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Nightwish

 


I have discovered that I have become obsessed with a Finnish metal band. If you don’t have the patience to listen to a middle age man gush about a rock band, then you had better move on, because that is the kind of blog this is going to be. First, I should state that there are many different flavors of metal music. Alternative metal, death metal, funk metal, black metal, Christian metal and more. The band that I am talking about is Nightwish, and they fall under the heading of “symphonic metal.”

Most of the songs are written by the leader and keyboard player, Tuomas Holopainen who has proven himself a masterful composer. Whether he wants to take you on a rocket ride or plumb the depth of his soul, you will feel it. It doesn’t hurt that they often have the London Philharmonic Orchestra backing them up. Nightwish can rock out with the best of them or they can play beautiful lyrical productions that sound like they belong in a movie score.

The band was started in 1996. That is a long time for a band to be in existence, especially one that most Americans have probably never heard of. Not that they don’t have a fair number of fans in America, but it is definitely a niche audience here. Nightwish is much bigger in Europe where they play to sold out stadiums.  They have undergone a number of lineup changes over the years. Most visibly with their lead singer. They started with the incomparable operatic soprano Tarja Turunen (all of Nightwish’s lead singers are sopranos). In 2007 the lead vocal duties were handed to Anette Olzon, and in 2013 Olzon was replaced with Floor Jansen their current singer. There is nothing wrong with Anette’s singing, but she doesn’t carry quite the vocal gravitas that either Tarja or Floor do. Floor Jansen is Dutch, and she is a vocal athlete. I can’t think of any better term for her. She can leave you stunned. If you don’t think a song can give you goosebumps, you haven’t heard Floor sing. The other musicians in the band are masters at their craft. I love them all.

For the past 20 years when the song called for a male voice those duties have mostly fallen to bass player Marko Hietala. Marko can growl and scream like you might expect from a metal singer (though he doesn’t do a lot of that) but he can also harmonize with Floor in a manner of sheer beauty or sheer power, depending on what they are going for. All of us Nightwish fans were saddened early this year when Marko announced that he was leaving Nightwish.  It was devastating news, but Marko has to do what is right for himself.

If you want to check out Nightwish but don’t know where to start, most people suggest watching “Ghost Love Score” (2013, Live at Wacken) on Youtube. It has 21 Million views! The songs they play at their live shows are not just songs, they are almost like performance art, with pyrotechnics, video boards, fireworks and the dramatic performance of the singers. When you have some Nightwish experience under your belt, you can watch “The Greatest Show on Earth”, a masterpiece.

Okay, enough gushing. Do yourself a favor and check them out.


Star Liner

Comments

  1. Wild River GuitarMarch 14, 2021 at 7:06 PM

    They are a good group Nightwish. I am only really familiar with Nemo I have there other stuff but I never dug to deep into the band. Maybe you should include a youtube video in the post.

    ReplyDelete

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