Do you know Nightwish?

Nightwish

I.  Band Members and Introduction

 Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic power metal band from Kitee, Finland. The band was founded by Keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen and their former vocalist, Tarja Turunen. Tuomas had played with several heavy metal bands before but in 1996 he decided to start his own project. He got his schoolmate Emppu Vuorinen to play guitar and the vocalist Tarja Turunen to sing vocals. They all shared the same music teacher at their school.

The band was originally meant for playing songs that would be sung around campfires but realized Turunen's voice was too powerful for that so he brought in the elements of electric guitar and drums. Emppu switched to playing electric guitar and drummer Jukka Nevalainen joined the band after they recorded their first demo. The addition of those heavy metal elements made way for the core sound Nightwish have today. 

 The current line up today comprises 5 members; although Tarja Turunen was replaced by Anette Olzon and the original bassist; Sami Vänskä was replaced by Marco Hietala. The current 5 members are as follows:

Tuomas Holopainen 

 

 Tuomas Holopainen was born on Christmas Day, 25th of December 1976 in Kitee, Finland. He was in some ways a prodigy child, his musicality and skill in text expression showed early in school and his mother signed him up for piano lessons at the age of seven. He later studied clarinet, tenor saxophone, piano and music theory for eleven years at a music college. 

He is the founder and main songwriter for Nightwish 

 

Emppu Vuorinen

  

Emppu Vuorinen is one of the three founding members of Nightwish. He was born on 24th of June 1978 in Kitee, Finland. He started playing guitar as a private study when he was twelve. He also later studied at the same music college as Tuomas did and that's where they met and afterwards, founded Nightwish.

 Emppu is endorsed by and plays guitars made by the japanese guitar company ESP. His signature model is a purple ESP EV-1 which is based off his initials. The EV-1 is equipped with Seymour Duncan pick ups. A TB-5 in the bridge, an SHR-1 in the middle, and an SH-2n in the neck.

  He has a distinct sound in his playing and is primarily a rhythm player, often supporting the keyboard or orchestral parts of Nightwish songs. However, he plays lead melodies and solos as well. Vuorinen's solo techniques usually include alternate picking, tapping, sliding, legato, and minor to extreme whammy bar use; he also employs sweep picking, although very rarely. His solos are more melodic than those of most metal bands, but he sometimes shreds.

  Emppu has also co-writes a lot of Nightwish songs on almost every album except for Angels Falls First.  Fun fact, he's only 160cm tall.

 

Marco Hietala

 

 Marco Hietala was born on january 14, 1966, making him the oldest of the five. He was born in Tevo, Finland, a small municipality hosting around 1,700 people. 

 He joined Nightwish in 2002 for the album Century Child, replacing previous bassist Sami Vänskä. He's been an active and creative force for them ever since, co-writing and singing songs. In live shows where Tarja Turunen would usually take a break half-way through the set, Nightwish would usually play and instrumental song. After Marco entered the scene they began doing covers of other songs or having him sing some of their own. He completely wrote the popular Nightwish song "The Islander" himself for the album Dark Passion Play as well as singing a couple of other songs by himself.

 Other then that, Marco has been involved with a number of other bands, acts and projects such as  Tarot, Sinergy, Northern Kings and Delain.

 

Jukka Nevalainen

 

 

 Jukka Nevalainen was born on April 21, 1978 in Finland. He spent his early days in Kitee and his drumming career started at the age of 11 when his music teacher told him he thought he would fit in well as a drummer for a music project at school. At the age of 17 he had already joined up with guitarist Emppu Vuorinen who contacted Tuomas Holopainen after forming Nightwish and invited him to join the band. 

Jukka is a vegetarian and has a wife and kid who he lives with in Finland. He's also well known for spinning his drumsticks while drumming and his bandana 

 

Anette Olzon

 

 Anette Olzon was born on 21 June 1971 in Helsingborg, Sweden. She used to be the singer for a swedish band called Alyson Avenue, but she left the band after joining Nightwish, replacing their first vocalist, Tarja Turunen. 

 Anette does not quite have the same operatic voice as Tarja did and we can hear how the new songs from Nightwish reflect that, both in the way they are composed as well as the fact that Marco the bassist sings a handful of songs.

 Anette had been raised in a musical family and her mother forced her to play oboe for eight years. She's been in a handful of bands before Nightwish. Her husband is the bassist for the swedish band Pain. She has two kids, one born in 2001 called Seth and on july 30th she gave birth to her second son whom she named Nemo. (Fun fact; one of Nightwish' more popular songs is called Nemo so he either named him after that or really loves the animated fish movie.)

 

II. Early Days

 Nightwish was founded in 1996 as a project by Tuomas Holopainen. What started out as a project to play campfire music for Tuomas turned out a lot different then what he had expected I would say.

"He immediately had a clear idea of the music: experimental acoustic music he wrote himself, similar to the music usually played around campfires, but with a distinct sound and atmosphere" - Tuomas

 

Like previously mentioned, after Tarja joined the project, he realised that her voice was too powerful for that genre of music so he brought in the elements of electric guitar and drums.

In 1997, just after Nightwish released their first demo, drummer Jukka Nevalainen joined band and Emppu Vuorinen switched from acoustic to electric guitar. They hit the studio soon after that and released their second demo entitled Angel's Fall First. This demo made their way for a record label with Spinefarm Records in May 1997 and with them released their next two albums; Oceanborn and Wishmaster

 They made their live debut in the town of Kitee but they were missing a bassist so Samppa Hirvonen was brought in to play the live show. They originally intended to have Hirvonen join the band and play with them but Holopainen and Nevalainen had to serve in the Finnish army so things kind of broke up between them and Hirvonen.

 After that and with the release of their new albums, Nightwish's star started to shine and it shone bright. They became immensely popular in their country, Finland, as well as internationally. 

 

III. Genre and Style of Music

  At first, Holopainen mainly wrote about mythological and fantasy themes, referring to metaphysics and nature. He's a self-proclaimed Hans Zimmer fanatic, watching the movie The Village as often as 2-3 times a day and up to 10 times a week. He get's most of his influence and inspiration from Film Music. Notably, songs like Ghost Love Score, Beauty and the Beast and The Poet and the Pendulum give you a special feeling. A feeling when your listening, as if you were in a fantasty land and you are the main character and the story spins around as the song progresses. He also gets influence from writers and poets such as Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman and Stephen King. He's also hinted an influence from J.R.R. Tolkiens books Lord of the Rings which can be heard in a couple of songs including Elvenpath.

 

 

 Nightwish perform a blend of symphonic metal and power metal. Some even claim it to have a trail of gothic metal which might be true since some of the members including songwriter, Holopainen, are in side projects that have gothic metal themes. Their music has been described as "Bombastic heavy, symphonic and cinematic, with keyboards and strings creating a gothic athmosphere.

The usage of a female vocalist has also become some sort of a trademark. Though, since the mid-2000s it's become quite popular with a flora of bands.

 Turunen's soprano voice formed the core sound of Nightwish until she was handed an official resignation letter after the "End of an Era" Live concert, which in my opinion is their best live performance of all. If I had a chance to go back in time, I would go back and get a ticket to go see that concert even if it was my last. A lot of fans have protested the sudden change in genre with the change vocalists but I've already accepted the fact. I can just listen to the old songs. Some of the new ones are great as well though, I'm mostly interested in the guitarist right now.

 Here's a video showcasing Turunen's extensive vocal capabilities live (as well as one of my favorite songs at the moment) and the whole band being awesome in one of the best concerts ever. 

 

 

 

IV. Career and Discography

• Angels Fall First (1997)

  - Angels Fall First was their first album, released shortly after their 2nd demo. It included some popular Nightwish songs that were of a bit different genre then the other albums. This one was Folk Metal and Acoustic oriented. It was well received in Finland but it didn't really sell many copies. 

 

I will also link my favorite song off each album unless I specify otherwise. 

 

 

 

• Oceanborn (1998)

- Oceanborn was released a year later in Finland and in the summer of 1999 worldwide. It was given more praise in the media compared to their first album and includes a handful of popular Nightwish songs. Oceanborn showcased a more bombastic, power metal-oriented sound with a faster tempos, harmonic guitar/keyboard leads, and plenty of double bass drum works. It featued guest vocalist Tapio Wilska from the finnish metal band Finntroll and they also covered the famous song Walking in the Air by Howard Blake which Holopainen regards as one of his favorite piece of music.

 

 

 

• Wishmaster (2000)

- In 2000 Wishmaster was released. This album was a turning point and had a new emphasis on athmosphere and melody instead of powerful speed and heaviness. It became much more popular then the first two albums and the song Wishmaster itself climbed to the top of the finnish music charts and remains one of Nightwish' greatest hits, appearing on several greatest hits albums. 

 

- It's definitely not my favorite piece, but it's alright I guess. What's funny though is that the vocalist at the time, Tarja Turunen, had a really strong finnish accent when singing in english. This gave birth to "misheard lyrics" videos on youtube. Here's one for example.

 

 

 

• Century Child (2002)

- This album was a notable departure from previous albums, lyrically and musically. The overall music scheme is slower, darker then Oceanborn and Wishmaster. Even with all that, it received a very positive reply. It's also the first album Emppu Vuorinen tunes his guitar to Drop D (and not the last! ^^). The album received a double platinum reward in Finland and was well received in other countries and world wide as well. This album was also the first in which Marco Hietala played on.

 

 

 

• Once (2004)

  - Once, one of my favorite albums. It's the first album Vuorinen played fully in Drop D. It instantly went triple platinum in Finland, platinum in Germany and gold in a handful of other countrys. It was by far the most successful album they had made. It features a handful of my favorite songs so choosing one will be hard. It featured a lot of supporting artists such as John Two-Hawks in the song Creek Mary's Blood. Some of the songs give me chills when I listen to them I don't know why. It's also the last album in which vocalist Tarja Turunen was included. 

 

Here it is, live, just amazing.

 

 

 

 

• Dark Passion Play (2007)

- By the time this album was out I was kind of still pissed off about the band firing vocalist Tarja Turunen after the End of an Era live show in 2005. Though, the album has grown on me and some of the songs really are great; for example Amaranth and Eva which displays the new singers potential. This is the album that Nightwish made after Anette Olzon joined them after Tarjas removal. It's sold over 2 million copys worldwide and topped the charts in over 6 countrys. 

 

 

 

• Imaginaerum (2011)

- I'm not going to write anything here. This album is being released soon and I've already pre-ordered my copy (I get a free t-shirt as well!). I haven't looked at any information about it or read much. I'll simply wait for my album to arrive in the mail and then put it in the player and sit/lie down and listen. I have great expectations from it and I just can't wait.

 

 

 

VI. Conclusion and why I love Nightwish.

 I'm not sure if there's a conclusion to this. This has only been my thoughts and words throughout the whole blog.

 I've been playing guitar since I was 13. It's great fun and all but requires a lot of practicing. One of the main things I love about Nightwish is the guitarist. I idolize him in my playing and I even spent over 2,000 euro's to get an ESP Horizon guitar identical to his.

 

 I also spend most of my time practicing their songs. Most of them are hard to learn and technical because he employs such a special style of alternative picking, strumming, tapping and so on.  

 One of the main reasons I love Nightwish is that I can listen to their songs no matter what kind of mood I am in. They're songs have meaning and have a great melody to them. I sometimes get chills down my spine and brighten up hearing some of their songs. 

 I've put a handful of Nightwish songs in the music player in the left sidebar for you to listen to while reading, or for later if your interested in the band and want a place to get to know it :) 

VII. Vocabulary

 Some of the vocabulary used in my articles/subjects might not be familiar to a lot of readers that aren't familiar with the music industry. I'm going to list a few that I found unfamiliar myself and give their definitions.

 Symphonic - suggestive of a symphony especially in form, interweaving of themes, or harmonious arrangemen

 Vocalist - A singer

 Demo -  brief tape or recording illustrating the abilities of a musician or other performer. 

 Prodigy- A person with exceptional talents or powers (in this context; a musical genius)

 Musicality - Musical sensitivity or talent.

 Endorsement - The act of endorsing (in this context; ESP Guitars provide service for Emppu)

 Signature - the name of a person or a mark or sign representing his name (In this case Emppu's guitar)

 Legato - a style of playing in which no perceptible gaps are left between notes

 Tapping - a style of playing in which you employ your strumming hand to tap notes on the neck

 Sliding - An ornamentation consisting of two grace notes approaching the main note.

 Alternate Picking - a style of playing that employs strictly alternating downward and upward strokes

 Whammy Bar - a lever attached to the back of the strings on a guitar allowing you to bend them and changing the pitch

 Shred - Shred guitar or shredding refers to lead electric guitar playing that relies heavily on fast guitar solos.