Once (album)

Once
Nightwish studio album
Publication (s)	2004
Label (s)	Nuclear Blast ( Europe ); Spine Farm ( FI ); NEMS ( ARG ); Toys Factory ( JP ); Roadrunner Records ( USA / AUS / NZ )
Format (s)	CD
Genre (s)	Symphonic metal ,
Title (number)	11
running time	60 min 36 s
occupation	Singing : Tarja Turunen E-bass / vocals : Marco Hietala Guitar : Emppu Vuorinen Drums : Jukka Nevalainen Keyboard : Tuomas Holopainen
production	Tuomas Holopainen and Tero "TeeCee" Kinnunen
Studio (s)	Tempputupa Studios / Finnvox Studios
chronology Century Child (2002) Once Dark Passion Play (2007)

Once [ wʌns ] is the fifth studio album by the symphonic power metal band Nightwish . It was released on June 7, 2004 and is the last that Tarja Turunen took part in as a singer. It is also the band's most commercially successful album to date, but also the second most expensive: The production cost € 400,000, of which € 100,000 was the commitment of the London Philharmonic Orchestra . With this album Nightwish also switched their music label from Drakkar Entertainment to Nuclear Blast .

background

Nightwish at the opening concert of the “Once World Tour” in Kitee , the cover of the album can be seen in the background

Angel of Grief , the central motif of the cover

The cover

The cover of the album shows an angel slumped over a stone pedestal with the inscription “Once” set in carved laurels . The motif is enclosed by an ornate circle. The cover was designed and drawn by Markus Mayer . The motif exists as a real tombstone in the Protestant cemetery in Rome , but with a different lettering in the border. What is rather unknown is that the Greek gothic metal band Odes Of Ecstasy used the same illustration, but without an inscription, on their 1998 album Embossed Dream In Four Acts . In addition, there is a picture of this sculpture, the Angel of Grief by William Wetmore Story, also on the first EP of Evanescence , Evanescence EP (1998).

Music genre

Nightwish have added many new elements to their music for this album without losing their old style: for example, Creek Mary's Blood contains many Native American elements and ends with the spoken text by Native American artist John Two-Hawks . The ten-minute piece Ghost Love Score is largely carried out by the orchestra. Overall, compared to "Century Child", more orchestral sounds can be heard and more distinctive and equally subtle choirs were used (Dark Chest of Wonders, Planet Hell, Ghost Love Score). Wish I Had An Angel is reminiscent of Rammstein's music with a hard riff . The voice of singer Tarja Turunen is supported by bassist Marco Hietala on a total of five tracks ( Wish I Had An Angel , Planet Hell , The Siren , Romanticide , Higher Than Hope ) .

Soundtracks

Once songs have been used in movie soundtracks :

• Planet Hell : The Nibelungs
• Wish I Had An Angel : Alone in the Dark
• Nemo : The Cave

reception

Reviews

Critics accused the band of having focused too much on commercialism with this album . Nightwish appeared with Nemo in the Top of the Pops show on RTL and in the chart show on ProSieben and played playback there , which is very unusual for a metal band. The change of the German label from Drakkar to Nuclear Blast was also cited as an argument for the increasing commercialization: On the one hand the band had great success outside of the metal scene, on the other hand Nuclear Blast is known in the scene for “selling out” due to its company policy For example, four different versions of the single Nemo came onto the market.

In a pre-release studio report in Rock Hard magazine , editor Jan Jaedike concluded that “Once” was “clearly the most progressive work by the Finns” and stated “the balancing act between the orchestral parts [...] and the hardest metal elements that Nightwish have ever recorded ”, was successful. It was criticized, however, that the "goosebumps" were neglected.

Sales figures and chart positions

"Once" is the most successful Nightwish album to date: It achieved triple platinum in Finland for over 90,000 CDs sold , triple gold in Germany for over 300,000 CDs and gold in Switzerland , Austria and Norway . It was also number 1 on the album charts in Germany, Finland, Norway and Greece .

Singer Tarja Turunen performing at the Pukkelpop Festival 2005

tour

After the opening concert on May 22, 2004 in Kitee , Finland, the tour to the album ("Once World Tour") took Nightwish across Europe , parts of South America as well as the USA , Canada and Australia . After a year and a half, the tour ended on October 21, 2005 at Hartwall Areena in Helsinki . This concert, which was recorded for a live DVD called End Of An Era , was also the last with the previous singer Tarja Turunen: On October 22nd, 2005, the remaining band members announced in an open letter on their homepage that they were due to of personal differences and are now planning to move on with a new singer. The letter had already been given to Turunen on the evening of the concert in Helsinki and had been unanimously signed by all the remaining band members.

Versions

The first limited edition of the CD was delivered in a colored PVC slipcase, which formed a kind of "window" on the cover through a transparent circular area.

After the album had received a platinum award in Germany , Nuclear Blast released a "platinum edition" with an extended track list (in addition White Night Fantasy , Live To Tell The Tale and the video clip of the Nemo single) and a different, shiny silver cardboard cover.

Nuclear Blast has also released a DVD-Audio version of Once with high-resolution and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. In addition to the album, it contains the following bonus tracks: White Night Fantasy , Symphony Of Destruction (live), Ghost Love Score (instrumental score) , Creek Mary's Blood (instrumental score) , Nemo (video clip), Wish I Had An Angel (video clip).

On the editions of the album published in Argentina and Japan , the song White Night Fantasy is included as a bonus, while the Japanese version also includes the title Live To Tell The Tale .

Track list

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Once   DE 1 06/21/2004 (39 weeks)   AT 4th 06/20/2004 (15 weeks)   CH 4th 06/20/2004 (31 weeks)   FI 1 24/2004 (50 weeks)   NO 1 05/2004 (13 weeks)   SE 3 06/18/2004 (28 weeks)

Singles

Nemo   DE 6th 05/17/2004 (25 weeks)   AT 12 05/16/2004 (18 weeks)   CH 14th 05/16/2004 (17 weeks)   FI 1 18/2004 (5 weeks)   NO 4th 20/2004 (9 weeks) Wish I Had An Angel   DE 36 10/11/2004 (11 weeks)   AT 47 10/03/2004 (10 weeks)   CH 40 10/10/2004 (8 weeks)   FI 1 40/2004 (10 weeks) Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan (only published in Finland)   FI 1 49/2004 (8 weeks) The siren   DE 51 08/08/2005 (9 weeks)   CH 59 08/07/2005 (10 weeks)   FI 3 31/2005 (3 weeks)

1. Dark Chest of Wonders (4:28)
2. Wish I Had An Angel (4:06)
3. Nemo (4:36)
4. Planet Hell (4:38)
5. Creek Mary's Blood (8:29)
6. The Siren (4:45)
7. Dead Gardens (4:28)
8. Romanticide (4:58)
9. Ghost Love Score (10:02)
10. Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan (3:58)
11. Higher Than Hope (5:35)

Singles

Nemo

Nemo ( lat .: "Nobody"), the first single from Once, was released in May 2004 in two versions with different covers and track lists and as an audio DVD . In the first version, released on May 3, 2004, there is a double version of the title track (once in a normal, once in an orchestral version), Planet Hell by Once and an unreleased bonus track with White Night Fantasy . The second version (release date: May 17, 2004) also offers Nemo twice, but also contains the music video for the song and also has an unpublished B-side with Live To Tell The Tale . In addition to the title track, the audio DVD version also features 5.1 mixes from Planet Hell and Nemo . The single went platinum in Finland , gold in Norway and was number 1 on the Hungarian , Finnish and Brazilian singles charts. In Germany, the single achieved great fame because it was used in the trailers for the fifth season of the successful series Charmed .

Wish I Had An Angel

On September 27, 2004, Wish I Had An Angel, the second single from Once was released. In addition to the standard version, there is also a demo version of the title track, other B-sides are Ghost Love Score ( Instrumental Score) and a cover version by Swedish singer Ankie Bagger called Where Were You Last Night .

Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan

This third single was only released by Spinefarm and is therefore exclusive to Finland. It was released on November 24, 2004 and contained the main track, Creek Mary's Blood (Instrumental Score) and Symphony Of Destruction ( Live , cover version of Megadeth ).

The siren

On July 25, 2005, The Siren, the fourth single from Once was released, released in two versions (one by Nuclear Blast , the other by Spinefarm ). The title track is available in three versions: a single edit, the album and a live version, recorded in Chur ( Switzerland ) on February 27, 2005. The single also contains live versions of Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan (recorded at the concert in Bayreuth on February 25, 2005 ) and Symphony Of Destruction (only on the Nuclear Blast version).

Web links

Wikiquote: Once  - Quotes

• Lyrics to Once
• Review at laut.de
• Detailed information , especially on the different versions (French)
• Gallery of the different covers

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nightwish.com: The official biography of the band Nightwish (German, accessed February 8, 2009)
2. ↑ Version 1  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , English Wikipedia: Version 2  
3. ↑ Nightwish.com Information on the "Once" album on the official Nightwish website ( memento of the original from February 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (German, accessed February 8, 2009) 
4. ↑ Jan Jaedike: “The four-fold Nemo” - studio report on the album, Rock Hard No. 204, p. 56/57
5. ↑ Nightwish.com: 2004 tour dates on the official Nightwish website (German, accessed February 8, 2009)
6. ↑ Nightwish.com: News archive from October 2005 on the official Nightwish website (German, accessed February 8, 2009)
7. ↑ Nightwish.com: Information about the DVD audio version on the official Nightwish website ( memento of the original from October 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (German, accessed February 8, 2009) 
8. ↑ musicline.de: Nightwish in the German album charts ( memento of the original from August 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ musicline.de: Nightwish in the German single charts ( Memento of the original from April 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ austriancharts.at: Nightwish in the Austrian charts
11. ↑ hitparade.ch: Nightwish in the Swiss hit parade  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ finnishcharts.com: Nightwish in the Finnish charts
13. ↑ norwegiancharts.com: Nightwish in the Norwegian charts
14. ↑ swedishcharts.com: Nightwish in the Swedish charts
15. ↑ Duration of the individual songs: CD booklet (back)
16. ↑ Nightwish.com: Information about the "Nemo" single on the official Nightwish website ( memento of the original from October 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (German, accessed February 8, 2009) 
17. ↑ Nightwish.com: Information about the "Wish i had an angel" single on the official Nightwish website ( memento of the original from October 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (German, accessed February 8, 2009)