorded the first full-fledged live album with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. From Wishes to Eternity on DVD, VHS and CD.
A year later, a cover version of the song Over the Hills and Far Away appeared. It turned out to be the favorite song of the founder of a rock band. Following the release of the cover version, the musicians also presented a video clip.
The Nightwish group did not bypass the Russian "fans" either. Soon the team performed on the territory of Moscow and St. Petersburg. After this event, the team visited the Russian Federation for two years in a row during a tour.
In 2002, the band's discography was replenished with a new compilation, Century Child. In 2004, the Once collection was released. Before the presentation of the album, the musicians presented the single Nemo.
The collection, released in 2002, was interesting because the musicians recorded most of the songs with the participation of the London Session Orchestra.
In addition, one of the musical compositions was recorded in Finnish, and another Lakota Indian played the flute and sang in his native language in the recording of another track.
In 2005, the musical group went on another tour in honor of the release of the new album. The team has traveled to more than 150 countries around the world. After a massive tour, Nightwish left Tarja Turunen.
Departure from the group vocalist Tarja Turunen
None of the fans expected this turn of events. As it turned out later, the vocalist herself provoked her departure from the band.
Turunen could cancel a number of concerts, sometimes did not appear at rehearsals, disrupted press conferences, and also refused to appear in commercials.
The rest of the group, in connection with such a “disregard” attitude towards the team, handed Turunen a letter in which there was an appeal to the vocalist:
“Nightwish is a journey of life, as well as working on a significant amount of commitment to both the soloists of the group and to the fans. With you, we can no longer take care of these obligations, so we have to say goodbye ... ".
A year later, the musicians were already working on the creation of a new album, Dark Passion Play. The record was recorded by new vocalist Anette Olzon. Amaranth was certified gold within a few days of sales.
The next few years the team was on tour. In 2011, the musicians released their 7th studio album, which was called Imaginaerum.
By tradition, the team went on a tour. There were no losses. The vocalist Anette left the band. Her place was taken by Floor Jansen. She participated in the recording of the Endless Forms Most Beautiful compilation, which was released in 2015.
Nightwish band today
In 2018, the band delighted fans of their work with the compilation album Decades. This compilation is filled with the band's discography in reverse order.
It contained remastered versions of the original tracks. At the same time, the musicians began touring as part of the Decades: World Tour.
In 2020, it became known that on April 10 the presentation of the 9th album of the musical group would take place. The record was called Human.:II: Nature.
The compilation will be released on two discs: 9 tracks on the first disc and one song divided into 8 parts on the second. In the spring of 2020, Nightwish will begin a world tour in support of the release of the new album.
