nightwish by Ridzuan Akatsuki

The History Of

Nightwish is a symphonic metal band from Kitee, Finland. The band was formed in 1996 by lead songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and lead singer Tarja Turunen. After playing keyboards in several heavy metal bands in the 1990s, including Nattvindens Gråt, Perkele Börk and Darkwoods My Betrothed, Tuomas Holopainen decided to create his own project while sitting around a campfire with frievnds in 1996.He immediately had a clear idea of the music: experimental acoustic music he wrote himself, similar to the music usually played around campfires, but with a distinct sound and atmosphere,played on his keyboards. He soon invited friend and schoolmate Erno “Emppu” Vuorinen to play acoustic guitars, and the classical vocalist Tarja Turunen, who shared the same music teacher, Plamen Dimov. The three musicians recorded their self-titled acoustic demo in winter 1996.

The name “Nightwish” was derived from their first song together – the demo also included the song “The Forever Moments”, and an early version of “Etiäinen”. In early 1997, following the release of the Nightwish demo, Jukka “Julius” Nevalainen joined the band,and acoustic guitar was replaced with electric guitar. The addition of heavy metal elements to the band’s existing experimental style gave the band a different sound, forming the core of the Nightwish sound. The band entered the studio in April 1997 to record seven songs for their second demo, Angels Fall First. In May 1997, the demo made its way to the Finnish record label Spinefarm Records, who wanted to release it as the band’s debut album of the same name.The label signed Nightwish to a two album deal,and the band returned to the studio to record four songs more to accompany the tracks of the demo.

The full-length album Angels Fall First was released in November 1997 and reached number 31 on the Finnish album charts, with the single “The Carpenter” reaching number 3 on the Finnish singles chart.“The Carpenter” single was released as a split with label mates Children of Bodom and Thy Serpent. In October 7, 1998, Nightwish released their second fulllength album, Oceanborn, in Finland only. Adopting a more technical and progressive sound than Angels Fall First,Oceanborn saw the band abandon much of the ambient and folk elements present on their debut release, with the exception of the song “Moondance”. In contrast to the female vocals of Turunen, the album also featured guest growling vocals by Tapio Wilska since Tuomas did not want to sing again. Wilska is also a former member of Nattvindens Gråt.

In May 19, 2000, Nightwish released their third studio album Wishmaster. This debuted at No. 1 on the Finnish album charts,and was certified gold in Finland after three weeks at number one.Critical response to the album was mixed,[citation needed] with Allmusic citing the album as repetitive, and saying “as a whole album, it can be a little annoying, even frustrating”.

Oceanborn was better received than the previous CD, with AllMusic writing that the album “as a whole works great”, with songs that are “very strong”. Oceanborn was an instant success in Finland, reaching number 5 on the Finnish album charts.The album’s first single, “Sacrament of Wilderness”, hit number 1 on the Finnish singles charts, where it stayed for several weeks.The album’s release was initially limited to Finland, but because of the success of “Sacrament of Wilderness”, Spinefarm released Oceanborn internationally in the spring of 1999.

However, German magazine Rock Hard declared Wishmaster “Album of the Month”, despite competing against long-awaited May releases from Iron Maiden and Bon Jovi.Following the release of Wishmaster, Nightwish embarked on their first world tour, playing dates in South America, Mexico, Canada, and the first headlining European tour with Sinergy and Eternal Tears of Sorrow.[30] In the summer, the band returned to Europe, appearing at the Wacken Open Air festival and the Biebop Metal Fest.

In May 1999, Nightwish recorded the single “Sleeping Sun (Four Ballads of the Eclipse)”, and in one month the single sold 15,000 copies in Germany alone.Following the band’s first international success, Nightwish was added as the opening band for Rage’s 1999 European tour. Both the album Oceanborn and the singles “Sacrament of Wilderness” and “Walking in the Air” were certified gold in Finland in August 1999. While in the studio in early 2000 working on their third album, Nightwish was accepted in the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest tryouts with the song “Sleepwalker”. Despite winning the public vote, Nightwish eventually finished in second place, with the jury choosing local gospel singer Nina Åström to represent Finland.

Farewell Tarja & Welcome Anette The four other members of Nightwish had decided that it was best to continue Nightwish without Turunen. After a concert in the Hartwall Areena (Helsinki) on October 21, 2005, recorded for the live DVD End of an Era (released June 2006), they expressed their decision through an open letter which was given to Turunen by Holopainen, and afterwards posted on the band’s website. It was written by Holopainen and signed by all four band members. The main justification given in the letter for Turunen’s dismissal was that the band felt that both her husband Marcelo Cabuli (an Argentine busi-

nessman) and commercial interests had changed her attitude towards the band. Turunen responded to the incident twice, during press conferences in Finland and Germany, saying that her dismissal came entirely as a shock to her, given that she had not been notified before the letter was given to her.[50] She felt that the personal attacks on her husband were unwarranted, and that playing the issue out in public was “senselessly cruel”. She expressed these feelings through her own open letter, which was published on her personal website, and through various TV, magazine, and newspaper interviews.

than a picture, or past work. want fans judging her by nothing more than a picture, or past

In order to find a replacement for Turunen as the female vocalist of the band, on March 17, 2006 the band allowed vocalists interested for the position to send in demo tapes as an audition for the spot. During this time, speculation began to emerge about who would eventually be chosen, and the band stated on their website that fans should not believe any source other than the band itself for information regarding the new vocalist. In the end, the 35-year-old Alyson Avenue’s ex-lead singer, Anette Olzon, from Sweden, was chosen. In September 2006, the band entered the studio to record their sixth studio album, Dark Passion Play. In May, next year, Anette Olzon was announced to replace Turunen. Holopainen has said in interviews that he did not wish to reveal her identity until new material was available because he did not want fans judging her by nothing more

The day after this revealing, May 25, 2007, charity single “Eva” was released for download only as the first offering from the new album, and the first featuring Olzon. It was originally scheduled for release on May 30, but the date was changed because of a leak on a British music download site. On June 13, Nightwish revealed the title and artwork for the new album on their official website, as well as the name and cover of the second single (this time CD), “Amaranth” it was released in Finland on August 22 and included a bonus track entitled “While Your Lips Are Still Red” written by Tuomas as the main theme track for the upcoming Finnish feature film “Lieksa!”.The single achieved gold status in Finland after less than two days in stores. Dark Passion Play was released around Europe in the last week of September, 2007, in the UK on October 1, and the United States on October 2. It was awarded double platinum in Finland the second day after its release and took the number one position on the charts of Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Hungary and Croatia and got in top 100 in other 16 countries, including the United States. Their first official concert with Olzon was in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 6, 2007. The Dark

Passion Play tour thus started, visiting the United States, Canada, most of Europe, Asia, and Australia. The Dark Passion Play tour turned out to be Nightwish’s longest tour yet, lasting from the fall of 2007 to September 2009 when it ended with a concert in Hartwall Arena – the band’s second concert there – with the band Apocalyptica. On March 6, 2009, Nightwish released a new live EP/DVD entitled Made in Hong Kong (And in Various Other Places). The eight live tracks were recorded during the “Dark Passion Play World Tour” in 2007–2008, and the album also includes one b-side from the “Bye Bye Beautiful” single, one b-side from the “Amaranth” single, a previously unreleased demo version of “Cadence of Her Last Breath”, and a bonus-DVD with three music videos as well as a 37 minute documentary called Back in the Day is Now.workwork In the June 2009 edition of the Finnish magazine Soundi, Holopainen stated that he had started work on a new Nightwish album. In October 2009, rumors about the new album’s name were going around with the title Wind Embraced, but lead vocalist Anette Olzon listed the rumors as “not true” and said that the songs for the new album had not yet been completed apart from 3 songs written before May 2009. Holopainen said in a 2010 interview that “ I can’t reveal to you anymore but there is going to

Anette Olzon Dismissal On October 1 2012, Nightwish announced via their Facebook page that they were parting ways with Olzon.According to the press statement, “it has become increasingly obvious that the direction and the needs of the band were in conflict, and this has led to a division from which we cannot recover”. On January 11, 2013, Olzon announced on her official blog that she was pregnant with her third child, due in spring 2013. This was a contributing factor to her being dismissed. The band then released a statement on their website declaring that the reason Olzon gave for her dismissal and other statements she made were untrue and that Olzon herself had agreed to help find a replacement while she was on maternity leave. Later on, Olzon gave several interviews in which she told that she never agreed with a replacement, even when she was pregnant, and proposed to the band to postpone the tour, culminating on her firing. difference of their vocal styles. that Olzon herself had agreed to help find a replacement while she was on maternity leave.

be a big twist so to say, on the next album.” In an interview with Uilleann pipist Troy Donockley (who recorded with the band on Dark Passion Play), when asked about his involvement in the new album, he stated “Oh yes, I will be playing on the next album and from what Tuomas has told me, it is going to be something extraordinary Announcements continued throughout 2011. On February 10, Nightwish announced on their website that the new album title would be Imaginaerum. They also declared that the band had been preparing a movie based on the album, which would be released in 2012 and directed by Stobe Harju, who previously directed the music video for “The Islander”. On August 22, 2011, it was announced on their official website that the album of Imaginaerum would be released at the end of the year. On August 31, Nightwish announced on their website their decision to change Imaginarium title to Imaginaerum “In order to avoid mix-ups with various things named ‘IMAGINARIUM’”.

The Arrival Of Floor Jansen and proposed to the band to postpone the tour, culminating on her firing. She also added that she was against Jansen joining the band in her period of maternity, mainly because the difference of their vocal.

In an interview with Metal Hammer in November 2012, Tuomas Holopainen stated that they already had a rehearsal place booked from July 2014 to September 2014, but before they began rehearsing the band members would be taking a break from Nightwish for several months ave several interviews in which she told that she never agreed with a replacement, even when she was gnant,

On 9 October, 2013, Nightwish announced Dutch singer Floor Jansen as the permanent replacement for Olzon. Troy Donockley has also been announced as a full-time member, making the band become a sextet for the first time. According to the band’s webpage, the band will enter the studio in 2014 to record their eighth full-length album for a 2015 release. This album is set to contain Nightwish’s longest song to date. At the end of November, the band released the live album Showtime, Storytime. Despite the recording happening when they were only tour members, it is the first Nightwish release to feature Jansen, and to have her and Donockley credited as band members. The album also carries

a documentary containing the behind-the-scenes of Jansen’s first days in the band and the process of replacing Olzon. In May, 2014, Tuomas updated his official website, stating that he and producer Tero “TeeCee” Kinnunen have been recording 12 demos (and possibly 3 bonus tracks) for the new album in Hattula, Finland. The band expected to start rehearsing in July in Eno, Finland, with the recording finished on January 2015, and the album released in Spring that year, “If everything goes as scheduled”. Commenting on the music, Tuomas said. The new album’s cover art and its title, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, were revealed on December 22, along with a release date of March 27, 2015.

Music Style

Nightwish performs symphonic metal with soaring female operatic vocals.Their music has been described as “bombastic heavy, symphonic and cinematic, with keyboards and strings creating a gothic atmosphere”.

Nightwish was perceived to shift from their trademark power metal style for a more “commercial” gothic sound on their albums Century Child and Once, however other critics find that the band had a gothic sound since their debut.

The band’s music is also known to be complex and layered. Their approach is epic, theatrical and operatic. Critic Chad Bowar notes that the music is “always very melodic with memorable choruses and a lot of hooks.

The music of Nightwish had been “distinguished by the operatic voice” of soprano Tarja Turunen, a “charismatic frontwoman with a powerful voice”. Critics observed that her vocals became less operatic with the release of Once. Following the departure of Tarja Turunen from the group, Nightwish left behind the “signature operatic vocals” of their earlier albums.

The usage of a female vocalist has become a sort of trademark, though less so since the outbreak of new female fronted metal bands in the mid-2000s with the popularization of bands such as Evanescence, Within Temptation, Leaves’ Eyes, and several gothic metal bands mixing female and male vocals, such as Lacuna Coil, Tristania, Epica and the early Within Temptation.

While the music of Nightwish is centered around a female lead singer, the band has also featured some male vocals on their albums ever since their debut release Angels Fall First. This debut album also included “elements of folk music and ambience” that were discarded on their subsequent album Oceanborn. However, the song “Creek Mary’s Blood” from the album “Once” featured some use of folk-oriented native American melodies, and their 2007 release Dark Passion Play featured folk music elements on the songs “The Islander” and “Last of the Wilds”.

Bassist and vocalist Marco Hietala describes the style of the band’s music as “melodic symphonic metal;” though this is not a view shared by all members of the group,[99] including band composer Tuomas Holopainen, who describes the band as simply symphonic metal.

Lyrical Theme

2007’s Dark Passion Play included an unusual a mount of personal songs, including “The Poet and the Pendulum” which has been described as Holopainen’s life story, and about being a composer and musician.

In the beginning, Holopainen mainly wrote about mythological and fantasy themes, and often used references to “metaphysics and nature”.Fantasy novels especially are a big influence on Nightwish’s lyrics. Songs such as “Wishmaster,” “Elvenpath,” and “Wanderlust” make fairly clear references to fantasy novels, in this case the Dragonlance series and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. “FantasMic” from Wishmaster is a direct tribute to Walt Disney and Disney animated films, which Holopainen has said are among his influences.

Another song, “Meadows of Heaven” is a depiction of Holopainen’s childhood and the feeling that it’ll never return. Two songs, “Bye Bye Beautiful” and “Master Passion Greed” are about ex-member Tarja Turunen and her husband Marcelo Cabuli. Another song on the album, “Cadence of Her Last Breath”, is a “very personal song” about running away.The album also contains many references to authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman.

The album Dark Passion Play featured the return to the fantasy theme with songs such as “Sahara”, “Whoever Brings the Night” and “7 Days to the Wolves”, which is loosely based on Stephen King’s novel Wolves of the Calla, the fifth book in the Dark Tower series. The song The Poet and the Pendulum’s first section is called “The White Lands of Empathica”, which is a reference to the seventh book in the Dark Tower series.

Although the lyrics of Nightwish generally are serious with dark meanings, they have also produced several less serious songs, including the bonus track “Nightquest”, which talks about the band members’ (the three original members as well as Nevalainen) connection as musicians, and the “quest” of Nightwish.

Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan” (in English, “Death Makes an Artist”) from the Once album describes the experience of loss and its impact on art, “Nemo” deals with the feeling of being lost,while “Dead Gardens” deals with a bout of artist’s block Holopainen suffered from.“Creek Mary’s Blood” is based on Dee Brown’s story of the same name, which presents the situation of Native Americans at the end of the 19th century.

Language & Influence

Other songs, such as “Bye Bye Beautiful” (from Dark Passion Play), and “Wish I Had an Angel” (from Once) have elements of industrial metal, and some others, like “The Islander” and “Last of the Wilds” (from Dark Passion Play), “Creek Mary’s Blood” (from Once), and the Angels Fall First album have elements of folk music. Bands stated as an influence on Nightwish include Children of Bodom, My Dying Bride, Tiamat and The 3rd and the Mortal.

Nightwish’s debut album Angels Fall First had one song in the Finnish language, but since then the band has only written songs in English, with the only exceptions being “Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan” from the Once album (2004), the single “Erämaan viimeinen” (2007), which is a vocal version of the instrumental “Last of the Wilds”, and “Taikatalvi” (“Magic Winter”) from Imaginaerum (2011). Holopainen thought that he was very uncertain about the lyrics of “Erämaan viimeinen”, because he is of the opinion that writing in Finnish is rather hard, and has said that “Finnish [could] quickly sound really cheesy.

Nightwish has also been noted as a source of inspiration for other bands. Simone Simons, lead singer of Dutch symphonic/gothic metal band Epica, stated that she began singing because of Nightwish’s 1998 Oceanborn album. Ex-singer of symphonic metal band Visions of Atlantis, Nicole Bogner, also acknowledged that Nightwish had greatly inspired them for their first album. Sander Gommans of After Forever said that Nightwish “will certainly influence us in creating new songs”. Power metal band Sonata Arctica’s lead singer Tony Kakko has explained how much of an influence Nightwish is to him

Tuomas Holopainen, writer of most of the band’s lyrics and music, says that he gets most of the inspiration for Nightwish’s songs from film music. Songs like “Beauty of the Beast” (from Century Child), “Ghost Love Score” (from Once) and “The Poet and the Pendulum” (from Dark Passion Play) are examples of this influence. Holopainen has also said that film music is the music he listens to for leisure. He likes, for example, the musical scores to The Village, Van Helsing, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Crimson Tide, and practically everything written by Hans Zimmer.

Band Members

Tarja Turunen – lead vocals (1996–2005) Sami Vänskä – bass (1998–2001) Anette Olzon – lead vocals (2007–2012) Emppu Vuorinen – guitars (1996–present), bass (1996–1997) Tuomas Holopainen – keyboards, piano, synthesizers (1996–present), male vocals (1996– 2001) Jukka Nevalainen – drums, percussion (1997–present; on hiatus since 2014) Marco Hietala – bass, male vocals (2002–present) Troy Donockley – uilleann pipes, tin whistle, bodhrán, backing vocals (2013–present; session member: 2007–2013) Floor Jansen – lead vocals (2013–present; session member: 2012–2013)

Tarja Turunen

Anette Olzon

Tarja Soile Susanna Cabuli (née Turunen; born August 17, 1977), generally known as Tarja Turunen or simply Tarja, is a Finnish singer-songwriter. She is a light lyric soprano and has a vocal range of three octaves

Anette Ingegerd Olsson (born 21 June 1971), known by the stage name Anette Olzon, is a Swedish singer, best known as the second lead vocalist of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. She is also the former vocalist of Swedish classic rock band Alyson Avenue.

Turunen studied singing at Sibelius Academy and Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. She is well known as a professional classical lied singer but best known as the former lead vocalist of the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, which she founded with Tuomas Holopainen and Emppu Vuorinen in 1996. Their combination of hard and fast guitar riffs with Turunen’s dramatic, “operatic” lead vocals quickly achieved critical and commercial popularity. Their symphonic metal style, soon dubbed “opera metal”, inspired many other metal bands and performers.

Olzon officially joined Nightwish as their new lead singer in early 2007, chosen from about 2,000 applicants of which 10 made it to prove their place in front of the band. The song on her demo tape was the 2002 single “Ever Dream”. She replaced the previous singer Tarja Turunen, who was fired in an open letter in the autumn of 2005. Olzon’s demo was one of the first that Nightwish received, although she was originally denied the position, as band leader Tuomas Holopainen was concerned about the fact that she had a young son.

Turunen was dismissed from the band on October 21, 2005 (just after the performance of the band’s End of an Era concert) for personal reasons. She started her solo career in 2006 with the release of a Christmas album called Henkäys ikuisuudesta. In 2007, Turunen released My Winter Storm, an album featuring various styles including symphonic metal, and started the Storm World Tour. Turunen released her third album, What Lies Beneath, in 2010. She performed several concerts in Europe, playing in metal festivals including the Graspop Metal Meeting and the Wacken Open Air, before starting the What Lies Beneath World Tour, which lasted until April 8, 2012. Her first live DVD Act I was filmed during this tour on March 30 and 31, 2012 in Rosario, Argentina.

However, Olzon was persistent and sent the band a live DVD of her performing with Alyson Avenue. She was then contacted by Nightwish’s manager Ewo Pohjola, which eventually led to her taking up the position in February 2007. Tuomas commented on her selection saying “we (the band) took a formal vote, but it was unanimous that she would be the one. It was a matter of heart. We felt she was right.” Her identity was kept secret by various methods, including pretending to be Ewo’s “Swedish cousin” at a Tarot concert, until she was eventually announced as the new Nightwish singer on 24 May 2007.

Emppu Vuorinen

Tuomas Holopainen

Erno “Emppu” Matti Juhani Vuorinen (born 24 June 1978, in Kitee, Finland) is a Finnish guitarist, most famous for being a founding member and occasional songwriter of the symphonic metal band Nightwish. He is the oldest of five children, having a twin brother and three younger sisters. He started to play guitar as a private study at the age of 12 and since then has played in various bands including Nightwish, Brother Firetribe, Barilari, Almah, and Altaria.

Tuomas Lauri Johannes Holopainen (born 25 December 1976) is a Finnish songwriter, multi-instrumentalist musician (but mainly keyboardist) and record producer, best known as the founder, leader, keyboardist and songwriter of symphonic metal band Nightwish. He has also studied jazz and classical styles, but prefers to be influenced by harmonic film music. Holopainen joined his first bands in 1993. He played in several bands, including recording keyboards for three albums with black metal band Darkwoods My Betrothed and playing with Dismal Silence, Nattvindens Gråt and Sethian.Holopainen is a Disney, J. R. R. Tolkien and Dragonlance fan. In 2006 Holopainen said that he is “not religious, but an open-minded, thinking individual”. He does not consider “religion to be bad, but human interpretation of it.”His own religion is also something very personal to him.

Emppu is primarily a rhythm player, often supporting the keyboard or orchestral parts of Nightwish songs. However, he plays lead melodies and solos as well. Vuorinen’s solo techniques usually include alternate picking, tapping, sliding, legato, and minor to extreme whammy bar use; he also employs sweep picking, although very rarely. His solos are more melodic than those of most metal bands, but he sometimes shreds (notably in “Nightquest,” “The Pharaoh Sails to Orion,” “Romanticide,” and “Gethsemane” by Nightwish, and also in “Traitor” by Tarot, for which he provided a solo). Nightwish’s first three albums feature a larger amount of lead guitar work from Emppu than their later albums. Vuorinen has tuned his studio guitars in D tuning since the release of Century Child – until then, his guitars were tuned in standard. During concerts, he has two guitars – one for each tuning.

In July 1996, a 19-year-old Holopainen began thinking of starting a band of his own, for which he would write the music and play keyboards. This was the birth of Nightwish, around a camp fire. He asked Erno “Emppu” Vuorinen (rhythm guitar) and classmate Tarja Turunen (vocals) to join what was then an acoustic project. [10] After hearing Turunen’s strong voice, and because of the metal influences of Vuorinen and drummer Jukka Nevalainen, Tuomas decided to turn Nightwish into a metal act.

Vuorinen is also a creative force in Nightwish, having co-written songs with Tuomas Holopainen on every album except for Angels Fall First and Imaginaerum. The song Whoever Brings The Night on Dark Passion Play is written by Vuorinen alone. 13

Jukka Nevalainen

Marco Hietala

Jukka Antero “Julius” Nevalainen (born 21 April 1978, Kitee, Finland) is the drummer in the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish and the Finnish progressive metal band Sethian.

Marko Tapani “Marco” Hietala (born January 14, 1966 in Tervo, Finland) is a heavy metal vocalist, bass guitarist and songwriter. Internationally, he is most known as the current bass guitarist, male vocalist and secondary composer to Tuomas Holopainen, of the symphonic metal band Nightwish.He is also the vocalist and bassist as well as composer and lyricist for the heavy metal band Tarot. He is also a member of the supergroup Northern Kings, and portrayed one of the main characters in Ayreon’s 2013 album The Theory of Everything.

He spent his early years in the city of Kitee. His drumming career started at the age of eleven when his music teacher at school told him that a new educational program for music was opening, and he thought Jukka would fit in well as a drummer. He lacked a suitable place to practice so he made do at his home. His first band was “The Highway” but he joined his first real band at the age of 15–16. The band had a rehearsal place, but was restricted to practice only a couple of days a week. After he left that band, he joined up with Erno “Emppu” Vuorinen and they got a permanent practice place.

Hietala joined Nightwish for their 2002 album Century Child, following the departure of previous bassist Sami Vänskä.He was a prominent guest musician in Delain, a project involving many members of the gothic and symphonic metal community. He also participated in the recording of Invitation, by Altaria, providing backing vocals.vHietala has also been part of the bands Sinergy and Northern Kings.

At the age of 17, Emppu had already been contacted by the songwriter and keyboard-player Tuomas Holopainen. Tuomas wanted to start an acoustic music project that would later become Nightwish and they needed a drummer, at which point Emppu suggested Jukka to Tuomas.

Upon his arrival to Nightwish, several songs were written to contain duets with then Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen, allowing songwriter and band leader Tuomas Holopainen to take advantage of Hietala’s distinctive raucous voice to add a new dimension to the band. A famous example is Nightwish’s cover of “The Phantom of the Opera”, from the album “Century Child”.

Troy Donockley

Floor Jansen

Troy Donockley (born 30 May 1964) is an English composer and multi-instrumentalist most known for his playing of Uilleann pipes. Having performed with plenty of artists as a session player, he is perhaps most notable as a member of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, which he has performed with since 2007 and joined as a full-time member in 2013.

Floor Jansen born 21 February 1981 in Goirle) is a Dutch singer-songwriter and vocal coach. She is the current lead vocalist of the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish and also the Dutch progressive metal band ReVamp.

Jansen was sixteen when she joined Apocalypse (the name of the band After Forever in its early days) in 1997. Three years later the band released its first album, Prison of Desire. Her ability to sing both classical and rock music has made her reasonably popular in the metal scene. She took sole charge of After Forever’s lyrics and vocal melodies since the departure of Mark Jansen (no relation) in 2002. Prior to this, up until the Decipher (2001) album, the two would write together.

Donockley was born in Workington, Cumbria; his parents were members of a band called Travelling Country. At the age of 16 Troy joined them, playing at many venues in West Cumbria. His father’s record collection was broad and gave his son a love of classical, rock, country as well as traditional music. He is a multi-instrumentalist and a master of the Uilleann pipes. His ambition as a teenager was to travel the world as a musician, but hated “empty pop created by cynical twerps”. The strangeness of the sound of the Uilleann pipes enabled him to become a session musician with prog-rockers The Enid in 1987 on their album ‘The Seed and the Sower’.

After Nightwish’s previous lead vocalist Anette Olzon parted ways with the band, Jansen acted as Nightwish’s live lead vocalist for the remainder of the Imaginaerum World Tour. On 9 October 2013, Jansen was announced as Olzon’s permanent replacement in the band.

Donockley’s first appearance with Nightwish was on their 2007 release ‘Dark Passion Play’ as a guest musician, providing some whistles and pipes to the songs ‘The Islander’, ‘Last of the Wilds’ and ‘Meadows of Heaven’. He also joined them on select shows of the subsequent tour and appeared in the music video for ‘The Islander’.

On December 9, 2013, she was also announced as the main vocalist, playing the lead role, for the second full-length album of former Stratovarius guitarist Timo Tolkki’s metal opera act Avalon