I know this is hard for many people to believe but I do like music outside of KISS. No, I am not kidding and it is not April Fool's Day. I have a varied taste in music but am a huge fan of the hair metal/hard rock/heavy metal genres. One of my favorite bands is classified as Symphonic metal. Now what is Symphonic metal you ask? Well, the answer is quite simple. Symphonic metal is a term used to describe heavy metal music that has symphonic elements; that is, elements that are either borrowed from classical music or, as with progressive rock music, create a style reminiscent of it, e.g. operatic female lead vocals; instrumentation that includes acoustic guitars and different types of keyboards instead of relying solely on electric guitars; asymmetrical meters such as 5/4 and 7/8, and classical thematic material in addition to characteristically heavy metal power riffs. Got that?? Good!!
One day I was listening to an internet radio station called W00T! Radio that streamed live during a play session of the MMORPG City Of Heroes (that I still play and will post a blog about another day.) As I was listening to the traditional hard rock and metal acts such as Guns N Roses, Metallica and Iron Maiden, they played something not like anything I ever heard before.
The song was called "Wish I Had An Angel' from the band Nightwish. I could tell that they were a foreign band due to the accents in the vocals but I had never ever heard of this band before. They were as heavy as Metallica but had a female lead vocalist and a male vocalist who had a powerful and raw voice. For whatever reason I thought they were Japanese from the sound. I dunno why. I am the type of person that when I like something, I need to know ALL about it. So I did a Google search on this band to see what they were about.
Nightwish was from Kitee, Finland and was consisted of creator and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, drummer Jukka_Nevalainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, Bass Player Marco Hietala and vocalist Tarja Turunen. The band reminded me somewhat of Evanescence and I thought they were maybe an international wannabe. However I soon found out that Nightwish have existed many years before Evanescence. The line up changed over the years as different bass players did come and go until Marco Hietala joined full time. In 2007 Anette Olzon replaced Tarja Turunen, who was fired from the band, and the sound has changed slightly. Tarja's vocals are well versed in Opera and she brought very powerful vocals to the band in that style. Anette is more of a rock and roll singer and her vocals reflect that. I love both vocals but do like the new sound with Anette as it is opens the band up to a wider audience.
I own almost every Nightwish cd along with 2 cd singles. All of my Nightwish cds have been imports in some way and some coming from Argentina, Finland, Germany and Russia. I will list each cd I have later in the blog. My favorite Nightwish cd is also their best selling and most well known album "Once." The tracklist is strong and the band had fully developed their sound at the time that this cd was released. It also included the song "Wish I Had An Angel" which was the first Nightwish song to get Mtv play in North America as well as be one the soundtrack of a few North American movies.
I prefer Nightwish songs that have Marco singing as well as either Tarja/Anette. He brings such a raw and edgy vocal style and it compliments the female vocals very well. My favorite Nightwish songs are as follows: Wish I Had An Angel, Bye Bye Beautiful, The Phantom Of The Opera, Where Were You Last Night, Planet Hell, Dark Chest Of Wonders, The Islander, Amaranth, Dead To the World and Nemo.
If you love a heavy band with a unique sound, thought provoking lyrics, amazing bass player and female vocalist....this is your band....this is Nightwish!!!
My Nightwish Cd Collection:
- Angels Fall First (1997)
- Oceanborn (1998)
- Wishmaster (2000)
- Over the Hills and Far Away (EP) (2001)
- Century Child (2002)
- Wish I Had An Angel (EP) (2004)
- Once (2004)
- Dark Passion Play (2007)
- Made In Hong Kong - And Various Other Places (2009)
- Greatest Hits (2008)
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