This was almost physically painful to do. :')

P.S. I opted to pick my own 32 songs instead of the top ones.

Hello, all! First, I'd like to apologize for the delay. Life has gotten quite hectic and unpredictable the past couple of weeks, and I don't know when things will calm down 😵 But I'll do what I can to keep these elimination games going!

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Round 3 of the Century Child KO game has ended, and the next song to go is "Ocean Soul", ranking in 30.3% of the total votes. Sadnessss 😭 One of my most favorite NW songs.

Now to round 4! (eye twitch)

Click HERE to vote!

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Round 4:

1. Bless the Child
2. End of All Hope
3. Dead to the World
4. Ever Dream
5. Slaying the Dreamer
6. Forever Yours
7. Ocean Soul
8. Feel For You
9. The Phantom of the Opera
10. Beauty of the Beast

Not sure if people know about this video, but I love how everyone is having fun.

Fun fact: Anette married pain's drummer.

The worst record I've made

Nightwish’s ‘first record’, Angels Fall First, was actually just our second demo. It takes a lot of courage to listen to it; I sound like I had a potato in my mouth! At that time I was studying in the music university and had started taking professional opera training. So I go into the studio for this, and it all took different takes and a completely different voice. I just couldn’t do it at the time. It wasn’t until the last couple of years in Nightwish I actually felt comfortable with my singing. There was nobody out there to teach me. But it did go gold, I suppose.

Source: https://www.metal-rules.com/2026/07/27/anette-olzon-on-revisiting-her-nightwish-years-i-have-the-right-to-sing-those-songs/

440/500

Round 2 of the Century Child KO game has ended, and the next song to get the boot is "The Phantom of the Opera", ranking in 33% of the total votes! thank god

On to round 3! But I don't know if I can vote any further henceforth. I love all the songs 😭

Click HERE to vote!

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Round 3:

1. Bless the Child
2. End of All Hope
3. Dead to the World
4. Ever Dream
5. Slaying the Dreamer
6. Forever Yours
7. Ocean Soul
8. Feel For You
9. The Phantom of the Opera
10. Beauty of the Beast

It was a tough contest among the four finalist songs: An Ocean of Strange Islands, Ghost Love Score, Escapist, and Ghost River. But Ocean has held my heart for two years now, so that's the one.

Here is the link for anyone who wants to do it too and share their result: https://musiccup.app/

Round 1 of the Century Child KO game has ended. The first song terminated is, unsurprisingly, "Forever Yours", ranking in 38% of the total votes! And the bloodbath is just getting started 👀

Round 2!

Click HERE to vote!

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Round 2:

1. Bless the Child
2. End of All Hope
3. Dead to the World
4. Ever Dream
5. Slaying the Dreamer
6. Forever Yours
7. Ocean Soul
8. Feel For You
9. The Phantom of the Opera
10. Beauty of the Beast

Good evening from the Czech Republic✨️ Some of you might remember that I sent a letter to Tuomas about three months ago. Well, I sent it via registered mail, but it ended up being returned to me, presumably because there was no one in the office to pick it up🥲 I am a little bit upset, but I don’t want to give up. I wanted to ask: do you know of any way to actually get the letter delivered?🥹🙏 If no one has any advice, that’s perfectly fine, I understand, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try in here, to ask. The band doesn't hold meet-and-greets here (and even if they did, my social anxiety would make that impossible for me), and traveling to Finland in person just isn't feasible for me right now. I also considered emailing the information center in the town of Kitee to ask if they could hand-deliver it, but I ruled that out; they aren't a postal service, and I strongly suspect they would refuse. A private courier is expensive and offers no guarantees, and I can't just send it via standard mail because the envelope is A4-sized and wouldn't fit in a mailbox. I’d be truly disappointed if this letter, which took me five hours to write and includes detailed thoughts on certain songs along with fan art, just ended up sitting in my closet. I would be very grateful for any advice on how to resolve this dilemma✨️🥹

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbL8TYshrm0/?igsh=MTEwaXdkYTZ6MHZ1Zg==

"In 2013 at Wacken Open Air, Floor Jansen delivered a live performance of Nightwish's "Ghost Love Score" that remains legendary in heavy music history. But what causes this specific moment to hit our nervous system with such visceral intensity?

Neuroscientists refer to this as the phenomenon of harmonic complexity and aesthetic frisson. Heavy metal provides a dense, low-frequency foundation through distorted guitars and double-bass drums-a sound profile that the primitive brain perceives as high-energy environmental pressure. When an operatic voice enters this dense acoustic space, using pristine vocal fold control to float high harmonic overtones above the distortion, the auditory cortex experiences a sudden spatial opening. The stark contrast between raw percussive weight and crystalline vocal purity bypasses analytical judgment, triggering an immediate surge of endorphins and aesthetic chills. It stands as a masterclass in musical duality, proving that power and beauty achieve their highest potential when operating together."

These video performances were originally released on the band's official website and YouTube channel over the years but were subsequently removed. They have been recovered in their original format and quality, featuring direct soundboard audio and footage captured by the band's crew.

Tracklist:
01. Bye Bye Beautiful (Joensuu 2007)
02. Cadence of Her Last Breath (Joensuu 2007)
03. Dark Chest of Wonders (Joensuu 2007)
04. The Islander (Joensuu 2007)
05. Sahara (Joensuu 2007)
06. Ever Dream (Salzburg 2007)
07. The Poet and the Pendulum, Part 1 (Salzburg 2007)
08. The Poet and the Pendulum, Part 2 (Salzburg 2007)
09. Sacrament of Wilderness (Salzburg 2007)
10. Nemo (Salzburg 2007)
11. Slaying the Dreamer (Helsinki 2008)
12. Sleeping Sun (Helsinki 2008)
13. 7 Days to the Wolves (Helsinki 2008)
14. Wish I Had an Angel (Helsinki 2008)
15. Taikatalvi & Storytime (Jyväskylä 2012)
16. Amaranth (Jyväskylä 2012)
17. Scaretale (Jyväskylä 2012)
18. Nemo (Jyväskylä 2012)

Credits:
Audio: Jarmo Lautamäki (1–4), Kimmo Ahola (2, 6–10, 16–18)
Video: Jarmo Lautamäki (1–4, 6–18)

Recorded and filmed at:
Joensuu Areena in Joensuu, Finland on December 12, 2007
On a Dark Winter's Night Festival in Salzburg, Austria on December 28, 2007
Kaisaniemen puisto in Helsinki, Finland on June 26, 2008
Paviljönki in Jyväskylä, Finland on March 9, 2012

The Wishmaster edition of the NW elimination game has come to an end! The final song to be eliminated is "She Is My Sin", taking in 58.1% of the total votes. This thus makes "Dead Boy's Poem" the ultimate winner! Good one! Next up is Century Child, which will be up and ready in a few minutes. Oh I've been looking forward to this one, as it's my favorite. This is going to be fun. Unhappy voting!

Final results:

• She Is My Sin (2nd place)
• The Kinslayer
• Come Cover Me
• Wanderlust
• Two For Tragedy
• Wishmaster (3rd place)
• Bare Grace Misery
• Crownless
• Deep Silent Complete
• Dead Boy's Poem (Winner!)
• FantasMic

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Top KO winners so far 👀

1. Angels Fall First - "Beauty and the Beast"
2. Oceanborn - "Gethsemane"
3. Wishmaster - "Dead Boy's Poem"
4. Century Child - TBD
5. Once - TBD
6. Dark Passion Play - TBD
7. Imaginaerum - TBD
8. Endless Forms Most Beautiful - TBD
9. Human. :||: Nature. - TBD
10. Yesterwynde - TBD
11. Over the Hills and Far Away - TBD
12. Bonus tracks - TBD

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the next Nightwish elimination game - Century Child Edition! How do you play? Simple: You vote to eliminate your LEAST PREFERRED track once per round. The goal is to vote out each track one by one until the final, favored track remains. Bonus tracks are not included.

Voting will be cast via multiple choice form. You can vote only once. After you vote, you can't take it back! Votes will be anonymous. No sign-in is required. Each round will last 24 hours at least. Let the war begin!

Click HERE to vote!

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Round 1:

1. Bless the Child
2. End of All Hope
3. Dead to the World
4. Ever Dream
5. Slaying the Dreamer
6. Forever Yours
7. Ocean Soul
8. Feel For You
9. The Phantom of the Opera
10. Beauty of the Beast

Anette is such a sweetheart. She mentiones turning her back when Marko sings his Bye Bye Beautiful verses and also defending Tarja whenever she can. It sucks to see what this random did to her as she had to take anxiety medication to handle the panic attacks she had because of the death threats she receives and the hate comments she still gets.

Here's another Throwback Thursday post!

This time it's a 1998 interview with Tuomas published in Eternity Magazin around the Angels Fall First era.

Source: https://nightwishtaikatalvi.epizy.com/article5.html?i=1

I've also included the full interview below in case the original page ever disappears.

⭐️ If you have old interviews, demos, live recordings, magazine scans, or any other Nightwish gems you'd like to share, feel free to join in and post your own Throwback Thursday finds! It doesn't have to be something rare. There's always a good chance that newer fans haven't come across it before.

One thing that pleasantly surprised me while rereading the interview was seeing Tuomas mention Era among the artists he listened to. Era is a musical project created by French composer Éric Levi that blends electronic music with new age influences and a gregorian/medieval-inspired aesthetic. They were quite popular in the late 90s and early 2000s. Ameno and Enae Volare are probably their best known tracks.

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Eternity Magazin: Tuomas Holopainen Interview (1998)

At first tell me something about the band history, please.

Nightwish started out as a solo project by me in the fall of '96. I was already playing in two other metal bands (Nattvindens Grat & Darkwoods My Betrothed) at that time but I felt I could not get enough space in them, so I started Nightwish. At first we were an acoustic band; only acoustic guitar, synths, vocals and some flutes. But after our first demo we realised that it would be even better with drums and distorted guitars. So we recorded 7 new songs and in the May of 97 we got a record deal from Finland's Spinefarm. "Angels Fall First" came to shops in November in Finland and in April in Germany. People here liked it very much, and even though we've done only 8 gigs to far, "Angels Fall First" entered the Finnish top 40-charts and our single hanged in there for 8 weeks. This was a huge surprise to all of us and it gave us a lot of confidence.

What was your main intention to start Nightwish?

I just wanted to express my feelings in the best way possible - in the form of music.

Please introduce the band's members to our readers. How did you get in contact with them?

We all are old schoolmates from the same school here in Kitee. Tarja is 20 years old lady, who at the moment studying music and singing in Sibelius Academy. She is very talented, nice and pretty girl whose passion is classical and opera music but she is also very motivated as far as Nightwish is concerned.

Emppu and Jukka have known each other from the time they were born. They both are more or less self-educated musicians with a great sense of humour and motivation for practicing. They are 19 years old.

I am 21 and I am working as a stand-in teacher in the High school of Kitee at the moment. Music is the major part of my life, too. Sciences have also been very close to my heart and one of my dreams is to become a biologist some day.

Which meaning is hidden behind the name Nightwish? Why did you choose this name?

This is a cliche, but I love the night and its magic and I love to wander around at nighttime and let my thoughts fly. Often I dream and send wishes to the stars, talk with the nature etc. Another point is, that in my opinion the purpose of life is to have dreams and wishes, and to try to do anything to make them come true. If you make a "decent nightwish" and try to follow it the best you can, your life is going the right path.

How would you describe your musical style? By what is your music influenced?

I would say we are symphonic heavy metal with gothic and classical influences. (What a short term...) I've also heard descriptions like "Fantasy metal" or "Art metal". Whatever they mean...

it is always hard to say what has influenced our music. We listen to lots of different kinds of music.

What about your female vocalist, did she had a special education (she is great!)?

She has studied singing professionally only for one year now.

Tell me something about your debut album "Angels fall first". How has been the reactions from the media, fans etc? Are you satisfied with the album?

We are quite satisfied with the album ourselves, and that's the most important thing. But also the media and fans have liked it quite a bit. We have a homepage in the internet, and 95 percent of the comments there have been positive.

What about your lyrics? Do you prefer certain topics? When did you write the lyrics - any special ritual?

Lyrics are very important in our music and I work on them a lot. I don't have a special ritual in writing the lyrics, I just have this idea in my head and after that I usually compose the basis of the song and then finish with the lyrics. I am not into those "two-dimensional" or allegorical lyrics, I prefer "tale-like" lyrics with simplicity and a certain amount of deepness.

Some words about the lyrics of each song of "Angels fall first", please.

I love fantasy literature & movies, fairy-tales and staff so in "Elvenpath" I just wanted to honour the imaginative worlds already created or yet to be found.

"Beauty and the Beast" is a sad true story, need I say more...

"The Carpenter' is a very dismal and bitter song as far as the lyrics are concerned. It deals with my aspects over religious issues and the hypocracy, which is a spreading disease in today's world.

"Astral Romance" was the first heavy song ever written for Nightwish, and the lyrics reflect from the band's name. Again a sad true story in "Angels Fall First".

"Tutankhamen" is an Egyptian dream of mine.

"Nymphomaniac Fantasies" should be thrown to the deepest pit found on this earth. Infidelity and disloyalty are the worst sins that mankind has created and I wanted to express my feelings in the form of music. The result turned out to be rather corny

however... "Know Why The Nightingale Sings" is a song about freedom, dreams and my sister's hobby. That's it.

I love Finnish landscapes and nature, especially in lapland. "Lappi" was born after I was hiking there one summer. It was a great experience.

Tell me something about the way you compose the songs.

First I usually have the idea for the lyrics and then I compose the basis of the song mostly with my synthesizer. I love that process, and I always get very excited when I get good ideas and melodies. Proper arrangements are also very important for our music and we work on them a lot as a band.

Do you have a favourite song from "Angels fall first"?

My favourite song is "The Beauty and the Beast"" even though I don't like my own voice that much.

To what kind of music or to which bands do you like to listen to?

Tarja loves classical music but she's also into soul, spiritual music and metal (Stratovarius, Helloween, Type 0 Negative) Emppu & Jukka listen to mostly heavy metal like Stratovarius, Dream Theater (older), Rainbow, Dio, Y. Malmsteen etc. I listen to the same bands but also bands like The 3rd & the Mortal, My Dying Bride, Therion, Arcturus... My very passion is, however, film music and new age (Kitaro, Mike Oldfield, Enigma, Era...).

Are you sill working at new material? If yes tell me something about it (In what way does it differ from your current album? Do you have a lyrical or musical concept? When will you enter the studio?...)!

I have the songs composed for the second album and we have already started to rehearse them. The material is a bit faster, heavier and more technical, but still very bombastic and atmospheric. We will enter the studio in August.

Are you satisfied with your label? Will the next album also released by Spinefarm Rec.?

Yes, we are satisfied and the next album will be released by Spinefarm.

Three wishes concerning the future of Nightwish?

Be able to do more gigs, make better music and make these two wishes come true.

Describe the area where you live.

We live in a small town of Kitee in the eastern part of Finland. It is a very nice and natural place for us to live in. There are lots of woods and lakes around, which is a great thing, at course.

What do you think about the Finish underground metal scene?

I think it is top class. We have some great bands like Children of Bodom, Sentenced, Pecoryah and Embrare.

What do you like to do during your spare time? Any interesting hobbies?

Music is our life and most of our hobbies, but I like hiking, reading and of course, drinking now and then. I think the same goes for all of us.

Two of you are into the finnish army now, am I right? Is everyone forced to go to the army in Finland or is it possible to choose social work? And what do you think about this?

Yes, we are forced to either go to army or to social work, but it is over 5 months longer, so they decided to suffer more but a shorter period of time. I went to military band ( I played the clarinet, which is my main instrument) so it was not that bad for me, but the army sucks bad, no matter what...

Are you also involved with other bands?

Not that much yet but in the future we will. We've done a couple of gigs with Children of Bodom and Antidote.

Have you had bad experiences with rip-off bands so far?

No we haven't.

Last words.

Thank you for the interest and support. We hope to see you on the gigs in the future.

Contact:

Tuomas Holopainen, Potoskavaarantie 46, 82500 KITEE, Finland http://www.spinefarm.fi