How did you discover Nightwish?

[C.]

I thought that was implied by the thread topic. >_<

Of course, but sometimes folks do get off-topic or post in the wrong thread so I just wanted to be sure.

Welcome to the new folks on the board!

 

[Bianca74]

I discovered NW one day just before Christmas 2010. I was watching TV and they showed this commercial for "Lokikirja", there was a clip from the "Sleeping sun" video (the remix) and I thought to myself, watching the clip and listening to the song, that "I never heard anything so beautiful"! It truly was quite magical, the way I got into NW.
After that I went on youtube and watched a few live clips and ordered my first NW CD "Over the hills".
The rest is, as they say, history.

 

[pyjujiop]

The more interesting question for me is how I failed to discover Nightwish for so many years?

I've been searching for music ever since the early days of the Internet; I was online back in the heyday of the illegal Napster and before. This is just the type of stuff I love to to listen to, but somehow I never learned about Nightwish.

It finally happened earlier this year, when I was watching an unrelated YouTube video with a song that Tarja sang with Beto Vasquez Infinity about 10 years ago. On the comments for the video, it mentioned that the singer was someone named Tarja Turunen. Being impressed with the singer, I put her name into Google. Which, of course, led me to the knowledge that she was the former lead singer of a symphonic metal band called Nightwish.

I figured that any symphonic band that had a singer like that MUST have been good, unless the rest of the band just sucked. So I looked them up. Found a ton of YouTube videos--the first one I listened to was the End of an Era version of "Ever Dream." I spent the next three hours listening to Nightwish. Somehow, in all of that, I missed all of the DPP stuff, and never heard Anette for a few days, after I'd read the band's bio. But I like those songs, too.

You know, I believe things happen for a reason. The day I discovered Nightwish was right in the middle of a difficult time for me personally. I find myself identifying with a lot of their music, and on some level, maybe I was meant to find out about them now. They're helping me get through all of this.

 

[C.]

Welcome to the board.

You know, I have been a Nightwish fan for over 10 years, have been a mod both here and at the official forum for most of those years, and I have found that a lot of their fans (including myself) discover them at a low point in their lives or at a time when the music especially resonates with them personally. I think that is a part of their legacy that seldom ever gets mentioned, that they have a way of reaching people who are suffering or going through hard times.

 

[nettitaikatalvi]

Well, it was by accident the best mistake ever
It was in U2b- the suggestion list and I wanted to click on Nirvana- Smells Like Teen Spirit but I clicked on Nightwish- Feel For You
It was this year and I absolutely love them- the era with Tarja and the era with Anette
In fact, no Tarja, no Anette, MARCO is the boss

 

[C.]

Welcome to the board!

 

[Tramz]

It's a well worn story, but worth telling again after so long as it shows the benefit of that which certain forces in this world try to condemn. This was back in the very early Napster days. I had heard about this band called Therion from a list i was on, so I went to Napster to give them a shot. As i was grabbing Theli (and Vovin soon after), I searched the library of the individual who had them. As I scanned down the files, I saw a band named "Nightwish". Ok, that sounded kind of cool, so I grabbed the only album available: AFF. it was kind of weird but there was something about it I kept coming back to. I was sure to nab Oceanborn when it came out soon after, and by Wishmaster I was definitely a fan (and started buying the CD's).

So all of my appreciation for Nightwish, my role in the Nightwish community over the years, and all of the friends I've made along the way are thanks to a random choice of downloads from a p2p network.

 

[C.]

...And they say downloading is a bad thing!

 

[nettitaikatalvi]

it actually is but who doesnt do ir

 

[Tramz]

My point was that downloading, especially in those earlier days, is a great way to discover bands. So a bad thing? Never. Especially not in an era where even CD's are pointless. Just so long as you still support quality music and buy your favorites.

 

[C.]

Exactly; I can't say how many bands I've gotten into via downloading. And the best part about downloading...if you don't like the band or the music, all you have to do is press "delete"! A much better time-saver than taking a CD back to the store.

 

[Calinn]

Wow, thinking about it, I discovered Nightwish nearly 9 years ago. It was 2003 and the previous year I had a bad departure with a dear friend of mine, and in 2003 I sent her an email to try to bring back out beautiful friendship. She replied to me and in this email she talked me about this band she liked a lot, while I talked her about Tori Amos which I had discovered the year before. She recommender me Sleeping Sun, Devil&The Deep Dark Ocean and Over the Hills, so I opened my WinMX and downloaded them all (piracy!!!). I wasn't used to metal, and since my aunt was at my place, when I opened the D&TDDO file I got scared and closed it immediately (I thought my aunt would have called me a satanist to listen to such music ). So I tried with the Sleeping Sun clip and I *FELL IN LOVE*. That was the most sublime thing I had ever heard in my whole life. The first album I got was CC, which my sister gave me for Christmas, then I bought all the other records shortly after

 

[drinkingtea]

Total accident. We were talking about genres that we don't understand and I mentioned metal bands with shrieking opera vocals being incomprehensible to me. He pulled Nightwish up online and I said, "Ummm...wow. This one is pretty good. What is it?" So, now there is one metal type band with opera vocals that I really enjoy, but I haven't found any others that really appeal to me just yet. I saw them live a few years ago and their concert in late 2007, which was the last time I went out with my sister before she got really sick. I think I will always associate the music with both a degree of sadness and a really good night out that I am forever grateful for.

 

[Tramz]

Drinkingtea: I trust you've explored related bands like Epica, After Forever and possibly even Therion? I would be surprised if you did not find something to like in Epica at least. A bit different, but have you ever explored Ayreon? The man collects some of the finest talent around for these amazing progressive rock/metal operas, done in a science fiction world of his own creation. Albums like The Universal Migrator, Into The Electric Castle, and especially The Human Equation are too amazing to miss.

 

[Hyperspace]

My story with discovering Nightwish starts on an online forum when someone posted a link to their cover version of "The Phantom of the Opera". This happened about one month after DPP was released, so around October in 2007. I was very impressed by their cover version of that song, so I eventually decided to look into Nightwish more. At the time I was planning to look into Nightwish more, I had to put that on hold for a few months because I was currently in college at the time and didn't have the time to really look into them more. Once I got out of college, I had all the time I needed to look into Nightwish and listen to all of the albums.

...And they say downloading is a bad thing!

Exactly; I can't say how many bands I've gotten into via downloading. And the best part about downloading...if you don't like the band or the music, all you have to do is press "delete"! A much better time-saver than taking a CD back to the store.

I engage in downloading as well and I don't feel bad about doing it at all. At least I can support the band by buying their CDs if I actually like their music.

 

[nodoubtaholic]

This is kind of odd, but I used to make sort of music videos to my old guild's raids (in WoW). I was always on the hunt for some crazy awesome music to put it to, something kickass and big and epic. I stumbled on Nightwish, specifically the song The Escapist. All downhill from there. I actually ended up making a raid video to the intro of Fantasmic and End of All Hope and turned a lot of guildies on to NW. It's here: http://youtu.be/zkLwQDIECDw

 

[Tramz]

That video makes me miss Black Temple's prime days hehe.

 

[nodoubtaholic]

That video makes me miss Black Temple's prime days hehe.

OT - I just watched some more of my lame videos.. totally just makes me miss BC in general! The amount of time I spent in Kara.. dear LORD. I was in my guilds first Kara raid that lasted all the way until near the end of BC (or at least the end of my time in that guild) when we were cycling through the new kids and getting them geared for 25's. Probably nearly a year and half straight.. I HATED it by the end, but I actually miss it now.. when we first got in there we wiped on Aran for like 3 days straight. It still brings a smile to my face.

Anyway.. ahem.. and THAT's how I discovered NW, funny enough, through WoW.

 

[C.]

There have been a lot of people over the years who discovered Nightwish's music this way. I actually think things like this are cool; I grew up in the '80s where what the band put out as a video was what you got as far as the visual aspect of the song went, so I rather like that in this day and age you can make your own videos to match what you see in your own mind when listening to a song. I have no skill at these kinds of things, so I have so much respect for those who can do this.

 

[klagad]

Through a friend, coming home from Wacken Open Air, in August 2000. Lets say he was excited and I discovered Wishmaster, Oceanborn and Angels Fall First and was blown away...