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Assembling in the mid-'90s, in the town of Kitee, FINLAND, the Goth-Metal
outfit Nightwish comprises a three-piece line-up of vocalist Tarja Turunen,
Erno 'Emppu' Vuorinen on guitar+bass and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen.
In the spring of 1997 they were joined by drummer Jukka Nevalainen and
soon after the band went into the studio to record some new songs.
In May 1997, Nightwish signed a recording contract with Spinefarm for
two records. That August, the band went to the studio and recorded four
new songs. Before the release of "Angels Fall First", the single
called "The Carpenter" made it to #8 on the official Finnish
Singles chart. "Angels Fall First" was finally released in early
November and went #31 in Finland.
With the arrival of bassist Sami Vänskä, Nightwish expanded
to a five-piece ensemble and in December 1998 the group released their
second studio record, "Oceanborn", which climbed into the top
5 of the Finnish Albums chart while the main single, "Sacrament Of
Wilderness", hit #1.
Constant touring to support the album kept the band busy until early 2000
when they recorded "Wishmaster", which was released late in
the year. The album went straight to #1 in their native Finland producing
the top 3 hit "Deep Silent Complete"; "Wishmaster"
also debuted on the German Albums chart at #21 and #66 in France. The
following year Vänskä left, because of disagreements within
the band; bass player Marco Hietala, stepped in as a replacement for the
next album and tour.
"Century Child" came out in May 2002 and made a sales record,
selling gold in Finland within two hours, within two weeks it sold platinum
30,000 copies. At the same time Nightwish held the top-position on the
singles chart with two singles: "Ever Dream" and "Bless
The Child". Foreign countries responded, too: in Germany, "Century
Child" shot to #5 and in Austria reached the #15 position. In July,
Nightwish toured successfully in South America, where nearly all gigs
were sold out and the successful European tour that year didn't go unnoticed
by booking agencies.
July 2004 saw the release of band's fifth studio effort, "Once"
which contained two European smash singles, "Nemo" and "Wish
I Had An Angel". With this album, Nightwish made some changes with
the recording contract and the new material was released by Nuclear Blast;
Spinefarm Records would still handle the distribution in Finland. The
album peaked at #1 in Germany, Norway, Sweden and in their homeland; by
the end of 2005, "Once" has sold nearly one million copies worldwide.
Nightwish frontwoman Tarja Turunen was fired by her bandmates after the
final show of their "Once" world tour, which took place on October
21, 2005 in Helsinki.
"Amaranth" is the new single from Finnish symphonic Metallers'
2007 album "Dark Passion Play"; the 13-track set signals the
arrival of new singer Anette Olzon.
Nightwish biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
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