Dark Passion Play | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 26 September 2007 | |||
Recorded | September 2006 – March 2007 | |||
Studio | ||||
Genre | Symphonic metal | |||
Length | 75:36 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | Tuomas Holopainen | |||
Nightwish studio album chronology | ||||
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Singles from Dark Passion Play | ||||
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Dark Passion Play is the sixth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released on 26 September 2007 by Spinefarm Records in Finland, 28 September by Nuclear Blast in Europe and 2 October 2007 by Roadrunner Records in the US. It is the first album without original vocalist Tarja Turunen, who was dismissed in 2005, as well as the first album involving future member Troy Donockley on uilleann pipes and tin whistle. It is the first of only two albums with vocalist Anette Olzon, who was eventually dismissed in 2012 after the release of the band's subsequent album, Imaginaerum . [1] Tuomas Holopainen has referred to this album as the "album that saved his life". [2]
The song "Eva" was leaked on the Internet six days before its official release, prompting the band to release it earlier as a promotional single [3] to boost downloads. Several other versions of the song were posted on YouTube and torrent sites a month later; the entire album with record label voice-overs had been leaked on the Internet by 2 August. The full album (without voiceovers) was leaked on 21 September, as a result of several stores in Mexico selling the retail album much prior to the worldwide release date.
Pre-orders for Dark Passion Play had it certified gold in Finland before it had even been released. [4] The album debuted at number one in 6 European countries, selling over 100,000 copies in Finland (triple platinum). In February 2008, the album was certified quadruple-platinum in Finland, after having sold over 120,000 copies, which makes it one of the 40 best-selling albums of all time in the country. [5] [6] Worldwide, Dark Passion Play has sold almost 2 million copies since its release.
On 21 October 2005, after the Once Upon a Tour , the band's lead singer Tarja Turunen was dismissed via an open letter. In search of a replacement, the band conducted auditions from 17 March 2006 to 15 January 2007, receiving over 2000 demo tapes in the process. [7] Amidst much speculation the new singer was officially announced on 24 May 2007 to be Anette Olzon, previously the singer for the Swedish AOR band Alyson Avenue. In an interview, Holopainen said they had made the decision in January 2007 based on the impression she made while performing the song "Ever Dream" from the album Century Child . [8]
Of course it's gonna be a huge task for the singer – she will always be compared to Tarja but I'm pretty confident that she'll do well.
-Tuomas Holopainen regarding Anette Olzon's ability [8]
The recording process started in the spring 2006 in different studios across Europe; the drums were recorded by Nevalainen in Hollola, Finland, at the Petrax Studios, Emppu Vuorinen recorded the guitars in Kerava, Finland, were also record the keyboards by Holopainen and the bass parts by Marko Hietala. [9] Hietala is also the band's male singer, and in 2006 Hietala sung some of the new songs to record the demo versions as a base for the final recordings, with definitive vocals being recorded by Olzon at the Petrax in March 2007, immediately after being chosen to replace Tarja Turunen, and nearly two months before her name was given to the media and the fans. [9]
When the drummer Jukka Nevalainen was asked about the overall cost of the new album, he was quoted as saying "Roughly half a million... We don't know the exact sum down to the euros and cents as yet." [9] Half of this cost was incurred in London, over an expensive eight days at the Abbey Road Studios in London, UK, during which time the London Session Orchestra, the Metro Voices Choir, a gospel choir and two Irish musicians recorded their parts at the studio. [9] In an interview with Kerrang! on 16 August 2008 Tuomas Holopainen recalled:
After the split with Tarja, we started writing without a singer, and it was quite a liberating feeling. We knew the right girl was out there somewhere, so we could just concentrate on the music. It took 10 months in the studio to make, but the atmosphere was so good and liberating there was a lot of bittersweet relief in the air. It was an extremely inspirational time. [4]
"When I think back to it, it was such a crucial point to so many people, we didn't even realise back then but it showed us what we would be doing for the next year of our lives. We were never nervous about Anette, or the album being good, but we just couldn't tell how people would take it. Would they like Anette? Would they like the music? That was in the back of our minds all the time. And there was such a huge amount of money involved, over 800.000 euros, that we needed to sell at least a few albums to get going," Tuomas Holopainen recalled in 2008. [4] According to Decibel, the album's studio bill was around US$680,000. [10]
The orchestral line-up featured 66 members from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, 32 singers from The Metro Voices and twelve gospel singers. [9] The final mixing process spent more than 75 days at the Finnvox Studios in Kitee, Finland, the same place where Nightwish recorded all their previous albums. [9]
Before the album's release, band leader Tuomas Holopainen said in an interview that the album would have a lot in common with the previous album Once . For example, the band have kept the new kind of heavier songs, such as "Master Passion Greed", "Whoever Brings the Night", "7 Days to the Wolves", and "Bye Bye Beautiful", but additionally there are softer ballads, such as "Meadows of Heaven", "Eva", and "The Islander". This album includes many guest musicians and orchestral parts, just like Once, but with a bigger level.
Just like the album Once, Nightwish included many new influences and much experimentation in several tracks. On Once, much inspiration came from Native American music, especially "Creek Mary's Blood", which featured Lakota Indian musician John Two-Hawks. However, on Dark Passion Play, much inspiration comes from Finnish and Irish culture and music, which can be clearly heard on "Last of the Wilds". Songs like "Master Passion Greed" and "Cadence of Her Last Breath" included thrash metal and alternative metal elements as well, displaying the newer, more modern sound of the band. In a later interview, Hietela said the band "didn't get as far with it [the song] as we wanted to when we recorded the song in the studio – we wanted it to be a little bit more impressive". [11]
Holopainen also said that there are darker pieces reminiscent of the album Century Child , such as "The Poet and the Pendulum", and some others. It will be a dark album, both musically and lyrically. Even though the album is much more upbeat than Century Child. Songs that reflect this mood are for example the second single "Amaranth" and "Bye Bye Beautiful"'s B-side "Escapist."
The extremes are there more than ever before. So it's not going to be like Century Child 2. There is more hope in some of the new songs.
-Tuomas Holopainen, band leader, keyboardist, and main composer.
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
About.com | [12] |
AllMusic | [13] |
Blabbermouth.net | [14] |
Metal Hammer (GER) | [15] |
metal1.info (GER) | [16] |
Metal Storm | [17] |
PopMatters | 5/10 [18] |
Ultimate-Guitar.com | [19] |
The album has sold more than 130,000 copies in Finland to date, placing 26th on the list of best-selling Finnish albums ever released, [20] which has granted it a platinum certification four times. Worldwide, it has sold over 700,000 copies by the end of 2007 and about 2 million copies to date. [21] [22] It has been certified as Platinum in Germany [23] and Hungary, [24] and Gold in Austria, [25] Poland, [26] Sweden [27] and Switzerland; [28] Dark Passion Play is also the most successful Nightwish album in UK and USA [29] with sales in the United States of over 134,000 copies. [30]
As of January 2008, the album has topped the album charts in six countries; the singles, "Amaranth" and "Erämaan Viimeinen" have both reached the first position on Finnish charts. [31] According to Last.fm, "Dark Passion Play" is their most played album, and its successful single "Amaranth" has as of February 2009 been holding the position of most played song since its release. [31]
The album was also critically acclaimed in most reviews. Allmusic called the album a "sort of opera aria" and praised "Bye Bye Beautiful", on a track pic and "Eva", that they say it focus on the new vocalist vocal abilities. [13]
The album was also given a positive review by Blabbermouth's Keith Bergman, who gave the album a 7.5 out of 10 and stated that it "may not be a masterpiece throughout, but it's got enough moments of symphonic metal bliss to warrant a high recommendation. [14] About.com writer, Chad Bowar, gave the album a score of 4 out of 5 stars, calling Dark Passion Play "an excellent album that's right up there with the best the band has done." [12]
In 2016, an article by Teamrock considers Dark Passion Play as one of the "best albums of this century", ranking it at number 60 on their countdown of the "21st century's greatest albums". [32]
In November 2014, the NHL hockey team Minnesota Wild featured the album's first track "The Poet and the Pendulum" in their season trailer. [33]
The instrumental version of "Whoever Brings the Night" is used in the 2011 puzzle-platform video game, LittleBigPlanet 2 . [34]
To promote the release of the album, Nightwish played the Dark Passion Play World Tour , that took place from 2007 to 2009.
On 22 September 2007, the band hosted a secret concert at Rock Café in Tallinn, Estonia, disguising itself as a Nightwish cover band called "Nachtwasser". [35] Their first official concert with the new singer was in Tel Aviv, Israel on 6 October 2007. [36] The Dark Passion Play tour thus started, visiting the United States, Canada, most of Europe, Asia, and Australia. [37] [38] In 2008, the band played over 100 shows, with dates in Oceania, Europe and Asia. In November, the band played in South America, and before this leg they took a three-month break; Nightwish began the third leg in 2009, with dates in North America and Europe, and also playing in several summer metal festivals, including Graspop Metal Meeting and Masters of Rock. The last show was played in Helsinki, Finland, in front of 10,000 fans. [8]
The support bands were changing throughout the tour. The frequent acts were the Finnish pop rock female group Indica, Swedish metal band Sonic Syndicate and the Swedish industrial metal band Pain. The USA tour was supported by Gothic metal band Paradise Lost. [39] In the last concert, the opening band was the Finnish act Apocalyptica. An EP/DVD, Made in Hong Kong , with 8 live tracks recorded during the tour in various concerts, was released on 11 March 2009. The DVD contains three music videos as well as a documentary featuring material from Israel to South America, directed by Ville Lipiäinen. [8]
All lyrics are written by Tuomas Holopainen; all music is composed by Holopainen, except where noted
No. | Title | Music | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "The Poet and the Pendulum"
| 13:53 | |
2. | "Bye Bye Beautiful" | 4:15 | |
3. | "Amaranth" | 3:51 | |
4. | "Cadence of Her Last Breath" | 4:15 | |
5. | "Master Passion Greed" | 5:58 | |
6. | "Eva" | 4:26 | |
7. | "Sahara" | 5:46 | |
8. | "Whoever Brings the Night" | Emppu Vuorinen | 4:16 |
9. | "For the Heart I Once Had" | 3:56 | |
10. | "The Islander" | Marko Hietala | 5:06 |
11. | "Last of the Wilds" (instrumental) | 5:41 | |
12. | "7 Days to the Wolves" |
| 7:03 |
13. | "Meadows of Heaven" | 7:10 | |
Total length: | 75:36 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
14. | "Escapist" | 4:57 |
Total length: | 80:33 |
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Austria (IFPI Austria) [80] | Gold | 10,000* |
Finland (Musiikkituottajat) [81] | 2× Platinum | 126,084 [81] |
Germany (BVMI) [82] | Platinum | 200,000^ |
Poland (ZPAV) [83] | Gold | 10,000* |
Sweden (GLF) [84] | Gold | 20,000^ |
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland) [85] | Gold | 15,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [86] | Silver | 60,000‡ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Credits for Dark Passion Play adapted from liner notes. [87]
The band
Main crew
| Guest musicians
|
Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee. The band was formed in 1996 by lead songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former lead singer Tarja Turunen. The band soon picked up drummer Jukka Nevalainen, and then bassist Sami Vänskä after the release of their debut album, Angels Fall First (1997). In 2001, Vänskä was replaced by Marko Hietala, who also took over the male vocalist role previously filled by Holopainen or guest singers. Although Nightwish have been prominent in their home country since Angels Fall First, they did not achieve wider success until the release of the albums Oceanborn (1998), Wishmaster (2000) and Century Child (2002).
Century Child is the fourth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released in 2002 through Spinefarm Records in Finland, Drakkar Entertainment in the rest of Europe, Century Media Records in the US, and Toy's Factory in Japan. It is the first album which features now-former bassist and male vocalist Marko Hietala, who left the band in January 2021. It is also the first Nightwish album to feature an orchestra.
Once is the fifth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released on 7 June 2004 by Spinefarm Records in Finland and Nuclear Blast in the rest of Europe. It is the fifth and last album to feature Tarja Turunen on lead vocals. The album cost nearly €250,000 to make, which made it Finland's most expensive recording ever until the release of Nightwish's next album, Dark Passion Play, which cost over €500,000 to produce. As of 2013, Once had sold 2.3 million copies worldwide, becoming Nightwish's most successful album to date. The remastering of the album was released on 6 August 2021.
Tuomas Lauri Johannes Holopainen is a Finnish musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the primary songwriter, keyboardist, and founding member of symphonic metal band Nightwish. He has stated that his songwriting is influenced by harmonic film music.
"Wish I Had An Angel" is the ninth single by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, the second from their fifth album Once. The song features vocals by then-vocalist Tarja Turunen and bassist Marko Hietala. The song was still performed live after Turunen's departure with Anette Olzon, before her departure, and current vocalist Floor Jansen afterwards. Featured on the soundtrack of the film Alone in the Dark, it became the group's most popular single in Europe and in the United States, next to "Nemo". It made it onto two U.S. film soundtracks. It reached #60 in the UK Singles Chart, the highest of any of the band's singles in the UK.
"Ever Dream" is the sixth single by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. Released as the lead single from the band's fourth studio album, Century Child, it was the group's first single release in two years, following "Deep Silent Complete" in 2000.
The discography of the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish consists of nine studio albums, one extended play, six live albums, seven compilations, eighteen music videos and twenty-two singles. The band was formed in 1996 by songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former vocalist Tarja Turunen; Nightwish's current line-up has six members although Turunen has been replaced by Anette Olzon and later by Floor Jansen, and the original bassist, Sami Vänskä, has been replaced by Marko Hietala, who also took over the male vocalist part.
Anette Ingegerd Olsson, known by the stage name Anette Olzon, is a Swedish singer, best known as the former lead vocalist of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish from 2007 to 2012. She is also the vocalist of Swedish classic rock band Alyson Avenue, and of the Finnish heavy metal band The Dark Element.
"Amaranth" is the thirteenth single by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released as the first official single from their sixth studio album, Dark Passion Play, and was the second single overall to feature former frontwoman Anette Olzon, following the promotional single "Eva". The official release date was 22 August 2007 but it was leaked onto the Internet earlier, though the exact date it leaked is unknown.
"Bye Bye Beautiful" is the second track on Nightwish's Dark Passion Play album. The song was confirmed to be the second single from Dark Passion Play by Tuomas Holopainen in an interview, but it was changed to the third single after the announcement of "Erämaan viimeinen"'s release as the second.
"The Islander" is the tenth track on symphonic metal band Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play album. It was confirmed to be the album's fourth single on the website Nightwish-World on 23 February 2008, only a week after the third single, "Bye Bye Beautiful", was released. It was released on 21 May 2008, a month after the video which premiered on 14 April.
Made in Hong Kong (And in Various Other Places) is the title of a live / compilation CD/DVD by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released on 11 March 2009.
The Dark Passion Play World Tour was a concert tour by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, taking place from 2007 to 2009 in support of their sixth studio album, Dark Passion Play, released by Nuclear Blast on September 26, 2007; it was the first tour with former frontwoman Anette Olzon, who joined the band in 2006, after Tarja Turunen's dismissal on October 21, 2005. During this tour, the band played for the first time in Israel, China, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of Ireland, Serbia and Croatia.
Imaginaerum is the seventh studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released on 30 November 2011 by Scene Nation Oy and Sony Music in Finland, then on 2 December in Nuclear Blast in the rest of Europe and Roadrunner Records worldwide. According to Nightwish songwriter Tuomas Holopainen, the album is a concept album that tells the story of an old composer who is reminiscing of his youth on his deathbed. The album was produced alongside the movie of the same name, directed by Stobe Harju, who previously directed Nightwish's "The Islander" music video, and the album and the film share the same themes and general story. It is their second and last album with vocalist Anette Olzon, as well as the last with drummer Jukka Nevalainen.
Imaginaerum is a 2012 fantasy film co-written and directed by Stobe Harju. It was developed with and features music from Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish's seventh studio album of the same name; Nightwish's keyboardist and songwriter Tuomas Holopainen co-wrote the film. Imaginaerum, which is produced by Markus Selin from Solar Films Inc. along with Nightwish, is the feature film debut of director Stobe Harju.
"Storytime" is the lead single from Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish's seventh studio album, Imaginaerum. It was released on November 9, 2011, twenty days prior to the album, along with a music video. The song premiered on Radio Rock, a Finnish radio station at 9.00 GMT +2 on November 7, 2011, two days before its commercial release.
Endless Forms Most Beautiful is the eighth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released on 25 March 2015 in Japan, 27 March in Argentina and most of Europe, 30 March in the UK and 31 March in the US. The album is the band's first featuring singer Floor Jansen and the first with Troy Donockley as a full-time member. It was also the first without drummer Jukka Nevalainen, who took a break from the band due to severe insomnia. Drumming was by Kai Hahto of Wintersun and Swallow the Sun. The album includes only five Nightwish members, despite its being their first album release as a sextet.
Decades is the seventh compilation album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, and contains remastered versions of the original material. It was released on March 9, 2018, which is the same day that they began touring for the Decades: World Tour. The track listing is presented in reverse chronological order.
Human. :II: Nature. is the ninth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released on 10 April 2020 by Nuclear Blast. It is the band's first double album, with the second CD complete with orchestral music rather than metal.
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