album Wishmaster (2000)

[Fugazi]

Wishmaster (2000)

 

Track list (with relevant threads when available)

1. She Is My Sin (lyrics)
2. The Kinslayer (lyrics)
3. Come Cover Me (lyrics)
4. Wanderlust (lyrics)
5. Two For Tragedy (lyrics)
6. Wishmaster (lyrics)
7. Bare Grace Misery (lyrics)
8. Crownless (lyrics)
9. Deep Silent Complete (lyrics)
10. Dead Boy's Poem (lyrics)
11. FantasMic (lyrics)

Bonus track:

1. Sleepwalker (lyrics)

Note: Exceptionally for NW, no music videos were released with songs from this album.

 

From the band:

Tuomas comments the lyrics (From <https://web.archive.org/web/20080102113252/http://nightwish.com/en/article/7> )

 

She Is My Sin

A song about the hidden sins that every one of us has, buried deep beyond comprehension.

 

The Kinslayer

On April 20th, 1999 two teenagers, Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold went to Columbine High School, in Colorado with handmade bombs and shotguns, with intention to kill as many of their schoolmates as possible. As they entered the school, they started shooting and throwing bombs everywhere, killing 9 boys, 4 girls and finally themselves. This was carefully planned for over a year, and these guys were determined to kill also themselves afterwards. They had no real motive. They made a videotape in the morning just before the massacre where they said: "We are going to kill you all. You have been giving us shit for years. We want to say our sorry for our parents; there's nothing you could have done. This is something we must do. We're sorry; we didn't like life very much..."

The event is something I will never understand. If something as horrible as this can happen in this world, there's no sense, no truth to cling to anymore. I find there's a great deal of symbolism hidden in this happening.

The dialogue in the middle of the song quotes the actual phrases between the killers and their schoolmates during the shooting. (According to those who survived)

 

Come Cover Me

A rather simple love song. The feeling of waiting is often more fulfilling than the happening itself.

 

Wanderlust

It's a cliché that life's a one big journey. But that's the way it is. And there's so much to discover and experience on this planet. I couldn't bear the thought that I would have to live my life with the biggest experience being a one-week trip to Canary Islands after working in an office for one year straight. Routine kills everything. I wish people would find the "wanderer within".

 

Two For Tragedy

The biggest tragedies always require two...

 

Wishmaster

This is my personal tribute to fantasy, especially the closest to me; Tolkien & Dragonlance. These worlds have become a sort of inverted reality for me, where the story of "The Kinslayer" can't become reality... Moreover, I don't believe in this thing called "destiny". We are the masters of our own wishes, beliefs and dreams. Whatever you desire enough, it can happen. Destiny is an excuse for those who don't have the strength to fulfil their wishes. Everything is possible. Even the impossible.

 

Bare Grace Misery

The dark side of the desire for love too often leads to tragedy.

 

Crownless

Arrogant, egoistic people make me sick! Those people who have been given a crown but can't carry it properly. Nothing is everlasting and the fall can be very sudden. I think we all should keep that in mind and be proud of the things we have achieved in a positive way.

 

Deep Silent Complete

A Tribute to the mighty power of the Oceans.

 

Dead Boy's Poem

This is the most personal song I've ever written. My testimony for the whole world. With this song I want to apologise everyone who deserves my apology. It also makes an "I don't care" -statement to them who deserve it. The song is also about what Nightwish means and has meant to me. It's all, without it I'm dead. I have created it and it has created me.

When I pass away, this song's lyrics are of what I wish to be remembered. An Ocean Soul.

 

FantasMic

A tribute to the king of fantasy. This is something I owed for Him...

[Fugazi]

I'm randomly posting this here in the Wishmaster thread... A Chinese company is releasing collector vinyl editions of the early NW albums, remastered by Mika Jussila in 2020. Available are two versions each of AFF, OB, WM and CC.

https://www.facebook.com/Nesimedia/

[Fugazi]

Mika Jussila comments on his remastering of the early albums on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/mikamastering

Quote

I remember very well the day in June 1997 when shy young men arrived from Kitee, Eastern Finland to master their first album. The mastering day went smoothly and the schoolchildren lookalike young boys said almost nothing and did not comment in any way on my work. Nightwish's first album Angels Fall First was released from this master, specifically its first 7 track limited version. The boys returned to Finnvox studio again in October to master a few more songs which were added to the previous master and a better known version of the first album was completed.

 

The popularity of Nightwish right from the start was a surprise to myself. The material was special, quite personal and previously unheard of. Nevertheless, the record company Spinefarm relied so much on its protégé that for the next record, Oceanborn Mikko Karmila from Finnvox Studios was hired to mix it. This album also started the succesful partnership between the band and Finland's most renowned metal producer Karmila that has lasted to this day. Oceanborn and the following album Wishmaster largely defined the direction and the sound of European symphonic metal persistently. Nightwish kind of female fronted flamboyant metal acts began to appear everywhere, both with and without opera influences, but none of these imitators matched their Finnish role model in their originality or creativity. Century Child album grew the band’s popularity around the world and Marco Hietala's entry modified Tuomas Holopainen's music even more versatile and heavier.

 

As writing this, almost 25 years have passed since our first meeting with the band. During these years I've mastered all of Nightwish studio albums and, apart from two DVD releases, everything else the orchestra has ever released. The band members, crew and management have become my lifelong friends. I am proud to have the opportunity to belong to the band's inner circle and Tuomas' trusted team of technicians. These re-masterings for the four first albums I've done with care and love so that the albums sound great also when listened to in other formats than just CD. I have respected the original mixes as closely as possible and followed the vision of Tuomas Holopainen how I remember he originally wanted these records to sound.

 

Thanks Nesimedia for trusting my mastering with these vinyl-LP's.

https://www.facebook.com/Nesimedia/

[Fugazi]

Remember Sam Hardwick, the boy speaking on Dead's Boy Poem, then on Bless The Child? He used to have a blog, and at some point mentioned his experience recording for Nightwish.

http://hardwick.fi/blog/?p=3005

Quote

I wouldn’t even mind doing some of my old jobs on occasion, tutoring and translating, where the pay can be ok if you pick and choose jobs and can work fast. In general, any odd job that happens to suit me. Like my highest-paid (by the hour) work I’ve ever done, voice work for the metal band Nightwish, a job I had no previous experience with and happened quite randomly. I can’t resist quoting from a Nightwish band biography:

“I had an idea of a song with a young boy reciting a poem,” Tuomas says. “The trouble was that no Finnish twelve-year-old could pronounce English right, so I had to find a native speaker. My mother’s sister, actress Miitta Sorvali, knew the English-Finnish director and writer Neil Hardwick well, and my mom remembered that Neil had a son called Sam. I called him and asked him to do the poem, and Sam agreed right away. It was just funny that when I talked to this fifteen-year-old boy, he seemed like such a citizen of the world, and was actually familiar with our band. Sam said he’d be free to record the poem anytime, I just had to give him a call. He even knew where Finnvox [studio, I actually had to look it up -SH] was, and promised to meet us there.”

The professionalism of young Sam Hardwick made a deep impression on Tuomas. “When he arrived at the studio, I had to ask him to wait for ten minutes or so. He just pulled a book from his pocket and sat down to read,” Tuomas says. “I gave him the poem, and he read it through a few times. We did some editing, and Sam just sat down on the studio floor and read his book, after which I asked him to read the poem a couple more times.”

“When I started talking about his reward, he wouldn’t hear anything about it. He just said, ‘That’s okay, it was fun.’ I insisted on giving him at least a couple of hundred Finnish marks [I think it was 500 -SH], and then he left. A very puzzling young man, but a real pro and a very nice person. He later did the beginning of ‘Bless the Child,’ too, and once again everything worked like a charm. [This time I got paid a fair bit more -SH] ‘Dead Boy’s Poem’ continues to be a sort of a signature song for Nightwish. After Wishmaster came out, the song was voted on our web site as the best Nightwish song ever. There’s certainly something about it that defines us, and—for me at least—the poem is the absolute high point of the song. So Sam Hardwick made a big contribution to our music.”