Sami Vänskä
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Sami Vänskä
Sami Vänskä (born 26 September 1976) is the former bassist of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. Background Vänskä started playing bass when he attended music school when he was nine years old. Rush, Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica has been cited as sources of inspiration to his bass playing. He also studied computer science in university. When Emppu Vuorinen, Holopainen and Jukka Nevalainen, remembered Vänskä who was previously in the band Nattvindens Gråt, they asked if he wanted to play with them. Vänskä first appeared on the second studio album, ''Oceanborn''. He played on the following tour but kept to himself while on tour - often staying at the hotel with Tapio Wilska, who was with the band for the tour. He worked on the band's third studio album '' Wishmaster'' and on the tour supporting it. He also played bass on the EP '' Over the Hills and Far Away''. Following the release of the EP and its tour, Holopainen asked the band's manager, Ew ...
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Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland across Estonia to the south. Finland covers an area of with a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city, forming a larger metropolitan area with the neighbouring cities of Espoo, Kauniainen, and Vantaa. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Finns. Finnish, alongside Swedish, are the official languages. Swedish is the native language of 5.2% of the population. Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to the boreal in the north. The land cover is primarily a boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes. Finland was first inhabited around 9000 BC after the Last Glacial Period. The Stone Age introduced several differ ...
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Nightwish
Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee. The band was formed in 1996 by lead songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former lead singer Tarja Turunen. The band soon picked up drummer Jukka Nevalainen, and then bassist Sami Vänskä after the release of their debut album, ''Angels Fall First'' (1997). In 2001, Vänskä was replaced by Marko Hietala, who also took over the male vocalist role previously filled by Holopainen or guest singers. Although Nightwish have been prominent in their home country since ''Angels Fall First'', they did not achieve wider success until the release of the albums '' Oceanborn'' (1998), '' Wishmaster'' (2000) and ''Century Child'' (2002). Their 2004 album, '' Once'', has sold more than one million copies and was the band's breakthrough in the United States. Their biggest US hit single, "Wish I Had an Angel" (2004), received MTV airplay and was included on three US film soundtracks to promote their N ...
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Finns
Finns or Finnish people ( fi, suomalaiset, ) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these countries as well as those who have resettled. Some of these may be classified as separate ethnic groups, rather than subgroups of Finns. These include the Kvens and Forest Finns in Norway, the Tornedalians in Sweden, and the Ingrian Finns in Russia. Finnish, the language spoken by Finns, is closely related to other Balto-Finnic languages, e.g. Estonian and Karelian. The Finnic languages are a subgroup of the larger Uralic family of languages, which also includes Hungarian. These languages are markedly different from most other languages spoken in Europe, which belong to the Indo-European family of languages. Native Finns can also be divided according to dialect into subgroups sometimes called ''heimo'' (lit. ''tribe''), although suc ...
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Symphonic Metal
Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitars of metal with different elements of orchestral classical music, such as symphonic instruments, choirs and sometimes a full orchestra, or just keyboard orchestration. Symphonic metal bands can feature classically trained vocalists, in which case they can be attributed nicknames such as opera metal or operatic metal. Perhaps the most pioneering and prominent examples of symphonic metal bands are Swedish band Therion, Finnish band Nightwish, Italian band Rhapsody of Fire and Dutch bands Within Temptation, The Gathering and Epica. All six bands place a large focus on elements prevalent in film scores in addition to the more basic classical components utilized more widely in the genre. Musical characteristics The metal subgenres most ty ...
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Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ...
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Oceanborn
''Oceanborn'' is the second studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released in Finland by Spinefarm Records on 7 December 1998 and in the spring of 1999 worldwide. It was released by Drakkar Entertainment in the rest of Europe, and by Toy's Factory in Japan. It is their first album with bassist Sami Vänskä. ''Oceanborn'' has sold more than 68,000 copies in Finland. The single "Sleeping Sun" was released in August 1999, and the song has been included in every reissue of the album since then. The album was released in the US by Century Media in March 2001. In 2017, '' Loudwire'' ranked it as the 10th best power metal album of all time. Background Speaking to ''Kerrang!'' in 2008, band founder Tuomas Holopainen reminisced that the band got really ambitious after the debut album "that was never meant to be released as a proper record. It happened almost by accident, so we decided to put everything into making ''Oceanborn'' great." He added: According to ...
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Wishmaster (album)
''Wishmaster'' is the third studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released on 8 May 2000 through Spinefarm Records in Finland. The album was released in the rest of Europe by Drakkar Entertainment on 29 May, and in Japan by Toy's Factory on 19 July. In the US, it was released by Century Media on 6 February 2001. ''Wishmaster'' peaked at No. 1 in the official Finnish charts; the album also debuted in the European charts at No. 21 in Germany and No. 66 in France. ''Wishmaster'' has sold more than 79,000 copies in Finland alone. In 2019, ''Metal Hammer'' ranked it as the 18th best power metal album of all time. Most reissues of the album contain the song "Sleepwalker", which was released in July 2000 to compete in the Finnish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2000. Background and release The writing and recording of ''Wishmaster'' was very fast and devoid of complications, in contrast with what had happened for '' Oceanborn''. The main composer ...
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Over The Hills And Far Away (album)
''Over the Hills and Far Away'' is the first EP by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released on 25 June 2001 through Spinefarm Records in Finland, and Drakkar Records in the rest of Europe. It was also released by Toy's Factory in Japan and Century Media Records in the US. Bassist Sami Vänskä left the band after its recording, due to musical differences between him and Tuomas Holopainen. He was replaced by the bassist and male vocalist, Marko Hietala. The editions by Drakkar and Century Media contain different live tracks taken from the live DVD ''From Wishes to Eternity'', recorded in Tampere, Finland, on 29 December 2000. The EP debuted at number one on the Finnish Singles Chart and spent twelve weeks in the top three, topping it for another four weeks and spending six weeks at number two. It charted for a total of 49 weeks, including two weeks in early 2004. The EP has been awarded double-platinum certification in Finland and has sold over 36,000 copies to da ...
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From Wishes To Eternity
''From Wishes to Eternity – Live'' is a live DVD/VHS/CD by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was recorded in Tampere, Finland on 29 December 2000. The CD was released as a limited edition of 10.000 copies, available only in Finland. In late 2005, Spinefarm managed to release it in Europe. In addition to a show of Nightwish material, the band also performed a medley, "Crimson Tide, Deep Blue Sea", which borrowed melodies from Hans Zimmer's music in the 1995 film '' Crimson Tide'' and Trevor Rabin's music in the 1999 film '' Deep Blue Sea''. On 1 March 2004 Drakkar released ''From Wishes to Eternity'' as SACD, a hybrid disc which can be played on normal CD players while SACD players give higher fidelity. The instrumental song "Crimson Tide, Deep Blue Sea" and "FantasMic" had to be removed from the track list to fit the concert on the disc. Later in 2004, the SACD version won the Gold Disc in Finland with more than 20,000 copies sold. Content Track listing # "The ...
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Over The Hills And Far Away (EP)
''Over the Hills and Far Away'' is the first EP by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released on 25 June 2001 through Spinefarm Records in Finland, and Drakkar Records in the rest of Europe. It was also released by Toy's Factory in Japan and Century Media Records in the US. Bassist Sami Vänskä left the band after its recording, due to musical differences between him and Tuomas Holopainen. He was replaced by the bassist and male vocalist, Marko Hietala. The editions by Drakkar and Century Media contain different live tracks taken from the live DVD ''From Wishes to Eternity'', recorded in Tampere, Finland, on 29 December 2000. The EP debuted at number one on the Finnish Singles Chart and spent twelve weeks in the top three, topping it for another four weeks and spending six weeks at number two. It charted for a total of 49 weeks, including two weeks in early 2004. The EP has been awarded double-platinum certification in Finland and has sold over 36,000 copies to date, b ...
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Once Upon A Nightwish
''Once Upon a Nightwish: The Official Biography 1996 – 2006'' is a 2006 biography originally written in Finnish by Mape Ollila, telling the story of the first ten years of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. The book was translated into English in 2007. An enhanced, more polished English edition was published by Bazillion Points Books at the very end of 2008. Ollila tells the story of Nightwish from the very first ideas of a band in 1996 until the bombastic concert in Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, after which the lead singer Tarja Turunen Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen-Cabuli (born 17 August 1977), known professionally as Tarja Turunen or simply Tarja, is a Finnish heavy metal singer, best known as the former lead vocalist of Nightwish. She is a soprano with a three and a half o ... was fired in an open letter by the band. The book is based on Ollila's own experiences with the band as well as exclusive interviews with the members, their families and their friends. The boo ...
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1976 Births
Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Philadelphia Flyers–Red Army game results in a 4–1 victory for the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers over HC CSKA Moscow of the Soviet Union. * January 16 – The trial against jailed members of the Red Army Faction (the West German extreme-left militant Baader–Meinhof Group) begins in Stuttgart. * January 18 ** Full diplomatic relations are established between Bangladesh and Pakistan 5 years after the Bangladesh Liberation War. ** The Scottish Labour Party is formed as a breakaway from the UK-wide party. ** Super Bowl X in American football: The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys, 21–17, in Miami. * January 21 – First commercial Concorde flight, from London to Bahrain. * January 27 ** The United States ...
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