Once is the fifth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released on 7 June 2004 by Spinefarm Records in Finland and Nuclear Blast in the rest of Europe. It is the fifth and last album to feature Tarja Turunen on lead vocals. The album cost nearly €250,000 to make[2] (1,000,000 including the videos[3]), which made it Finland's most expensive recording ever until the release of Nightwish's next album, Dark Passion Play, which cost over €500,000 to produce.[4] As of 2013, Once had sold 2.3 million copies worldwide, becoming Nightwish's most successful album to date. The remastering of the album was released on 6 August 2021.[5]
Background
In a 2008 Kerrang! interview, Tuomas Holopainen remembered: "Doing this kind of really orchestral, symphonic stuff for four albums, you have to be prepared to take the next step and go 10 steps beyond, and that's how we ended up with the London Session Orchestra. At that time we also had the financial resources to do it. This was like our second breakthrough in a way; Oceanborn (1998) broke us, took us to the big league. Musically it was pretty laid-back from our side because everyone involved in the orchestra really knew their stuff, so we basically spent two days lying on the couch hearing all these people playing our songs, enjoying every moment. It was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. The first song they started to play was 'Ghost Love Score', we had no idea what to expect, and I just thought: This can't be happening!"[6]
The album continues the more streamlined musical approach first heard on Century Child, moving further away from the power metal-influenced sound of their previous albums into symphonic metal[7] with a slightly more mainstream, approachable feel. Once utilizes a full orchestra in nine of the eleven songs on the album; unlike Century Child, Nightwish chose an orchestra outside of Finland, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which has been featured on every album released since.
Once is their second album to feature a full-length song in Finnish, "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan". The band added new elements to their music for this album, such as the chorus riff and synthesized drumbeat of "Wish I Had an Angel", and a long prayer chant on "Creek Mary's Blood".[8] The song "Ghost Love Score" was described by Hietala as follows: "I'm a big fan of old prog rock and this is a song that has a lot of different parts going on, and different atmospheres in different places in order to support the story. [...] My biggest influence from the prog world would be Jethro Tull, but I also love listening to Yes and Genesis and all those bands, and there's a correlation between the structures and the length of a lot of their songs and this one."[9]
During the first week of its release, Once entered the Finnish, German and Norwegian charts at number one,[19][20][21] later topping the European Top 100 Albums chart.[22] It was also the first Nightwish album to chart in the United States, reaching No. 42 on the BillboardTop Heatseekers chart,[23] and the band's first album to chart in UK, reaching No. 10 on the Rock Chart.[24] In 2005, Once was ranked number 383 in Rock Hard magazine's book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[25] In 2017, it was ranked 89th at Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".[26]
Once has been certified double platinum in Finland,[27] triple gold in Germany,[28] and gold in Sweden.[29] The single "Nemo" topped the charts in Finland[30] and Hungary,[31] and reached the top ten in four additional countries.[32][33][34] It remained on the UK Rock Chart for more than a year.[35] "Nemo" therefore remains their most successful single ever, and Once reached number 47 in the list of best-selling albums of all time in Finland.[36] As of June 2013, the album had sold 2.3 million copies worldwide, Nightwish's best-selling album to date.[37]
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Tuomas Holopainen; all music is composed by Holopainen, except where noted
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
^Ruskell, Nick (16 August 2008). "Treasure Chest. An Ultimate Portrait of a Life in Rock. Tuomas Holopainen.". Kerrang!. Vol. 1223. London, UK: Bauer Media Group. p. 54.
^Ovington, Jacob, "Nightwish collaborator denies allegations that his Oglala heritage is falseArchived 6 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine" in The Dark Domain, 17 January 2013. Accessed 5 June 2015. "Upon listening to a song he contributed to, a young member of the tribe and fluent Lakota speaker found that the lyrics Two-Hawks supposedly wrote in the language were 'nothing more than absolute gibberish.' This was later confirmed by David Little Elk, a certified Lakota language expert."
