Once (Nightwish album)
Once is the fifth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was 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, (1,000,000 including the videos) 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" has sold 2.3 million copies worldwide, being Nightwish 's most successful album to date. The remastering of the album was released on August 6, 2021. Background. In a 2008 "Kerrang!" interview, Tuomas Holopainen remembered: "Doing this kind of really orchestral, symphonic stuff for four albums, you have to be prepared to take the next step and go 10 steps beyond, and that's how we ended up with the London Session Orchestra. At that time we also had the financial resources to do it. This was like our second breakthrough in a way; "Oceanborn" (1998) broke us, took us to the big league. Musically it was pretty laid -back from our side because everyone involved in the orchestra really knew their stuff, so we basically spent two days lying on the couch hearing all these people playing our songs, enjoying every moment. It was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. The first song they started to play was "Ghost Love Score", we had no idea what to expect, and I just thought: This can't be happening!" Musical style. The album continues the more streamlined musical approach first heard on "Century Child", moving further away from the power metal-influenced sound of their previous albums  into symphonic metal with a slightly more mainstream, approachable feel. "Once" utilizes a full orchestra in nine of the eleven songs on the album; unlike "Century Child", Nightwish chose an orchestra outside of Finland, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which has been featured on every album released since. "Once" is their second album to feature a full-length song in Finnish, "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan". The band added new elements to their music for this album, such as the chorus riff and synthesized drum-beat of "Wish I Had an Angel", and a long prayer chant on "Creek Mary's Blood". The  song "Ghost Love Score" was described by Hietala as follows: "I'm a big fan of old prog rock and this is a song that has a lot of different parts going on, and different atmospheres in different places in order to support the story. [...] My biggest influence from the prog world would be Jethro Tull, but I also love listening to Yes and Genesis and all those bands, and there's a correlation between the structures and the length of a lot of their songs and this one." Artwork. The angel on the album cover is a view of  the Angel of Grief, a sculpture by William Wetmore Story. The original is in the Protestant Cemetery of Rome, Italy. Tour. The success of the album allowed them to perform the Once Upon a Tour, which enabled them to play in many countries the band had never visited before. Nightwish performed at the opening ceremony of the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, held in Helsinki, highlighting the band's recently gained popularity. Reception and legacy. During the first week of its release, "Once" entered the German, Finnish, Norwegian and Greek charts as number one, selling over 80,000 copies in Germany  alone. It was also the first Nightwish album to chart in the U.S., reaching No. 42 on the "Billboard" Top Heatseekers chart, and the band's first album to chart in UK, reaching No. 8 on the Rock Chart. In 2005, "Once" was ranked number 383 in "Rock Hard" magazine's book of "The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time". In 2017, it was ranked 89th at "Rolling Stone"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". "Once" has sold triple platinum in Finland, platinum in Germany, gold in Sweden and later reached No. 1 also in  the European Top 100 Albums chart. The single "Nemo" topped the charts in Finland and Hungary, and reached the top ten in four additional countries. It remained in the UK Rock Chart for more than a year. "Nemo" therefore remains their most successful single ever, and "Once" had reached number 47 in the list of best-selling albums of all time in Finland. The total sales of the album have achieved 2.3 million copies in 2013. Personnel. All information from the album booklet. Nightwish Additional musicians Production