Albums: Dark Passion Play, Century Child, Wishmaster

Nightwish is a symphonic power metal band, formed in the town of Kitee, Finland in 1996. The band currently consists of Anette Olzon (vocals), Tuomas Holopainen (keyboards), Marco Hietala (bass, vocals), Emppu Vuorinen (guitars), and Jukka Nevalainen (drums and percussion). The vocalist 1996 to 2005 was Tarja Turunen .

Anette Olzon (ex-Alyson Avenue) joined the band on their 2007 album Dark Passion Play, the corresponding World Tour and the Made in Hong Kong (and in Various Other Places) live album. The band's leader, keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, composes songs that are often classified as either symphonic metal or power metal; their musical style has also been described as a symphonic metal variant, called opera metal and even in some cases called 'epic metal'. Nevertheless, Nightwish is considered one of the main developers of the symphonic metal genre, which encompasses similar bands such as Within Temptation, Therion, Epica, Edenbridge, Lunatica, and Visions of Atlantis.

The original idea of Nightwish was largely inspired by The Gathering, and the idea was to use keyboards, acoustic guitars and the operatic vocals of their then singer Tarja Turunen. This idea was changed in 1997, as a drummer was added, and the acoustic guitar was replaced by an electric guitar. The idea of using operatic vocals was changed dramatically with their third album Wishmaster (2000), and more so on future albums, especially Dark Passion Play (2007).

In 2001, Holopainen asked Sami Vänskä, their bassist since 1998, to leave, and he was replaced with Marco Hietala (Tarot, ex-Sinergy), leaving Sinergy. The bassist would, apart from playing his instrument, also perform male vocals. Century Child (2002) marked a new change in Nightwish' music, as they used a live orchestra on several songs, to get a more present feeling of classical music.

This was developed further with their US breakthrough Once (2004) and Dark Passion Play (2007), the latter being the first to use orchestra on all of the songs. In October 2005, after touring for their Once, the four other members of Nightwish decided that it was best to continue Nightwish without Tarja, a feeling they expressed through an open letter. This was due to the fact that they felt that her husband Marcelo Cabuli and commercial interests had changed her attitude towards Nightwish.

Tuomas Holopainen gave the letter to Tarja after the last concert of the tour. In spring 2007, 35-year-old Anette Olzon from Katrineholm, Sweden was announced to replace Tarja Turunen. The band released a new single, Eva, featuring their new singer in May, 2007.

It was followed by another single, Amaranth, on August 22, and a studio album in late September entitled Dark Passion Play. The third international single of the album was Bye Bye Beautiful, released on February 15, 2008, and the next was The Islander, released in May, 2008. Official site: www.nightwish.com

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