August 31, 2023 The Evolution of Nightwish #symphonicmetal #music #metal (1997 - present)

Tuomas Holopainen
Emppu Vuorinen
Floor Jansen
Jukka Nevalainen
Marco Hietala
Tarja Turunen
Troy Donockley
Anette Olzon
Kai Hahto
Sami Vänskä

Finland's Nightwish are an award-winning, best-selling symphonic metal band fronted by Floor Jansen, their third female vocalist. They're the most successful Finnish band worldwide, selling more than nine million records and netting more than 60 gold and platinum awards, including five number one albums and 13 chart-topping singles. While they're hardly the first goth-influenced metallers with a woman up front -- the Gathering from the Netherlands, Italy's Lacuna Coil, and Sweden's Therion all preceded them -- their rich melodicism, dynamic textures, and theatrical approach to performance make them a unique musical entity with global appeal. By the time they issued their second album, 1998's Oceanborn, featuring the operatically trained vocalist Tarja Turunen, they had begun filling concert halls and small sports arenas across Europe. Once, released in 2004, put them at the peak of early commercial success, but Nightwish parted ways with Turunen after the tour. (She went on to have a successful solo career.) In 2007, Anette Olzon was chosen as her replacement, and her debut with the band, Dark Passion Play, went multi-platinum and the subsequent tour lasted nearly two years. Olzon also sang on 2012's conceptual outing Imaginaerum before leaving Nightwish while on tour. Dutch soprano Floor Jansen (After Forever, ReVamp) was hired to complete the remaining dates and fit in so well with the group and fans that she was asked to join formally. Her first studio album was 2015's Endless Forms Most Beautiful. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/nightwish-mn0000868628/biography#:~:text=Nightwish%20was%20founded%20in%201996,V%C3%A4nsk%C3%A4%2C%20and%20drummer%20Jukka%20Nevalainen.

Nightwish Family Tree https://www.givememetal.com/symphonicmetaltrees/nightwish-family-tree#:~:text=Nightwish%20covered%20this%20song%20on,one%20of%20his%20biggest%20influences.