June 7, 2024 3:38 pm
Posted by Editorial –
On June 7, 2004, one of the masterpieces of symphonic metal was released, ‘Eleven’, the fifth album by one of the bands that have taken the genre the highest, the Finns Nightwishwhich in the end would be the one that would mark the end of a stage as important as the one presided over by the voice of the charismatic Tarja Turunen. 20 years have passed since the release that gave the world songs like the immortals “Wish I Had an Angel” either “Nemo”and there are five things about this album that you might not know yet.
1. It was the most expensive album in Finnish history… until the next Nightwish album
The enormous compositions to which we have become accustomed Tuomas Holopainen For their Nightwish they not only involve the band members, from whom excellent execution is required when shaping the band’s recordings. Nightwish productions go much further, and in this case even the London Philharmonic Orchestraadding the recordings made in the Phoenix Studios Londoners to those that took place in the Finns Finnvox.
To the long recording and production process we would have to add the mixes of the album, whose production began in October 2003 and reached the mixes in February 2004. This would lead to talking about the most expensive album in the history of Finland, with a cost of more than two hundred and fifty thousand euros, which would end up practically doubling three years later, with ‘Dark Passion Play’, Nightwish’s sixth album, which exceeded half a million euros. Selling two and a half million copies of ‘Once’ would probably ease the pockets after such an expense.
2. The sculpture on the cover is in a cemetery in Rome
Among the attractions of the album, beyond the musical, was also its powerful cover, with the now iconic image of the winged sculpture that might seem made for this album, but is a real sculpture. He “Angel of pain” or “Angel of sorrow” It is a work of the sculptor William Wetmore Storywhich is located on the grave of his wife, Emelyn Eldredge Storyin it Protestant Cemetery from Rome.
It should be noted that the sculptor carved this work as a tombstone for the grave of his wife, who had died in 1894, but he died a year later and was buried in the same place, next to his wife and under the tombstone he had created.
3. They recorded for the first time with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Although this successful album would end up marking the end of the relationship with Tallywas also the scene of the beginning of another relationship that has survived to this day, since in ‘Once’ we find the first participation in a Nightwish album by the London Philharmonic Orchestrawho since then has participated in all the Holopainen band’s albums.
4. The relationship with progressive rock of “Ghost Love Score”
Among the surprises that the album hid we found details such as the second time in which they offered us a song in Finnish, “Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan”the devastating electronic contribution in “Wish I Had an Angel” or the relationship of progressive rock with the ten minutes of song that awaited us in “Ghost Love Score”about the Marko Hietalasuch as published Loudersoundcommented that he was “a big fan of old prog rock and this is a song that has a lot of different parts, and different atmospheres in different places in order to support the story. My biggest influence from the prog world would be Jethro Tullbut I also love listening to Forks and Genesis and all those bands, and there’s a correlation between the structures and lengths of a lot of their songs and this one.”
5. “Nemo” means “no one” in Latin and made them more popular than ever before
The great success of the album began to take shape with the release of its first single, “Nemo”, which means “no one” in Latin and which expressed a great feeling of emptiness, soon took first place on the charts in countries such as Finland, where it was the best-selling single of the year, and Hungary. The prestigious British chart received the song at number 87 in its first entry for Nightwish, but it would reach fifth position on the rock chart.
“Nemo” entered the Top 10 in countries such as Germany and Norway and the Top 20 in Austria, Sweden and Switzerland. The song remains Nightwish’s most successful single, being certified platinum in Finland after selling more than thirteen thousand copies, ranking number 47 on the country’s list of best-selling albums of all time.
Following this first single, Nightwish became more popular than ever, and the album remains the band’s best-selling album to date, with 2.3 million copies sold worldwide.
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