"Planet Hell" is a song by the Finnish

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 guitar ...

band

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 Neva ...

, recorded for their fifth studio album ''

Once Once means a one-time occurrence. Once may refer to: Music * ''Once'' (Pearl Jam song), a 1991 song from the album ''Ten'' * ''Once'' (Roy Harper album), a 1990 album by Roy Harper * ''Once'' (The Tyde album), a 2001 debut album by The Tyd ...

''. The song begins with a male choir and orchestral background music for a full minute before the band starts playing. "Planet Hell" also heavily features the vocals of the band's bass player

Marko Hietala Marko Tapani "Marco" Hietala (born 14 January 1966) is a Finnish heavy metal vocalist, bassist and songwriter. Internationally, he is best known as the former bassist, male vocalist and secondary composer to Tuomas Holopainen, of the symphonic ...

. After his departure from the band, the songs vocals have been taken over by their female vocalist

Floor Jansen Floor Jansen (; born 21 February 1981) is a Dutch singer and songwriter. She is the lead vocalist of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. Jansen first became known as a member of symphonic metal band After Forever, standing as their lead voca ...

for live performances.

Religious references

The song has a number of religious references: * "The ferryman" refers to

Charon In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (; grc, Χάρων) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the wo ...

the ferryman in Greek mythology. ("Save yourself a penny for the ferryman": tradition dictated that a dead Greek would have a coin placed in his mouth to pay for passage over the River Styx, as Charon demanded payment to ferry souls across the Styx, and without payment, souls would be forever trapped upon the shores, unable to cross.) * "The Ark" could possibly refer to one of two things:

The Ark of the Covenant The Ark of the Covenant,; Ge'ez: also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, is an alleged artifact believed to be the most sacred relic of the Israelites, which is described as a wooden chest, covered in pure gold, with an e ...

, or

Noah's Ark Noah's Ark ( he, תיבת נח; Biblical Hebrew: ''Tevat Noaḥ'')The word "ark" in modern English comes from Old English ''aerca'', meaning a chest or box. (See Cresswell 2010, p.22) The Hebrew word for the vessel, ''teva'', occurs twice in t ...

. The latter seems the most plausible, as in Biblical story the Ark saved Noah and the animals from the flood brought about by God for their sins. "This world ain't ready for the Ark" could indeed be a dark message from the band stating that the Earth is in midst of destruction by humans and we are all to blame, and deserve punishment. * "Mother Gaia" refers to the Greek Titan

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenog ...

or Mother Earth.

In popular culture

* This song is well known amongst players of the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

massively multiplayer online role-playing game A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

RuneScape ''RuneScape'' is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001. ''RuneScape'' was originally a browser game built with the Java programming language; it was large ...

. On June 6, 2006, a significant bug, which allowed some players to attack others in areas that were meant to be safe zones, was exploited in what became known as the

Falador Massacre ''RuneScape'' is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001. ''RuneScape'' was originally a browser game built with the Java (programming language), Java progr ...

. Players were attacked and lost their valuable in-game items. The main record of the event was a player-made video which featured the song Planet Hell as the background music. On June 6, 2016, the game developers,

Jagex Jagex Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. It is best known for ''RuneScape'' and ''Old School RuneScape'', both free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playi ...

, released an in-game event celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the Falador Massacre. It included background music similar to Planet Hell. * This song was also used as intro music by the

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Southwest Division ( ...

in 2005. * This song was sampled in

Meek Mill Robert Rihmeek Williams (born May 6, 1987), known professionally as Meek Mill, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he embarked on his music career as a battle rapper, and later formed a short-lived rap group, ...

's Pray For Em.

References

2004 songs Songs written by Tuomas Holopainen Nightwish songs Male–female vocal duets {{metal-song-stub