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Dark Passion Play
Studio album by Nightwish
Released	September 26, 2007 (Spinefarm) September 28, 2007 (Nuclear Blast)[1] October 1, 2007 (UK) October 2, 2007 (Roadrunner Records)
Recorded	September 15, 2006 - spring 2007 in London[2], Hollola, Kerava and Helsinki
Genre	Symphonic metal, power metal
Length	75:43
Label	Spinefarm Nuclear Blast Roadrunner Records
Producer	Philip Williams,Tuomas Holopainen, Co-Produced by Tero Kinnunen, Mikko Karmila
Professional reviews
All Music Guidelink Metal Hammer PopMatters link Kerrang (KKKKK)
Nightwish chronology
Once (2004) Dark Passion Play (2007) TBA
Singles from Dark Passion Play
"Eva" Released: May 25, 2007 "Amaranth" Released: August 22, 2007 "Erämaan Viimeinen" Released: December 5, 2007 "Bye Bye Beautiful" Released: January 18, 2008

Dark Passion Play is the sixth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released on September 26, 2007 through Spinefarm, on September 28, 2007 through Nuclear Blast and on October 2, 2007 through Roadrunner Records. It is the first album to feature the band's new lead vocalist, Anette Olzon, and the first without former vocalist Tarja Turunen, due to her departure in October 2005. Dark Passion Play will be the band's first studio album in three years, the longest non-album gap in their history.

The album's creation cost 500,000€, making it the most expensive album in Finland's music history. It was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios with the London Session Orchestra, and an extra 270,000€ was spent filming the album's video clips.^[3]

As of December 16th the album has sold 100,000 copies in Finland alone, granting it a 3x platinum certification.

The album has so far spawned four singles: "Eva", the album’s lead single, was released on May 25, 2007^[4] as a download-only single to charity; "Amaranth", released on August 22; Erämaan Viimeinen, which was released on December 5; and "Bye Bye Beautiful", which will be released on January 18, 2008.

The title and artwork were revealed on June 13.^[5]

Lead songwriter Tuomas Holopainen has referred to it as the 'album that saved his life'. ^[6] In the winter 2005 - 2006 everything seemed hopeless and dark thoughts hung over him, and he could only find hope in these songs. This also helped him writing them, as hopelessness and sorrow are big inspirations to him.

Contents 1 Title Origin 2 Recording 2.1 Music 2.2 Music videos 3 New vocalist 4 Leaks 5 Faster Harder Nightwish 6 Live performances 6.1 Tour 6.2 Merchandise 6.3 Song listing 7 Music style 8 Credits 8.1 Members 9 Track listing 10 Charts 11 Notes 12 References 13 External link

According to Holopainen, the band's keyboardist and main composer, the album's title was originally "The Poet and the Pendulum", after the album's first track. Yet it was changed to "Dark Passion Play" for several reasons, including that "The Poet and the Pendulum" was too long for an album title, and that he didn't want to name an entire album after himself (as he is the Poet in the song). The new name, though, also had to do with the album's opening track:

“

The morning dawned, upon his altar Remains of the dark passion play Performed by his friends without shame Spitting on his grave as they came

”

Nightwish began studio recording the instrumental parts of Dark Passion Play in the autumn of 2006, and were finished by spring 2007. A total of 15 songs were recorded.^[7] Following this, the orchestral recordings took place in Abbey Road Studios in London in two sessions: one in mid-December and the next in February. As with their previous studio album, Once, the band worked with the London Session Orchestra and Metro Voices Choir while recording the album.^[8] Vocal recordings began in February 2007, after Anette Olzon had been chosen as the band's new lead singer. The album was mixed and mastered at Finnvox Studios in Helsinki in April-May 2007.

At least three music videos have so far been filmed to accompany the album's singles - or rather four if "Amaranth"'s b-side "While Your Lips Are Still Red" is considered a Nightwish release.

The first two, "Amaranth" and "Bye Bye Beautiful" were both shot in Los Angeles, USA in spring 2007 and cost 270,000€.^[9] The "Amaranth" video was released together with the single on August 22, 2007, and "Bye Bye Beautiful" hasn't been officially released, even though it's been leaked unto YouTube. It will be released together with the single on January 18.

The third music video was "Erämaan Viimeinen", and it was completed in October, 2007, in Rovaniemi, Finland.^[10] Even though the "Erämaan Viimeinen" single was released (as Finland-only) on December 5, 2007, the video hasn't been released yet (as of December 23, 2007). Holopainen has said that they first didn't plan to shoot another video for "Dark Passion Play", but when they were offered a town with classical Finnish nature, they couldn't say no. He has said that the video for once has something in common with the song.

1. While Your Lips Are Still Red
2. Amaranth
3. Bye Bye Beautiful

In October 2005, after a world tour supporting Once, the band's lead singer Tarja Turunen was fired via an open letter. To find her replacement the band conducted auditions from March 17, 2006 to January 15, 2007, receiving over 2000 demo tapes in the process.^[11]

Amid much speculation it was officially announced on May 24, 2007 that Anette Olzon, previously singer with Swedish band Alyson Avenue, was the new vocalist of Nightwish. In an interview, Holopainen said they had made the decision in January 2007 based on the impression she made performing the song "Ever Dream" from the album Century Child.^[12]

“

Of course it's gonna be a huge task for the singer - she will be always compared to Tarja but I'm pretty confident that she'll do well. -Tuomas Holopainen regarding Anette Olzon's ability[13]

”

The first single, "Eva", was leaked on the Internet six days before its official release, forcing the band to release the single earlier to boost downloads. Several other versions of songs were posted to YouTube and torrent sites a month later. The whole album had been leaked to the Internet by August 2, containing record label voiceovers. The full album (not containing voiceovers) was leaked on September 21, 2007, due to several stores in Mexico selling the retail album well in advance of the worldwide release date.

The video to the album's fourth single "Bye Bye Beautiful" was early leaked unto YouTube and similar sites on the Internet.

Faster Harder Nightwish was announced as the title of the upcoming record on April 1, 2007 on the official website. The title is possibly a take on the Scooter single, Faster Harder Scooter. They also released a picture of new cover artwork, which led viewers to believe that they were changing their style completely, from symphonic power metal to something more like thrash metal. Only hours later it was possible to find a "promo sampler" of the album on several peer-to-peer networks. It was later stated on their official website that this was an April Fools' joke.^[14][15]

A world tour has been planned in support of Dark Passion Play. The tour began in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 6, and is followed by a North American tour across October and November, supported by Paradise Lost.^[16] The band will then return to Finland, where the tour will end on January 1, 2008.^[17][18] Presales for the North American tour and the Scandinavian tour are already available. The band is then going to tour Australia in late January. Tickets go on sale soon.

A tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland is also confirmed, and will stretch from March to April next year. According to Holopainen, this will be the longest tour the band has yet attempted, and will probably last about two and a half years.^[19]

Official Nightwish posters and the 2008 calendar started pre-selling in June, 2007,^[20] together with the Spinefarm releases of the second single, "Amaranth".

Killing off the rumours saying that Olzon never will be capable of performing old Nightwish hit songs, Holopainen has said that the tours' song listing will be divided equally with songs of the album and older Nightwish songs.^[21] He is not afraid that Olzon will not be able to perform the songs that Turunen usually sang, as she even on her demo showed of her ability performing for example "Ever Dream".^[22] He has also said that they will play the band's greatest hits, such as "Nemo", "Sleeping Sun" and "Wishmaster", as they have earlier in their live performances. He has also confirmed however, that they will not play The Phantom of the Opera again.

Before Dark Passion Play's release, band leader Tuomas Holopainen said in an interview that the album will have a lot in common with the last album ("Once"). For example, the band kept the new kind of harder songs (such as "Romanticide", "Dead Gardens" and "Planet Hell"), but there will as well be softer ballads. The new album includes lots of guest musicians and orchestral parts - in the same interview, Holopainen said that as they recorded Once they had 18 people in the choir, and still this wasn't enough.

He also claimed there were going to be "shockers" that Tuomas didn't want to reveal. The longest song, "The Poet and the Pendulum", is a song that due to him is a very personal, epic piece that is a lot like film music, and it lasts for about 14 minutes. Music engineer Mikko Karmila has as well stated that the style is much more progressive than earlier.

“

The extremes are there more then ever before. So it's not going to be like Century Child 2. There is more hope in some of the new songs. -Tuomas Holopainen, band leader, keyboardist and main composer[23]

”

Holopainen also stated that there are darker pieces reminiscent of Century Child, such as "The Poet and the Pendulum", and some others. Both musically and lyrically, there will be darkness. Though, this album hold much more happiness and hope than "Century Child", in a way^[24]. Songs that shows this are for example the second single "Amaranth" and "Bye Bye Beautiful"'s b-side "Escapist".

Growling is be featured on the track Master Passion Greed, by keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen.^[25] And as several tracks are written and sung entirely by male vocalist Marco Hietala, it is expected that songs will be darker and heavier than before.

"While Your Lips Are Still Red", a bonus track on the Amaranth single, is the first song featuring Marco Hietala's softer vocals. Before, Hietala is known for the heavier screamings and sometimes even growlings in the songs. "While Your Lips Are Still Red" is written by Tuomas as the main theme track for the upcoming Finnish feature film "Lieksa!" Technically, it's not a Nightwish-track as it only features Marco on vocals, Tuomas on keys and Jukka on drums.

The track listing's median track length (Spinefarm Records' version with 13 songs) is 5.8 minutes, with most of the songs lasting for about four minutes. Three tracks are over seven minutes long, which is long for Nightwish, a band that earlier had most of the songs on about 4-5 minutes and one or two longer per album. One song, "The Poet and the Pendulum" is the longest in the band's history, 13:55, 3:33 minutes longer than the song that used to have that position, "Beauty of the Beast".

It seems like the writing credits will be more shared between the band members on this album than the earlier albums; several songs are written entirely by Marco Hietala, and at least one track has music written by Emppu Vuorinen, and lyrics by Tuomas Holopainen.^[26]

Anette Olzon said in a diary entry on Nightwish.com that she and Marco Hietala are co-singing on several songs, and on at least two tracks, Marco sings by himself.^[27] Holopainen is also growling on Master Passion Greed. Before Century Child, former vocalist Tarja Turunen sang close to entirely by herself (except Angels Fall First), but on Century Child, Hietala started to sing not only backing vocals but larger parts by himself. It seems like Hietala now will be given much more space.

• Anette Olzon - Vocals
• Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen - Guitar
• Marco Hietala - Bass, Vocals
• Tuomas Holopainen - Keyboards, Growling (On Master Passion Greed)
• Jukka Nevalainen - Drums, Bodhran

Guests:

• Guy Elliott - Lead Boy Soprano
• Tom Williams - Second Boy Soprano and Voice on The Poet and the Pendulum
• London Session Orchestra - Orchestra
• Metro Voices - Choir
• Troy Donockley - Bodhran, Uilleann Pipes, Low and Tin Whistle (on the Islander, Last of the Wilds and Meadows of Heaven)
• Nollaig Casey - Fiddle (On Last of the Wilds)
• Senni Eskelinen - Electric Kantele (On Last of the Wilds)
• Greg Knowles - Cymbalom

All songs written by Tuomas Holopainen, unless otherwise stated. All lyrics by Holopainen.

Normal Version

1. "The Poet and the Pendulum" – 13:54
2. "Bye Bye Beautiful" – 4:14
3. "Amaranth" – 3:51
4. "Cadence of Her Last Breath" – 4:14
5. "Master Passion Greed" – 6:02
6. "Eva" – 4:24
7. "Sahara" – 5:47
8. "Whoever Brings the Night" (Vuorinen) – 4:17
9. "For the Heart I Once Had" – 3:55
10. "The Islander" (Hietala) – 5:05
11. "Last of the Wilds" – 5:40
12. "7 Days to the Wolves" (Hietala, Holopainen) – 7:03
13. "Meadows of Heaven" – 7:10

Ltd. 2cd Digipak

CD1

1. "The Poet and the Pendulum" – 13:54
2. "Bye Bye Beautiful" – 4:14
3. "Amaranth" – 3:51
4. "Cadence of Her Last Breath" – 4:14
5. "Master Passion Greed" – 6:02
6. "Eva" – 4:24
7. "Sahara" – 5:47
8. "Whoever Brings the Night" (Vuorinen) – 4:17
9. "For the Heart I Once Had" – 3:55
10. "The Islander" (Hietala) – 5:05
11. "Last of the Wilds" – 5:40
12. "7 Days to the Wolves" (Hietala, Holopainen) – 7:03
13. "Meadows of Heaven" – 7:10

CD2 The whole Album as Instrumental

Premium Ltd 3CD exclusive nuclear blast shop version

CD1

1. "The Poet and the Pendulum" – 13:54
2. "Bye Bye Beautiful" – 4:14
3. "Amaranth" – 3:51
4. "Cadence of Her Last Breath" – 4:14
5. "Master Passion Greed" – 6:02
6. "Eva" – 4:24
7. "Sahara" – 5:47
8. "Whoever Brings the Night" (Vuorinen) – 4:17
9. "For the Heart I Once Had" – 3:55
10. "The Islander" (Hietala) – 5:05
11. "Last of the Wilds" – 5:40
12. "7 Days to the Wolves" (Hietala, Holopainen) – 7:03
13. "Meadows of Heaven" – 7:10

CD2 The whole Album as Instrumental

CD3

1. "Escapist"
2. "Meadows Of Heaven" [Orchestral Version]
3. "The Poet And The Pendulum" [Demo Version]

Platinum Edition

CD1

1. "The Poet and the Pendulum" – 13:54
2. "Bye Bye Beautiful" – 4:14
3. "Amaranth" – 3:51
4. "Cadence of Her Last Breath" – 4:14
5. "Master Passion Greed" – 6:02
6. "Eva" – 4:24
7. "Sahara" – 5:47
8. "Whoever Brings the Night" (Vuorinen) – 4:17
9. "For the Heart I Once Had" – 3:55
10. "The Islander" (Hietala) – 5:05
11. "Last of the Wilds" – 5:40
12. "7 Days to the Wolves" (Hietala, Holopainen) – 7:03
13. "Meadows of Heaven" – 7:10

Cd2

1. "Erämaan viimeinen"
2. "Escapist"
3. "Meadows of Heaven"
4. "The Poet And The Pendulum" [Demo Version]
5. "Bye Bye Beautiful [DJ Orkidea remix]

Tour Edition

CD

1. "The Poet and the Pendulum" – 13:54
2. "Bye Bye Beautiful" – 4:14
3. "Amaranth" – 3:51
4. "Cadence of Her Last Breath" – 4:14
5. "Master Passion Greed" – 6:02
6. "Eva" – 4:24
7. "Sahara" – 5:47
8. "Whoever Brings the Night" (Vuorinen) – 4:17
9. "For the Heart I Once Had" – 3:55
10. "The Islander" (Hietala) – 5:05
11. "Last of the Wilds" – 5:40
12. "7 Days to the Wolves" (Hietala, Holopainen) – 7:03
13. "Meadows of Heaven" – 7:10

DVD The Bye Bye Beautiful Dvd Single

Chart	Peak Position	Certification	Sales
Australia	42
Austria[28]	5	Gold	+10.000
Belgium[29]	36
Canada[30]	24
Croatia[31]	1
Czech Republic [32]	1
Denmark[33]	18
European Albums Chart	4
Finland[34]	1	Platinum (x3)	+100.000
France[35]	6
Germany[36]	1	Gold	+100.000
Greece[37]	3
Hungary	1
Ireland[38]	62
Italy[39]	14
Japan[40]	54
Japan[41] Foreign albums chart	12
Netherlands[42]	5
Norway[43]	7
Poland[44]	6	Gold	+10.000
Spain	33
Sweden[45]	4	Gold	+30.000
Switzerland[46]	1	Platinum	+30.000
UK Album Charts [47]	19
UK Top 40 Rock Album Charts [48]	3
United States[49] The Billboard 200	84		+35.000
United States[41] Top Hard Rock Albums	7
United World Chart[50]	9		+560.000

• Nightwish Official Site

v • d • e Nightwish (1996 -)
Tuomas Holopainen | Marco Hietala | Emppu Vuorinen | Jukka Nevalainen | Anette Olzon
Tarja Turunen | Sami Vänskä
Discography
Demos & EPs: "Nightwish" | "Angels Fall First (demo)" | "Wishmastour 2000" | "Over the Hills and Far Away"
Studio albums: "Angels Fall First" | "Oceanborn" | "Wishmaster" | "Century Child" | "Once" | "Dark Passion Play"
Singles: "The Carpenter" | "Sacrament of Wilderness" | "Passion and the Opera" | "Walking in the Air" | "Sleeping Sun (Four Ballads of the Eclipse)" | "The Kinslayer" | "Deep Silent Complete" | "Ever Dream" | "Bless the Child" | "Nemo" | "Wish I Had an Angel" | "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan" | "The Siren" | "Sleeping Sun" | "Eva" | "Amaranth" | "Erämaan Viimeinen" | "Bye Bye Beautiful"
Live albums: From Wishes to Eternity | End of an Era
Compilations: Wishmastour 2000 | Tales from the Elvenpath | Bestwishes | Highest Hopes
Videos and DVDs: From Wishes to Eternity | End of Innocence | End of an Era
Documentaries: End of Innocence | A Day Before Tomorrow
Related bands
Tarot | Tarja Turunen
Other
Nightwish members | Nightwish discography