Once (Nightwish album)

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 (1,000,000 including the videos ), 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. 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.

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!"

Musical style
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 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". 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."

Artwork
The angel on the album cover is a view of the Angel of Grief, a sculpture by William Wetmore Story. The original is in the Protestant Cemetery of Rome, Italy.

Tour
The success of the album allowed them to perform the Once Upon a Tour, which enabled them to play in many countries the band had never visited before. Nightwish performed at the opening ceremony of the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, held in Helsinki.

Reception and legacy
During the first week of its release, Once entered the Finnish, German and Norwegian charts at number one,  later topping the European Top 100 Albums chart. It was also the first Nightwish album to chart in the United States, reaching No. 42 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and the band's first album to chart in UK, reaching No. 10 on the Rock Chart. In 2005, Once was ranked number 383 in Rock Hard magazine's book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. In 2017, it was ranked 89th at Rolling Stone ' s "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".

Once has been certified double platinum in Finland, triple gold in Germany, and gold in Sweden. The single "Nemo" topped the charts in Finland and Hungary, and reached the top ten in four additional countries. It remained on the UK Rock Chart for more than a year. "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. As of June 2013, the album had sold 2.3 million copies worldwide, Nightwish's best-selling album to date.

Personnel
All information from the album booklet.

Nightwish
 * Tarja Turunen – vocals
 * Tuomas Holopainen – keyboards
 * Emppu Vuorinen – guitars
 * Marko Hietala – bass, male vocals on tracks 2, 4, 6, 8, and 11
 * Jukka Nevalainen – drums, percussion

Additional musicians
 * Marc Brueland – narration on "Higher Than Hope"
 * Jouni Hynynen – growling on "Dead Gardens"
 * Sami Yli-Sirniö – sitar on "The Siren"
 * John Two-Hawks – vocals and Native American flute on "Creek Mary's Blood"
 * Olli Halonen – slide guitars
 * Martin Loveday – cello on "The Siren"
 * Sonia Slaney – violin on "The Siren"
 * London Philharmonic Orchestra – orchestral parts
 * Jenny O'Grady – choirmaster
 * Metro Voices – choir
 * James Shearman – orchestra and choir conductor
 * Gavyn Wright – orchestra leader

Production
 * Tuomas Holopainen – producer, mixing
 * Emppu Vuorinen – additional engineering
 * Tero "TeeCee" Kinnunen – producer, engineer, mixing
 * Mikko Karmila – engineer, mixing
 * Mika Jussila – mastering
 * Pip Williams – choir and orchestral arrangements
 * James Collins – orchestral recordings engineer
 * Aaron Price – assistant engineer
 * Simon Goldfinch – assistant engineer
 * Markus Mayer – cover art
 * Toni Härkönen – photography
 * Petteri Tyynelä – layout