Once (Nightwish album)

Once is the fifth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, 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] (1,000,000 including the videos[2]) 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.[3] As of 2013, Once had sold 2.3 million copies worldwide, becoming Nightwish's most successful album to date. The remastering of the album was released on 6 August 2021.[4]

Once
Studio album by
Nightwish
Released7 June 2004 (2004-06-07)
RecordedNovember 2003 – March 2004
Studio
GenreSymphonic metal
Length60:06
Language
  • English
  • Finnish
Label
Producer
Nightwish studio album chronology
Century Child
(2002)		 Once
(2004)		 Dark Passion Play
(2007)
Alternative cover
Special edition cover
Singles from Once
  1. "Nemo"
    Released: 19 April 2004
  2. "Wish I Had an Angel"
    Released: 15 September 2004
  3. "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan"
    Released: 24 November 2004 (Finland and Japan only)
  4. "The Siren"
    Released: 25 June 2005

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!"[5]

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[6] 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".[7] 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."[8]

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.[9]

Tour
Main article: Once Upon a 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.[10] Nightwish performed at the opening ceremony of the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, held in Helsinki.[11]

Reception and legacy
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[12]
Metal.de[13]
Metal Hammer (Germany)[14]
Metal Storm[15]
PopMatters7/10[16]
Rock Hard9.5/10[17]
Sea of Tranquility
[18]

During the first week of its release, Once entered the Finnish, German and Norwegian charts at number one,[19][20][21] later topping the European Top 100 Albums chart.[22] It was also the first Nightwish album to chart in the United States, reaching No. 42 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart,[23] and the band's first album to chart in UK, reaching No. 10 on the Rock Chart.[24] In 2005, Once was ranked number 383 in Rock Hard magazine's book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[25] In 2017, it was ranked 89th at Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".[26]

Once has been certified double platinum in Finland,[27] triple gold in Germany,[28] gold in Sweden[29] The single "Nemo" topped the charts in Finland[30] and Hungary,[31] and reached the top ten in four additional countries.[32][33][34] It remained on the UK Rock Chart for more than a year.[35] "Nemo" therefore remains their most successful single ever, and Once reached number 47 in the list of best-selling albums of all time in Finland.[36] As of June 2013, the album had sold 2.3 million copies worldwide, Nightwish's best-selling album to date.[37]

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Tuomas Holopainen; all music is composed by Holopainen, except where noted

Once track listing
No.TitleMusicLength
1."Dark Chest of Wonders" 4:28
2."Wish I Had an Angel" 4:03
3."Nemo" 4:36
4."Planet Hell" 4:39
5."Creek Mary's Blood" 8:29
6."The Siren"
  • Holopainen
  • Emppu Vuorinen
4:45
7."Dead Gardens" 4:26
8."Romanticide"
4:57
9."Ghost Love Score" 10:00
10."Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan" (Finnish for "Death Makes an Artist") 3:34
11."Higher Than Hope" (in memory of Marc Brueland)
  • Hietala
  • Holopainen
5:35
Total length:60:06
International special edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
12."White Night Fantasy"4:04
13."Live to Tell the Tale"5:02
Total length:69:12
Korean special edition bonus disc
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Where Were You Last Night" (Ankie Bagger cover)Norell Oson Bard3:53
2."Wish I Had an Angel" (demo) 4:08
Total length:8:01

Personnel

All information from the album booklet.[38]

Charts

Certifications and sales
Certifications and sales for Once
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Austria (IFPI Austria)[58] Gold 15,000*
Finland (Musiikkituottajat)[27] 2× Platinum 107,288[27]
Germany (BVMI)[28] 3× Gold 300,000^
Greece (IFPI Greece)[59] Gold 10,000^
Norway (IFPI Norway)[60] Gold 20,000*
Sweden (GLF)[29] Gold 30,000^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[61] Gold 20,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[62] Silver 60,000‡
Summaries
Worldwide — 2,300,000[37]

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history
Release history for Once
Region Date Label Catalog No. Note
Finland 7 June 2004 Spinefarm 981890-4[63]
Europe Nuclear Blast 27361 12912[63] Released in four different editions
Japan 21 July 2004
UICO-1067[63]
Australia 5 October 2004[64] Roadrunner RR 8216-2[63]
New Zealand
Canada 168618217-2[63]
United States
Brazil 15 December 2004
  • Spinefarm
  • Universal
 AK5000[65]
Argentina 12 February 2005 NEMS Enterprises NEMS 335[63] Released in two different editions
Japan 3 December 2008[66]
  • Spinefarm
  • Universal
 UICY-91258 Super Audio CD
Various 6 August 2021 Nuclear Blast NE 4534 Remastered version

References
  1. "Interviews at Metal from Finland". Metalfromfinland.com. Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. Retrieved 16 March 2010.
  2. Everley, Dave (8 December 2015). "How Nightwish became a modern metal phenomenon". Metal Hammer. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  3. Ahlroth, Jussi (24 September 2007). "Nightwish release Finland's costliest-ever album". Helsingin Sanomat. Archived from the original on 23 December 2008. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  4. Ewing, Jerry (11 June 2021). "Nightwish announce remastered reissue of Once". Prog Magazine. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  5. Ruskell, Nick (16 August 2008). "Treasure Chest. An Ultimate Portrait of a Life in Rock. Tuomas Holopainen.". Kerrang!. Vol. 1223. London, UK: Bauer Media Group. p. 54.
  6. "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  7. Ovington, Jacob, "Nightwish collaborator denies allegations that his Oglala heritage is false Archived 6 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine" in The Dark Domain, 17 January 2013. Accessed 5 June 2015. "Upon listening to a song he contributed to, a young member of the tribe and fluent Lakota speaker found that the lyrics Two-Hawks supposedly wrote in the language were "nothing more than absolute gibberish." This was later confirmed by David Little Elk, a certified Lakota language expert."
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  41. "Ultratop.be – Nightwish – Once" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
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  53. The first list is the list of best-selling domestic albums of 2004 in Finland and the second is that of the best-selling foreign albums:
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Bibliography
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