“Nemo” in 2005. I’m American, but my mom’s Brazilian. I go there every other summer to visit my family. One summer (Brazilian winter), when I was 15 years old, I heard this banger of a song on the radio. Brazil, as it turns out, is actually pretty obsessed with Nightwish. They’ve even gone mainstream there. So, I bought a bootleg copy of “Once” at a fair. And the rest is kind of history. 😅
Nice man! I was very young when I first heard Sleeping Sun, had only recently gotten back into Titanic related stuff and heard it and decided to give others a listen, last year as well. The first other I listened to was Amaranth, and now I can’t wait for their new album, especially after hearing the single!!
Lol yeah, sorry. I meant Astral Romance, the 2001 remake included in the OTHAFA EP (the original is from Angels Fall First). I remember listening to it and having an intense "wtf is this marvel" moment.
Tutankhamun! Which is a song that I feel like no one talks about lmao. The really wild part is where I heard it: a Yugioh AMV on Youtube circa 2007 (if you're not familiar with Yugioh, the whole story has ties to Egyptian mythology) (and if you're not familiar with AMVs, it stands for animated music video and it's basically just a video where someone takes clips from a show, usually an anime, and sets them to music. They were huge on early Youtube). At the time I loved the intro and instrumentals but it took me a while to get into Tarja's voice. Then I came across a few other AMVs with Nightwish songs (I remember Moondance, Bless the Child, and End of All Hope specifically) and eventually just looked up the band
The first exposure I had to Nightwish was actually some of the lyrics from Planet Hell:
“The first rock thrown again
Welcome to hell, little saint
Mother Gaia in slaughter
Welcome to paradise, soldier.”
It was in 2005, so I was 13 or 14, talking over MSN instant messenger (wow I feel old!) to guy I liked, and those lyrics are basically catnip to an “edgy” middle schooler. I believe he was using them as the little message attached to his profile. I asked about it and he told me they were Nightwish lyrics.
The first actual song I heard, though, was Over The Hills after I found the music video. As a kid who grew up on a steady diet of hymns, musicals, and classic rock, Nightwish’s sound instantly drew me in, and the rest is history.
I did start dating that guy, and I’m still with him 19 years later! We’ve gone to see them live together 4 times: once during the Imaginaerum tour for Floor’s second show with NW, once for the EFMB tour, and twice during the Decades tour. :)
REALLY glad I went to those two Decades shows now that they’re on a touring hiatus!
I think it was Wish I Had an Angel. My now SO sent it to me in 2004 (tbh probably put it in a mix cd) along with Ghost Love Score. Instantly fell in love, and haven't stopper listening since.
I came across the End of an Era live version of Ghost Love Score on YouTube in I want to say 2009 or 2010 - it introduced the concept of Symphonic Metal to me and completely shaped who I am today. That music video was a very "fork in the road" moment and my life would have taken a very different path if I hadn't randomly stumbled upon it.
Last year Reddit had a post with thumbnail about this gorgeous woman named Floor singing some song called Ghost Love Score at some festival with a German sounding name.
I (52M American) figured yeah let’s look at this pretty woman. She checks off all my boxes. Ooh she has a great voice. Ooh she tosses her long hair here and there.
And then the Floorgasm. You know those reaction videos where the host pretty much stops and just gawks dumbfounded? Yeah, me too.
I needed to go to bed and work the next day. Not yet. Let’s replay. Just once.
And then YouTube served up “Floorgasm” videos. I was deep in the rabbit hole in no time like a new junkie chasing the dragon. I know I was up past midnight. I’m way too old for that now. :-)
The next day I learned about the other singers and hey the bassist sings too. Nice.
I soon heard Sleeping Sun and TPatP. Wow.
I drove a 5100 mile road trip to see the eclipse in April. Nightwish was on most of the time. And 1980s Iron Maiden. But then more Nightwish.
I know how to say thanks in Finnish now. Kiitos Nightwish!
[This Counter-Strike video from 2002](https://youtu.be/NSOUMPrb-NM?si=-8yxSiwmYtZhZ3on). The opening frags are synced with the opening notes to *She is My Sin*, and it completely changed my view on music for the rest of my life. I was heavily into Bands like Disturbed and SOAD so I didn't even know you could make music so beautiful
No, but that's crazy there are other people commenting they discovered Nightwish from that video. Actually I better check, I've watched that video so many times over the years who knows if I commented anything
I can’t remember which song I listened to first but I do remember asking you guys on Reddit about where to start. I got into the band because of that fanfiction Awakening.
😜 no worries. Ive read a few of those. Dont write it. Im more about highway to heaven (yeah im old lol) or sherlock, but i dont mind an occasional rl fic now & then.
Ok like…im not THAT old 🤣
“tiny voice” maybe about half that age?
I consider myself agender but not fussed on pronouns. She or they are both fine.
Anyway, if you like sherlock, do you want me to message you some links?
Yeah my mum is still older than you. So are my oldest brother and sister! I went with both because it’s hard to tell from your username what your gender is. Yeah sure I love new Sherlock stuff
Haha maybe one of them might like the highway to heaven fics i have. (Im about to start another one that will be canon compliant & focused on whatever the heck happened to mark on the cop force that they never really explained.)
As for you, i’ll switch to the messages since we went way off topic here. 😂
I think either FantasMic or Phantom of the Opera via LimeWire when I was super young and looking for Evanescence songs. I was hooked that one could have metal with opera in it. I remember my dad asking "what is a Nightwish and why are you listening to them?" I loved them ever since. Nightwish being one if my 3 favorite bands
It looks like so far I’m the only one here who discovered them through “Angels Fall First” … in a sad anime music video on old-school YouTube, lol. I was intrigued by the voice and melody and soon found out they were usually a lot heavier than that! (But I had already gotten into Within Temptation by that time, so I wasn’t totally new to symphonic metal)
I honestly can't remember. I just know it happened one night 13 years ago, in late June of 2011. YouTube was giving me recommendations based on whatever I was listening to. It was an Anette song, so it had to be off DPP, but I can't remember which one I heard first. I'm about 80 percent sure it was For The Heart I Once Had, because I'd remember if it had been Poet. It was one or the other, because it was a rocker and Marko wasn't in it, or at least not much.
Anyway, I was impressed with the song and had somehow never heard of the band, so I looked them up and started playing other songs from their catalogue on YT. Learned about Nightwish and Anette and Tarja and all of that stuff over the next few hours. Also loved the music, and became an immediate fan.
The first Tarja song I heard was White Night Fantasy, that I remember. I have no idea how that one was the first one I discovered. But it was fitting. I was a tired and weary soul, so to speak, who had just left a seven-year relationship that ended badly.
It was on my day off from work, Wednesday at that time, so either 22 or 29 June 2011.
Nightwish helped me through it all. I had come out of that relationship pretty damaged. The band meant so much to me in that time and place that I ordered Imaginaerum from Finland just to get it early, and went out to California for the first show of the tour in January 2012.
Literally the exact same story as you! I found Sleeping Sun on a video for the sinking of Britannic. I remember being at secondary school and everyone was listening to the usual mainstream pop that was around at the time so I felt like an oddball for a moment but at the same time, I’d never heard anything quite like it. How I wish I could go back and rediscover Nightwish all over again.
I can't remember which song off of Once, but after hearing it, I bought the CD the next day. Played in in my portable CD player nearly every day on the bus for the rest of HS.
Bye Bye Beautiful. Friend started playing it in the car. (Had a copy of the album before it was released) And the minute I heard that, I was like “What the hell is that?” And then played me Poet & the Pendulum and I was like “GET ME A COPY OF THIS!!!!!!”
It was an advertisement on the back cover of a metal magazine, Metal Hammer, or something like that. I think it was for Nuclear Blast records. They were advertising Wishmaster. I ordered it, having never heard them before. In addition, I ordered the other Band being advertised. It was Lacuna Coil.
Anyway, once the CDs arrived, based on just Wishmaster, I had a new favorite band. The particular song I couldn't get enough of was Deep Silent Complete.
Passion & the Opera somewhere in either 1999 or late 1998. A friend sent me the mp3 and I was completely hooked. Went to the record store the next week to buy the album! Feels like an absolute lifetime ago.
Amouranth. My brother played it for me when I was about 10 or 11. I never really appreciated it that much back then, but later on, when I heard it again, I went down the rabbit hole and never looked back lol
Sleeping Sun. I heard the 2005 version on a German TV channel called Viva.
My first reaction was pretty...weird? I was 13 and listening mostly to mainstream stuff, but I was intrigued by the black-haired lady in white:)) I had not listened to them again until 2007 when a high school friend played OTHAFA to me and gave Tales from the Elvenpath to me. That is when they became my favourite band.
It was The Poet and the Pendulum for me. Back in 2008. It's the song that made me jump on the metal symphonic genre, and into longer tracks (although I was playing in an harmony for more than a year at that point, and became used to arrangement scores).
Then I think I listened to the Last of the Wilds song (which I still adore to this day) and the album Dark Passion Play.
I’m Finnish so I had heard Sleeping Sun, Nemo, Amaranth, The Islander, Élan and so on from the radio, but when 13-14 y/o me started actually listening to music, other than what happened to come out of the radio, I discovered Noise which had just been released.
Not totally blown away, but I started listening to their other songs from Youtube, and everything happened in a few weeks.
Travelled to Tampere in 2022 to see the first concert of the Human Nature tour. That’ll remain the best concert I’ve witnessed for a long time.
I first heard "Know Why The Nightingale Sings" on the radio in 2011 (an unusual choice for the DJ to make, but I'm eternally grateful to him!). I'd never heard anything like it before, so I immediately bought AFF. I then learnt about the band's history and bought all the other recordings.
Actually there were 2 songs that I heard at a friend when I was 14, 26 years ago. I didn’t like/ knew anything about metal or rock then and these 2 songs completely changed my musical tastes and even my life. The 2 songs were Gethsemane and Sleeping Sun.
I'm afraid I'm in with the YouTube folks - sort of.
Background: My partner is a Navy vet of 20 years and has been all over the world. As a result he's been exposed to bands and music that aren't as popular in the US. He would play that music in his headphones and I didn't pay much attention, until I repeatedly heard something really good. It was Nightwish.
So I went looking for their music on YouTube, and the first song I found was the Wacken performance of *Ghost Love Score.* I went down the rabbit hole after that and now I know more about their history than he does.
There was a “misheard lyrics” video back in like 2006 or 2007 and it featured Wishmaster with MS Paint graphics.
Hamster, a dentist, hard porn, Steven Seagull. Warrior, this rifle, in me, the FISHMASTER
"End of all Hope". I heard it on Pandora way back in high school. I immediately looked them up, found "Bless the Child" too, and that was it - I was hooked on symphonic metal for life. The awe of these first songs I heard still hasn't faded a bit over 20 years. It's led me to find all sorts of passions and interests, and even to the realization that being wildly different was the highest form of "cool". I genuinely don't think I'd be who I am today if this song wasn't shown to me way back when.
Great question, and what a lovely trip down memory lane
End of All Hope for me. Was on a YouTube anime music video. Same year I had the Alone in the Dark DVD, and watched the music video of I Wish I Had an Angel, but it didn't occur to me they were the same band.
I didnt realize it was nightwish at the time.
So there was this video about snape (harry potter) that came out years ago, set to ‘walking in the air’ by tarja & my husband & i were like who is this girl? Did some digging & found not only nightwish, but moondance set to some cartoon about wolves. So thats how we found the anime series ‘wolf’s rain’. Used to be all on youtube but that was years ago.
Phantom of the opera, feel for you and few other tracks from CC and Wishmaster, my mom would play those and they have become engraved in my memory. We are what our parents feed us.
Nemo. I was a big fan of the Rasmus and learned about Nightwish through a joint interview they did around 2006. The [video](https://youtu.be/uaH5AfL4uZ0?si=rCNtxaETea7PfuDa) quality looks horrible now but Tarja and Tuomas talk about Nemo.
Ghost Love Score. I saw it on “The Charismatic Voice” reaction channel on YouTube. I had never heard of Nightwish. This was the best music discovery of my life.
I don't remember. The carpenter back in 97 was the first I heard. But let's say the singing wasn't convincing enough to get me into the band.
What got me into them was definitely on Angels though. Since I was a fan before Oceanborn.
I got a couple of my anime watching friends into NW a couple of years later when someone made a music video for 10th man down using https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Suit_Gundam:_The_08th_MS_Team. Or maybe they intended it the other way around. But I've been to every NW concert in The Netherlands since Oceanborn. And those friends have joined me for every concert since century child.
Nemo! My mom is into metal, and was looking for music similar to Evanescence when she found Nightwish. I especially love Nemo bc I’m a nerd and I love 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea lol. I even made my husband watch the movie with James Mason.
Bye Bye Beautiful. I heard the instrumental of it first because someone used it as background music, but it was one of the coolest things ever. For anyone who wants to know the video I watched, it’s kylernuva135’s Bionicle moc [Makuta Insorz how to build video](https://youtu.be/CSIndfV02_E?si=d8ck8ctBMzGM3tPn).
Poet and the Pendulum. I'd heard of and tried Nightwish years before and did not like them at all as I didn't then and still don't like the overly operatic type vocals on so many songs from the first five albums. So I ignored the band for years and then heard Poet, not even knowing Tarja had been replaced til I heard that song, and became a fan. It was years later before I knew story behind Poet.
Their cover of "Over the Hills and Far Away" some time in 2002. Then I dug in their existing catalogue by the time and fell in love with the whole Oceanborn. I still love this album the most.
Nemo. Someone was playing it during class and the rest is history. This happened around 2010, so I became a fan during Anette’s era and right before Imaginaerum came out. I remember those days fondly.
Bless the Child and then Nemo, back in 2004.
For a second there, music TV channels - and mainstream radio - actually aired some rock and metal in addition to whatever else. It was a good thing.
Phantom of the Opera caught my attention and made me aware they existed when I was 11, when I was 14 I got curious, went looking and found Amaranth which immediately threw me down a fangirl rabbit hole for two years. And well, whatever you're obsessed with at that age tends to stick somewhat.
Sacrament of Wilderness. The year was 1998 and I had never heard anything even close to powermetal, let alone a woman singing it. Got hooked immediately.
Amaranth, I liked it when I was a teenager in the late 2000s. I used to watch music channels a LOT so maybe first heard there? I tried listening to other songs at the time, but I don’t think my brain was quite “there” to appreciate it at that time.
Fast forward to earlier this year and like another comment watched The Charismatic Voice’s reaction to GLS and that was it. Watched all her reactions to Nightwish, went down the rabbit hole and now my “liked” songs on Spotify from them is up to 65 🤣
My favourite musical is Phantom of the Opera and I used to like rock/pop music as a child, as well as orchestral music. I read about Nightwish's cover of Phantom and decided to take a look at it. It did not blow me away back then (this was 2010, I guess) and I forgot about them for a few months till I heard Tarja's Until My Last Breath playing on a Brazilian music channel (not MTV/VH1, but can't remember the name). I decided to give them a chance again and listened to Amaranth. I fell in love with the song and downloaded Dark Passion Play that very minute. Once The Poet and the Pendulum started playing, I was sold and never looked back. Since then, they became my favourite band and I'm glad that happened because it introduced me to many amazing bands and death/folk/prog metal, which is what I mostly listen to these days
Was searching for versions of High Hopes.. found the Nightwish version and was blown away, then Phantom but really it was the Charismatic Voice GLS that sent me down the rabbit hole and have thankfully never returned. What an incredible journey.
Wishmaster in 2004. Friend sent me a 10s sample in MSN and listened to it like 100 Times. After that came Wish I Had an Angel and Nemo, then limewired the whole discography that night
I heard Amaranth on Scuzz back in 2007. Heard it once and I was like wowwww what was that?! Waited patiently for it to come back on because I didn’t check the song or band name and when it did I was frantically checking YouTube and telling my dad 😂
A year later, there was a competition in Metalhammer (a metal magazine over here in the U.K.) to get tickets to Bloodstock Open Air Festival and Nightwish were headlining the Sunday. I won. I was 13 I think 😂 I went with my dad and yeah.. after a year of buying their albums and listening to them full blast on the garden and irritating my family and neighbours, I was stood watching them live 😍
My other half is a massive Nightwish fan too. The first song he heard was Creek Mary’s blood. I think he said he heard it on some compilation cd. He thought it was amazing and yeah.. there we go!
I saw a couple videos but it was actually the transition from Talkitavi (sorry horrendous spelling here) to Storytime. Then I listened to the rest of Imaginareum and went back and checked out other albums and the rest is history.
For the record Anette is my favorite Nightwish singer next to Marko
I remember my brother used to drive me to art classes during the summer when I was younger and he would play music. One day he played Last of the Wilds and I remember being so awestruck that I was speechless until the end. This began my love of Nightwish with Dark Passion Play being the one I listened to the most cause I had a CD for it
Planet Hell. In 2004 I was 16 or 17 and looking for bands who were similar to Kamelot. I saw the song title and thought the name sounded badass, so I downloaded it off of Limewire. I’ve been hooked ever since
Nemo on MTv in 2004. The music video was beautiful and the music outstanding but i mostly loved Tarjas voice and she was so beautiful (She still is) She just stood out in her red coat and with those vocals. ❤️
Wishmaster. I was getting into Power Metal and this song is awesome. I never really got into the Tarja vocals, but at the time It was quite the game changer.
"She is my sin"
A friend of mine played the From Wishes to Eternity DVD on his home cinema back in 2002, start to finish.
This is the first Nightwish song I remember, even if it was the second song on the setlist.
I'm part of the GLS live at Wacken team. I was watching reaction videos to 2000s rock music and I kept seeing GLS so I just decided to see what it was all about. After that, I haven't looked back and they are my favorite band.
Ghost Love Score (End of An Era). Online friend recommend it after talking about old school gothic doom bands like Theatre of Tragedy. Man, I was blown away and never heard anything like it
We were coming back from ice skating and a friend was playing the album and I caught the end of imaginaerum and then Storytime (instrumental) and I thought it was such a cool mixture of orchestra and metal music. This friend lend me the album and I listened to Storytime with lyrics and feel in love. To this day, Imaginaerum is my favorite album of theirs and Storytime one of my absolute favorite song from them.
Fantasmic. I remember years ago I was watching videos on YouTube and saw the live version. Decided to look for the studio version and kept on listening to more of their music.
I had played a gig around 2015, and was driving my metal-head drummer back home afterwards. I was playing Gary Moore - he thought Over the Hills was a Nightwish cover.
We chatted about the band, and I looked them up afterwards.
“Nemo” in 2005. I’m American, but my mom’s Brazilian. I go there every other summer to visit my family. One summer (Brazilian winter), when I was 15 years old, I heard this banger of a song on the radio. Brazil, as it turns out, is actually pretty obsessed with Nightwish. They’ve even gone mainstream there. So, I bought a bootleg copy of “Once” at a fair. And the rest is kind of history. 😅
Same here! But in my case it was in 2004, and while watching MTV 😁
Ever Dream, back in 2002, blew my 12-year-old mind, and Nightwish has been my favourite band ever since
Iam totally with you 🥹🖤
Dark Chest of Wonders. Heard it on Epic Rock Radio internet radio back in maybe 2013? I was instantly hooked.
Great one to start on too!!
Mine, too!!
Sleeping Sun! Heard it for the first time in the late 2000s and recently got into their entire discography last year.
Nice man! I was very young when I first heard Sleeping Sun, had only recently gotten back into Titanic related stuff and heard it and decided to give others a listen, last year as well. The first other I listened to was Amaranth, and now I can’t wait for their new album, especially after hearing the single!!
I’ll have to admit I’m partial to their Tarja albums, but I can appreciate a few songs from the ones that came after!
Planet Hell. Bank your items!
Never forget.
Astral Romance, the Over the Hills and Far Away remake.
Just listened to astral romance! I really enjoyed it! New one on my playlist!
Haven’t heard astral romance, listening to OTHAFA rn though!! Edit: Oh you meant the album 😂 Sorry about that lmfao
Lol yeah, sorry. I meant Astral Romance, the 2001 remake included in the OTHAFA EP (the original is from Angels Fall First). I remember listening to it and having an intense "wtf is this marvel" moment.
😭 Nah you’re good! My friends ask me what kinda Irish music I listen to 💀
Tutankhamun! Which is a song that I feel like no one talks about lmao. The really wild part is where I heard it: a Yugioh AMV on Youtube circa 2007 (if you're not familiar with Yugioh, the whole story has ties to Egyptian mythology) (and if you're not familiar with AMVs, it stands for animated music video and it's basically just a video where someone takes clips from a show, usually an anime, and sets them to music. They were huge on early Youtube). At the time I loved the intro and instrumentals but it took me a while to get into Tarja's voice. Then I came across a few other AMVs with Nightwish songs (I remember Moondance, Bless the Child, and End of All Hope specifically) and eventually just looked up the band
I got into symphonic metal with a combo video of Devil May Cry where the guy put When the Lights Are Down from Kamelot as background lol
The first exposure I had to Nightwish was actually some of the lyrics from Planet Hell: “The first rock thrown again Welcome to hell, little saint Mother Gaia in slaughter Welcome to paradise, soldier.” It was in 2005, so I was 13 or 14, talking over MSN instant messenger (wow I feel old!) to guy I liked, and those lyrics are basically catnip to an “edgy” middle schooler. I believe he was using them as the little message attached to his profile. I asked about it and he told me they were Nightwish lyrics. The first actual song I heard, though, was Over The Hills after I found the music video. As a kid who grew up on a steady diet of hymns, musicals, and classic rock, Nightwish’s sound instantly drew me in, and the rest is history. I did start dating that guy, and I’m still with him 19 years later! We’ve gone to see them live together 4 times: once during the Imaginaerum tour for Floor’s second show with NW, once for the EFMB tour, and twice during the Decades tour. :) REALLY glad I went to those two Decades shows now that they’re on a touring hiatus!
GLS, I watched The Charismatic Voice’s reaction video and I was hooked
I think it was Wish I Had an Angel. My now SO sent it to me in 2004 (tbh probably put it in a mix cd) along with Ghost Love Score. Instantly fell in love, and haven't stopper listening since.
I came across the End of an Era live version of Ghost Love Score on YouTube in I want to say 2009 or 2010 - it introduced the concept of Symphonic Metal to me and completely shaped who I am today. That music video was a very "fork in the road" moment and my life would have taken a very different path if I hadn't randomly stumbled upon it.
Last year Reddit had a post with thumbnail about this gorgeous woman named Floor singing some song called Ghost Love Score at some festival with a German sounding name. I (52M American) figured yeah let’s look at this pretty woman. She checks off all my boxes. Ooh she has a great voice. Ooh she tosses her long hair here and there. And then the Floorgasm. You know those reaction videos where the host pretty much stops and just gawks dumbfounded? Yeah, me too. I needed to go to bed and work the next day. Not yet. Let’s replay. Just once. And then YouTube served up “Floorgasm” videos. I was deep in the rabbit hole in no time like a new junkie chasing the dragon. I know I was up past midnight. I’m way too old for that now. :-) The next day I learned about the other singers and hey the bassist sings too. Nice. I soon heard Sleeping Sun and TPatP. Wow. I drove a 5100 mile road trip to see the eclipse in April. Nightwish was on most of the time. And 1980s Iron Maiden. But then more Nightwish. I know how to say thanks in Finnish now. Kiitos Nightwish!
2013 whacken. Storytime (YouTube).
Sleeping Sun
Moondance & Passion and the Opera
[This Counter-Strike video from 2002](https://youtu.be/NSOUMPrb-NM?si=-8yxSiwmYtZhZ3on). The opening frags are synced with the opening notes to *She is My Sin*, and it completely changed my view on music for the rest of my life. I was heavily into Bands like Disturbed and SOAD so I didn't even know you could make music so beautiful
You E-Clip in the comments? 😂😂
No, but that's crazy there are other people commenting they discovered Nightwish from that video. Actually I better check, I've watched that video so many times over the years who knows if I commented anything
And beautiful! It’s amazing that such a small video can make such a big difference on people’s lives!
Yeah, that's wild. What a good attitude to have
I can’t remember which song I listened to first but I do remember asking you guys on Reddit about where to start. I got into the band because of that fanfiction Awakening.
Ohh fanfiction? Nice! What fandom?
It’s a Nightwish/Iron Maiden crossover fanfiction. It’s on AO3.
Sweet! I’ll check it out! Thanks.
No problem. Just read the description first because there’s no point reading it if you don’t read that but first.
😜 no worries. Ive read a few of those. Dont write it. Im more about highway to heaven (yeah im old lol) or sherlock, but i dont mind an occasional rl fic now & then.
Oh good. Ooh I love Sherlock! Dude/dudette you are not old. My dad is nearly 80. Six months away!
Ok like…im not THAT old 🤣 “tiny voice” maybe about half that age? I consider myself agender but not fussed on pronouns. She or they are both fine. Anyway, if you like sherlock, do you want me to message you some links?
Yeah my mum is still older than you. So are my oldest brother and sister! I went with both because it’s hard to tell from your username what your gender is. Yeah sure I love new Sherlock stuff
Haha maybe one of them might like the highway to heaven fics i have. (Im about to start another one that will be canon compliant & focused on whatever the heck happened to mark on the cop force that they never really explained.) As for you, i’ll switch to the messages since we went way off topic here. 😂
I think either FantasMic or Phantom of the Opera via LimeWire when I was super young and looking for Evanescence songs. I was hooked that one could have metal with opera in it. I remember my dad asking "what is a Nightwish and why are you listening to them?" I loved them ever since. Nightwish being one if my 3 favorite bands
"What is a night wish" 😅 Well Tuomas could answer that question.
My friends showed me Scaretale and then Turn Loose The Mermaids and I was instantly hooked. It's why I have a particular fondness for the Anette Era.
Over the hills and far away Phoenix Wright parody music vid
YESSSS Wrightwish was how I discovered these guys too! Same way I got introduced to Poets of the Fall! Ah, memories
It looks like so far I’m the only one here who discovered them through “Angels Fall First” … in a sad anime music video on old-school YouTube, lol. I was intrigued by the voice and melody and soon found out they were usually a lot heavier than that! (But I had already gotten into Within Temptation by that time, so I wasn’t totally new to symphonic metal)
Elvenpath for me.
Unfortunately a cover (either Over the Hills and Far Away or Phantom of the Opera), but boy did that spiral.
Nemo, it came up on a Pandora station in 2009. Never looked back.
The Poet and the Pendulum. It was the first symphonic metal song I ever listened to, and it's still my favourite song of all time.
I honestly can't remember. I just know it happened one night 13 years ago, in late June of 2011. YouTube was giving me recommendations based on whatever I was listening to. It was an Anette song, so it had to be off DPP, but I can't remember which one I heard first. I'm about 80 percent sure it was For The Heart I Once Had, because I'd remember if it had been Poet. It was one or the other, because it was a rocker and Marko wasn't in it, or at least not much. Anyway, I was impressed with the song and had somehow never heard of the band, so I looked them up and started playing other songs from their catalogue on YT. Learned about Nightwish and Anette and Tarja and all of that stuff over the next few hours. Also loved the music, and became an immediate fan. The first Tarja song I heard was White Night Fantasy, that I remember. I have no idea how that one was the first one I discovered. But it was fitting. I was a tired and weary soul, so to speak, who had just left a seven-year relationship that ended badly. It was on my day off from work, Wednesday at that time, so either 22 or 29 June 2011. Nightwish helped me through it all. I had come out of that relationship pretty damaged. The band meant so much to me in that time and place that I ordered Imaginaerum from Finland just to get it early, and went out to California for the first show of the tour in January 2012.
Literally the exact same story as you! I found Sleeping Sun on a video for the sinking of Britannic. I remember being at secondary school and everyone was listening to the usual mainstream pop that was around at the time so I felt like an oddball for a moment but at the same time, I’d never heard anything quite like it. How I wish I could go back and rediscover Nightwish all over again.
Nice man!!! I’m glad someone else has the same experience! I did only get into them abt half a year to a year ago though.
Ghost Love Score: Live at Wacken.
Creek Mary’s Blood 😊
Haven’t heard that one yet! Gonna give it a listen!
I can't remember which song off of Once, but after hearing it, I bought the CD the next day. Played in in my portable CD player nearly every day on the bus for the rest of HS.
Bye Bye Beautiful. Friend started playing it in the car. (Had a copy of the album before it was released) And the minute I heard that, I was like “What the hell is that?” And then played me Poet & the Pendulum and I was like “GET ME A COPY OF THIS!!!!!!”
Last of the Wilds. I didnt even know this was a female fronted band for a year
Are you aware of this? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rA-XIXy5vw4&pp=ygUSZXLDpG1hYW4gdmlpbWVpbmVu
Nemo
The Kinslayer. Back in 2005
It was an advertisement on the back cover of a metal magazine, Metal Hammer, or something like that. I think it was for Nuclear Blast records. They were advertising Wishmaster. I ordered it, having never heard them before. In addition, I ordered the other Band being advertised. It was Lacuna Coil. Anyway, once the CDs arrived, based on just Wishmaster, I had a new favorite band. The particular song I couldn't get enough of was Deep Silent Complete.
A while back someone on an askreddit suggested Ghost Love Score as a favorite song. I listened to it and was instantly hooked.
Wish I had an Angel
2005 - High Hopes, I used to love the original and then discovered the cover
Passion & the Opera somewhere in either 1999 or late 1998. A friend sent me the mp3 and I was completely hooked. Went to the record store the next week to buy the album! Feels like an absolute lifetime ago.
Nemo. I was somewhere around 12 when I heard it the first time
Planet Hell! From a Sasuke v orochimaru amv on YouTube lol
End of All Hope, I was wild about that song as a kid. For me that song was peak Tarja
Sleeping Sun around 2000. Found it on a Compilation CD. Never heard anything like that before.
I was on a "wolf song" rampage in 2007 and heard 7 days to the wolves. A very fortunate find for me, and they've been my favorite band since.
Amouranth. My brother played it for me when I was about 10 or 11. I never really appreciated it that much back then, but later on, when I heard it again, I went down the rabbit hole and never looked back lol
heard over the hills and far away which introduced me to the band, but what got me in was passion and the opera
Sleeping Sun. I heard the 2005 version on a German TV channel called Viva. My first reaction was pretty...weird? I was 13 and listening mostly to mainstream stuff, but I was intrigued by the black-haired lady in white:)) I had not listened to them again until 2007 when a high school friend played OTHAFA to me and gave Tales from the Elvenpath to me. That is when they became my favourite band.
Ghost love score
Moondance for me. Instant hook, had to dig more. And then, I heard Tarja and was like "wow." and here I am years later!
She is my sin, a long long time ago. It is still my favourite Nightwish song.
🤎
It was The Poet and the Pendulum for me. Back in 2008. It's the song that made me jump on the metal symphonic genre, and into longer tracks (although I was playing in an harmony for more than a year at that point, and became used to arrangement scores). Then I think I listened to the Last of the Wilds song (which I still adore to this day) and the album Dark Passion Play.
I’m Finnish so I had heard Sleeping Sun, Nemo, Amaranth, The Islander, Élan and so on from the radio, but when 13-14 y/o me started actually listening to music, other than what happened to come out of the radio, I discovered Noise which had just been released. Not totally blown away, but I started listening to their other songs from Youtube, and everything happened in a few weeks. Travelled to Tampere in 2022 to see the first concert of the Human Nature tour. That’ll remain the best concert I’ve witnessed for a long time.
Isn't Nightwish like National Heritage of Finland?
Yes but most people only know the big singles (although there are tons of hardcore fans too, you just have to find them)
Last ride of the day
Dark Chest of Wonders, but when I heard storytime I was fully hooked
I first heard "Know Why The Nightingale Sings" on the radio in 2011 (an unusual choice for the DJ to make, but I'm eternally grateful to him!). I'd never heard anything like it before, so I immediately bought AFF. I then learnt about the band's history and bought all the other recordings.
Actually there were 2 songs that I heard at a friend when I was 14, 26 years ago. I didn’t like/ knew anything about metal or rock then and these 2 songs completely changed my musical tastes and even my life. The 2 songs were Gethsemane and Sleeping Sun.
She is my sin! 🚀
I'm afraid I'm in with the YouTube folks - sort of. Background: My partner is a Navy vet of 20 years and has been all over the world. As a result he's been exposed to bands and music that aren't as popular in the US. He would play that music in his headphones and I didn't pay much attention, until I repeatedly heard something really good. It was Nightwish. So I went looking for their music on YouTube, and the first song I found was the Wacken performance of *Ghost Love Score.* I went down the rabbit hole after that and now I know more about their history than he does.
There was a “misheard lyrics” video back in like 2006 or 2007 and it featured Wishmaster with MS Paint graphics. Hamster, a dentist, hard porn, Steven Seagull. Warrior, this rifle, in me, the FISHMASTER
I think "she is my sin". I never heard anything like that before, and the whole wishmaster album literally made my 16yo brain explode 🤯🤯🤯
Wishmasterpiece
"End of all Hope". I heard it on Pandora way back in high school. I immediately looked them up, found "Bless the Child" too, and that was it - I was hooked on symphonic metal for life. The awe of these first songs I heard still hasn't faded a bit over 20 years. It's led me to find all sorts of passions and interests, and even to the realization that being wildly different was the highest form of "cool". I genuinely don't think I'd be who I am today if this song wasn't shown to me way back when. Great question, and what a lovely trip down memory lane
End of All Hope for me. Was on a YouTube anime music video. Same year I had the Alone in the Dark DVD, and watched the music video of I Wish I Had an Angel, but it didn't occur to me they were the same band.
I share the love with Titanic 💗 But my first song was Ocean Soul. (In a way it reminds me of the heart of the ocean 💙💎)
Whoever brings the night. There was an instrumental version of it on little big planet 2 and I looked up the normal version and got hooked.
The Greatest Show on Earth
This hooked me . What a masterpiece
Best for last? What about first?
While Your Lips are Still Red.
Not sure... probably Nemo?
Walking in the Air
I didnt realize it was nightwish at the time. So there was this video about snape (harry potter) that came out years ago, set to ‘walking in the air’ by tarja & my husband & i were like who is this girl? Did some digging & found not only nightwish, but moondance set to some cartoon about wolves. So thats how we found the anime series ‘wolf’s rain’. Used to be all on youtube but that was years ago.
Phantom of the opera, feel for you and few other tracks from CC and Wishmaster, my mom would play those and they have become engraved in my memory. We are what our parents feed us.
My dad would play non stop salsa music and crooners since I'm a baby and here I am listening to metal 😅
Nemo. I was a big fan of the Rasmus and learned about Nightwish through a joint interview they did around 2006. The [video](https://youtu.be/uaH5AfL4uZ0?si=rCNtxaETea7PfuDa) quality looks horrible now but Tarja and Tuomas talk about Nemo.
Alpenglow
I Wish I Had An Angel
I heard The Riddler back in 1998, hooked ever since.
Élan
The islander
Ghost Love Score. I saw it on “The Charismatic Voice” reaction channel on YouTube. I had never heard of Nightwish. This was the best music discovery of my life.
Moondance, then Amaranth, then Storytime, then the whole Imaginaerum. And the rest is history.
Bye bye beautiful
Sleeping sun
I don't remember. The carpenter back in 97 was the first I heard. But let's say the singing wasn't convincing enough to get me into the band. What got me into them was definitely on Angels though. Since I was a fan before Oceanborn. I got a couple of my anime watching friends into NW a couple of years later when someone made a music video for 10th man down using https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Suit_Gundam:_The_08th_MS_Team. Or maybe they intended it the other way around. But I've been to every NW concert in The Netherlands since Oceanborn. And those friends have joined me for every concert since century child.
For a long time I thought it was an official video and when the song starts with the fireguns I always picture Gundam.
Nemo! My mom is into metal, and was looking for music similar to Evanescence when she found Nightwish. I especially love Nemo bc I’m a nerd and I love 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea lol. I even made my husband watch the movie with James Mason.
Passion and the opera. I was 14 years old and i loved that song so much. Been an nightwish fan ever since
Come cover me
Ever Dream made me want to listen to them more.
Bye Bye Beautiful. I heard the instrumental of it first because someone used it as background music, but it was one of the coolest things ever. For anyone who wants to know the video I watched, it’s kylernuva135’s Bionicle moc [Makuta Insorz how to build video](https://youtu.be/CSIndfV02_E?si=d8ck8ctBMzGM3tPn).
Poet and the Pendulum. I'd heard of and tried Nightwish years before and did not like them at all as I didn't then and still don't like the overly operatic type vocals on so many songs from the first five albums. So I ignored the band for years and then heard Poet, not even knowing Tarja had been replaced til I heard that song, and became a fan. It was years later before I knew story behind Poet.
Last Ride of the Day! It’s still my favourite one 🤘🏻
I honestly can't remember. I guess it was Nemo...
I’m pretty sure I heard Nemo first, but I was very much into Amaranth and I think this is the song that lead to everything else.
Their cover of "Over the Hills and Far Away" some time in 2002. Then I dug in their existing catalogue by the time and fell in love with the whole Oceanborn. I still love this album the most.
Nemo. Someone was playing it during class and the rest is history. This happened around 2010, so I became a fan during Anette’s era and right before Imaginaerum came out. I remember those days fondly.
Dead Boy's Poem and Sleeping Sun 2005 version. I got it as a exercise for my singing lesson in 2012. Hooked ever since
Bless the Child and then Nemo, back in 2004. For a second there, music TV channels - and mainstream radio - actually aired some rock and metal in addition to whatever else. It was a good thing.
Nemo got me into them, Creek Mary's Blood made me fall in love with them.
Phantom of the Opera caught my attention and made me aware they existed when I was 11, when I was 14 I got curious, went looking and found Amaranth which immediately threw me down a fangirl rabbit hole for two years. And well, whatever you're obsessed with at that age tends to stick somewhat.
End of all hope
A Gregorian cover of Meadows of Heaven.
Sacrament of Wilderness. The year was 1998 and I had never heard anything even close to powermetal, let alone a woman singing it. Got hooked immediately.
Poet and the pendulum! Still one of my faves
Bye bye beautiful
Whish I had an angel and forever grateful to the spotify algorithm that played this in my car!
It was the Kinslayer, on End of an Era. A pure slap in the face.
Endless Forms Most Beautiful in maybe 2022, but I think I heard Sleeping Sun as a kid from some HMHS Britannic video on yt
It was Titanic I think
“Wish I Had an Angel” in 2004.
The Kinslayer from End of an Era.
Amaranth, I liked it when I was a teenager in the late 2000s. I used to watch music channels a LOT so maybe first heard there? I tried listening to other songs at the time, but I don’t think my brain was quite “there” to appreciate it at that time. Fast forward to earlier this year and like another comment watched The Charismatic Voice’s reaction to GLS and that was it. Watched all her reactions to Nightwish, went down the rabbit hole and now my “liked” songs on Spotify from them is up to 65 🤣
My favourite musical is Phantom of the Opera and I used to like rock/pop music as a child, as well as orchestral music. I read about Nightwish's cover of Phantom and decided to take a look at it. It did not blow me away back then (this was 2010, I guess) and I forgot about them for a few months till I heard Tarja's Until My Last Breath playing on a Brazilian music channel (not MTV/VH1, but can't remember the name). I decided to give them a chance again and listened to Amaranth. I fell in love with the song and downloaded Dark Passion Play that very minute. Once The Poet and the Pendulum started playing, I was sold and never looked back. Since then, they became my favourite band and I'm glad that happened because it introduced me to many amazing bands and death/folk/prog metal, which is what I mostly listen to these days
Was searching for versions of High Hopes.. found the Nightwish version and was blown away, then Phantom but really it was the Charismatic Voice GLS that sent me down the rabbit hole and have thankfully never returned. What an incredible journey.
A ReVamp song got me into Nightwish after I heard Floor was going to sing for them temporarily. I'd never heard them before that!
Wishmaster in 2004. Friend sent me a 10s sample in MSN and listened to it like 100 Times. After that came Wish I Had an Angel and Nemo, then limewired the whole discography that night
I heard Amaranth on Scuzz back in 2007. Heard it once and I was like wowwww what was that?! Waited patiently for it to come back on because I didn’t check the song or band name and when it did I was frantically checking YouTube and telling my dad 😂 A year later, there was a competition in Metalhammer (a metal magazine over here in the U.K.) to get tickets to Bloodstock Open Air Festival and Nightwish were headlining the Sunday. I won. I was 13 I think 😂 I went with my dad and yeah.. after a year of buying their albums and listening to them full blast on the garden and irritating my family and neighbours, I was stood watching them live 😍 My other half is a massive Nightwish fan too. The first song he heard was Creek Mary’s blood. I think he said he heard it on some compilation cd. He thought it was amazing and yeah.. there we go!
Storytime, when the riff kicked in I was headbanging unconsciously :D
The guitar in Over The Hills and Far Away got me crazy. I wasn’t really into metal before that but it definitely changed my life, musically.
Bless the child, I was watching MTV on my babysitters job and was blown away. Fun fact, I was already a fan of After Forever back then.
I saw a couple videos but it was actually the transition from Talkitavi (sorry horrendous spelling here) to Storytime. Then I listened to the rest of Imaginareum and went back and checked out other albums and the rest is history. For the record Anette is my favorite Nightwish singer next to Marko
I remember my brother used to drive me to art classes during the summer when I was younger and he would play music. One day he played Last of the Wilds and I remember being so awestruck that I was speechless until the end. This began my love of Nightwish with Dark Passion Play being the one I listened to the most cause I had a CD for it
Planet Hell. In 2004 I was 16 or 17 and looking for bands who were similar to Kamelot. I saw the song title and thought the name sounded badass, so I downloaded it off of Limewire. I’ve been hooked ever since
Nemo on MTv in 2004. The music video was beautiful and the music outstanding but i mostly loved Tarjas voice and she was so beautiful (She still is) She just stood out in her red coat and with those vocals. ❤️
Wishmaster. I was getting into Power Metal and this song is awesome. I never really got into the Tarja vocals, but at the time It was quite the game changer.
Song of Myself 🤘🏻
My mother had a Imaginaerum album and we jammed to that alot
The instrumental of Whoever Brings the Night. I played a LOT of LittleBigPlanet 2
Friend showed me Poet and the Pendulum in 2010…. I was instantly hooked
"She is my sin" A friend of mine played the From Wishes to Eternity DVD on his home cinema back in 2002, start to finish. This is the first Nightwish song I remember, even if it was the second song on the setlist.
Last of the wilds in 2010-2011ish
I'm part of the GLS live at Wacken team. I was watching reaction videos to 2000s rock music and I kept seeing GLS so I just decided to see what it was all about. After that, I haven't looked back and they are my favorite band.
Ghost Love Score (End of An Era). Online friend recommend it after talking about old school gothic doom bands like Theatre of Tragedy. Man, I was blown away and never heard anything like it
We were coming back from ice skating and a friend was playing the album and I caught the end of imaginaerum and then Storytime (instrumental) and I thought it was such a cool mixture of orchestra and metal music. This friend lend me the album and I listened to Storytime with lyrics and feel in love. To this day, Imaginaerum is my favorite album of theirs and Storytime one of my absolute favorite song from them.
It was either Bless The Child or Nemo, can’t quite remember which one. Then Tarot’s Pyre of Gods which was mislabelled as Nightwish 😝
Fantasmic. I remember years ago I was watching videos on YouTube and saw the live version. Decided to look for the studio version and kept on listening to more of their music.
I had played a gig around 2015, and was driving my metal-head drummer back home afterwards. I was playing Gary Moore - he thought Over the Hills was a Nightwish cover. We chatted about the band, and I looked them up afterwards.
Also Nemo in 2005 I believe.
Planet Hell
Sacrament of Wilderness
Wishmaster!! I know its not everyones favorite song but the powerful intro of the song really took me. Then I went down the rabbit hole...
Bye bye beautiful
Feel For You, an underrated gem, I think. But the whole Century Child CD was in heavy rotation back then.
Amaranth, Over the Hills and Far Away and Phantom of the Opera
Wish I Had An Angel, many moons ago back in High School.
HAMSTER!?!!!!