Going on with the analysis, we notice that on the disk appear the pink logo of the band and label, whereas the title of the album and the members' autographs are in grey on a black background.

Under the tray we find the photo of the front cover without the moon, the band's logo and the title of the record.

In the artwork on the back of the case the list of the tracks, Spinefarm Records' logo and a final comment on the same background in movement seen before on the last page of the booklet show themselves.

"Nightwish" was a name of a song on the band's first demo. Soon after the band decided to call themselves by the same name.

"Oceanborn" was composed during the spring of 1998 when some members were still in the army.

Drummer Jukka's mother founded his first proper kit, the Tama Esprit he'd always wanted.

While the rest of the musicians recorded at Caverock studio their parts, Jukka recorded his in the locker room of the Huvikeskus Sport Hall.

Tuomas Holopainen's former music teacher provided some violin parts for the album.

The lyrics to "The Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean" were deemed in certain corners as 'blasphemous'.

In May 1999 the platter picked up and international release with a different artwork, and a bonus track was added at the end, the single "Sleeping Sun", that was initially issued to coincide with the solar eclipse of August 11th 1999, complete with eclipse-proof glasses.

Tarja is a light lyrical soprano with a 3-octaves width.

Tarja's talent to music was noted when she sang in a church choir at the age of 3, "Enkeli taivaan" (the Finnish version of "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come") in the Kitee church. She officially joined the church choir and started taking vocal lessons. At age six, she started playing piano.
At comprehensive school, Turunen performed as a singer for several projects. Her first piano teacher Kirsti Nortia-Holopainen (Tuomas Holopainen's mother), "Tarja was in a school that had some very musical people. Even then she got to perform a lot. I think she sang in every school function there was." Her music teacher, Plamen Dimov, later explained that, "If you gave Tarja just one note, she immediately got it. With the others, you'd have to practice three, four, five times". At school she had a tough time, since some girls bullied her because they envied her voice. To solve that problem, Dimov organized projects outside school. At 15 she appeared as a soloist at a church concert in front of 1,000 listeners.

The idea of Nightwish was born in July 1996 at midnight when Tuomas Holopainen was spending a night with his friends around a campfire. The first three songs, which were acoustic mood music, were recorded between October and December 1996. At that time the band had three members: Tuomas, Tarja, and Emppu. Originally, Tarja Turunen wasn't into Metal at all. She was approached by the first two members of her school at the time, and asked to join because they knew she was one of the best singers in the school.

Tarja was fired with an 'open letter' by the 4 other band members on Oct. 22, 2005. It took until May 2007 for her replacement, Anette Olzon (of the AOR band Alyson Avenue) to be announced.

The band did 3 surprise gigs in autumn 2007, pretending to be various Nightwish cover bands: Sep 22nd in Tallinn, Estonia as Nachtwasser, "the German cover band"; Sep 26th in Helsinki, Finland as Natuvissyset, "the Estonian cover band" and Sep 28th in Hamburg, Germany as Sushi Patrol, "the Japanese cover band".

Tuomas Holopainen is a huge fanatic of Disney animation and he loves Disneyworld in Florida, USA. Nightwish played some shows there at the Blues Club, and at that time, the Disney film "Finding Nemos" was in theatres, leading to the misconception the song 'Nemo' had something to do with the movie. The truth is Nemo is Latin for 'nobody' and the name is a coincidence. At Nightwish live shows, it's usual that somebody in the audience throws the Nemo fish character plush doll on stage to the band.

In 2000 Nightwish was accepted in the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest tryouts with the song "Sleepwalker". Despite winning the public vote, Nightwish eventually finished in second place, with the jury choosing local Gospel singer Nina Åström to represent Finland.

The fifth album "Once" was recorded with London Symphony Orchestra, whose musicians also took part in "The Lord of the Rings" soundtrack recording. One of the LP’s songs "Creek Mary's Blood" featured the Indian John Two-Hawks from the tribe Lakota. He sings in his native language and plays the flute on the track.

In 2005, Nightwish performed "Nemo" at the opening ceremony of the World Championships in Athletics, held in Helsinki.

Nightwish covered a Jaakko Teppo song "Hilma ja Onni" for a tribute album 'Pörsänmäen Sanomat - Tribuutti Jaakko Tepolle' in 2009.

Three Nightwish songs were used for big-production movies:
"Planet Hell" in The Ring of the Nibelungs (2004, TV) - with some big actors in it.
Their song "I Wish I Had An Angel" was featured on the soundtrack of the 2004 horror film "Alone in the Dark" starring Christian Slater and Tara Reid.
"Nemo" was featured on the soundtrack of the 2005 survival horror film "The Cave".
Two Nightwish songs, "End of All Hope" and "Slaying the Dreamer", were used on a small-production flick, "Kohtalon kirja".

Nightwish were pictured on one of six Finnish postage stamps celebrating Finnish Rock Bands, issued on 11 September 2015. The price on the day of the issue was 1.10 Euros.

The 2005 San Antonio Spurs' introduction song into the stadium was "Planet Hell" (with no vocals).

The Minnesota Wild's introduction song for their NHL home games was the beginning climax of "The Poet And The Pendulum" (with no vocals) during the Stanley Cup Playoffs (2014).

Nightwish's cover of "The Phantom of The Opera", with Tarja Turunen and Marko Hietala at End of An Era (2005 Hartwall Areena), is composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's favorite version to date.

Along with the new album "Imaginaerum" recording, Nightwish started filming the musical fantasy film based on the forthcoming self-titled LP. The film premiered on November 10, 2012, in Helsinki during the band’s debut concert with the new vocalist Floor Jansen.

The album "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", released in late March 2015, was influenced by poet Walt Whitman and scientific works of naturalist Charles Darwin. The record featured the popularizer of science Richard Dawkins, who narrated in the songs "Shudder Before the Beautiful" and "The Greatest Show on Earth".

Jukka Nevalainen left Nightwish due to persistent insomnia issues, thus making "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" the first Nightwish recording without his participation. Kai Hahto took temporarily his place both in studio and on stage. He has since stepped down from the drummer position to focus on the business end of the band, with Hahto taking his place permanently.

Sami Vänskä was fired in 2001 due to creative differences. On August 20th, 2016 he joined the band on stage to perform "Stargazers" as a bass player while Marco Hietala was in the crowd.

Emppu Vuorinen started playing guitar at the age of 12 and learned to play as both a rhythm and a lead guitarist.
Vuorinen plays in either standard and D-tuning.

Nightwish is Finland's biggest, best-selling band, with multiple platinum, 3x platinum, and gold selling albums and singles.

Nightwish singles that went Platinum: "EverDream", "Bless The Child", "Nemo", and "Amaranth". Nightwish singles that went Gold: "Sacrament of Wilderness", "Walking In The Air", "Sleeping Sun", and "I Wish I Had An Angel".

"Wishmaster" reached Gold status within 2 hours of its release in Finland.

Whilst some fans are passionate about their favorite Nightwish's singer and claim them to be the true face of the band, most fans are savvy enough to understand that Nightwish is the brain and lovechild of Tuomas Halopainen, who composes and writes 90% of the music and lyrics. The guitarists write their solos, and the singers create their melodic lines.

Tuomas Halopainen's favourite composer is Hans Zimmer, and draws heavy inspiration from him.
Nightwish is heavily influenced by Finnish Power Metal band Stradivarius, as well as Metallica, Rammstein, and Black Sabbath.

The song "Higher Than Hope" (from the album "Once") was written in memory of, and dedicated to, Marc Brueland. Marc Brueland was a passionate fan and became good friends with Nightwish. He and Tuomas would talk over the phone frequently. He was given a speaking part in the song before he died of cancer in 2003, at 30.

Nightwish has covered several songs throughout their career, Gary Moore's "Over The Hills and Far Away", Howard Blake's "Walking In The Air", Pink Floyd's "High Hopes", and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of The Opera".

Every album since 2002's "Century Child" has a magnum opus to end the album, that averages about 10 minutes long. Century Child: "Beauty Of the Beast", Once: "Ghost Love Score", Dark Passion Play: "The Poet and The Pendulum", Imaginaerum: "Song of Myself", and Endless Form's Most Beautiful: "The Greatest Show on Earth". "Human/Nature" is the first album to break the pattern in 18 years, with two songs that are 7 minutes instead.

On June 7th 2004, Nightwish released their all time best-selling album "Once", and embarked on a 1.5 year world tour to support the new album. Unfortunately behind the scenes, the tensions between Tarja, Marcelo, the rest of the band, and band management, were reaching it's boiling point. In late 2004, bassist Marko Hietala was the first to think of firing Tarja; Jukka agreed first. Eventually Tuomas, Emppu, and Ewo would also agree, and kept their final decision secret from Tarja and Marcelo. A 'personal' letter, with a list of grievances, was written specifically to be given to Tarja, with the signatures of all four (now) ex-bandmates signed at the bottom. This letter was scanned to be uploaded onto Nightwish's personal website later. On October 21st 2005 after their (now legendary) concert at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland, Tarja Turunen was unceremoniously fired via open letter. The letter was given to her backstage directly after the concert, with Tuomas Halopainen personally asking that she not open it until the following day. Tarja gave a tearful press conference, and posted her own open letter in response to the allegations made by Nightwish, to her personal website in the following days. Media scrutiny and fan backlash to the debacle was so intense, Tarja fled the country to join her husband, Marcelo Cabuli, in Argentina, and Tuomas retreated to his parent's house to recuperate after receiving death threats. The incident flung Tuomas into a major depression, and he wrote the song "The Poet and The Pendulum" as catharsis so that he'd "be able to kill myself in a song without having to do it in real life". In response to the continuous references to her and vitriol aimed at Marcelo in 2007's "Dark Passion Play", Tarja responded to Nightwish via her own song "Enough", on her 2009 solo album "My Winter Storm".

Nightwish's Hartwall Arena concert was recorded Live, titled "End of An Era" and released as a concert DVD in 2006. The band's biography "Once Upon A Nightwish: The Official Biography 1996-2006", was also released that same year; detailing the incident, the band's founding, the band's early years, their successes, and the inner-personal tension that eventually led to Tarja's dismissal. Tarja and Marcelo attempted to sue Nightwish for defamation and libel over the book, but the Helsinki court tossed out their case in 2011. Nightwish's open letter to Tarja, and Tarja's subsequent press conference and replying letter can still be found online.

After Turunen's dismissal, the band reviewed about 2,000 applicants for a new lead singer. Around 10 progressed to personally audition in front of Nightwish. Anette Olzon was eventually chosen as their new lead singer in February 2007, after initially being rejected due to Tuomas's concerns of her having a young son. However, she was persistent. Her audition song was Nightwish's "EverDream". Her identity was kept secret, with her being introduced as Ewo's (Nightwish's manager) Swedish cousin whilst at a Tarot concert. She was officially announced as Nightwish's new frontwoman on May 27th, 2007. "Everdream" was released as Anette's debut with Nightwish the day after. And "Dark Passion Play" was released later that year on September 26th, 2007.

Fans' backlash to Anette Olzon was swift, with many Nightwish holdouts believing it was too drastic a change from Turunen's dark, precision-based, operatic vocals, to Anette's bright, relaxed, Pop/Rock style vocals. Sadly, at many concerts, Anette was harassed from stage by Tarja-Nightwish fans to the verge of tears.

Tarja Turunen married Argentinian businessman Marcelo Cabuli on 31st December 2002 – their wedding was celebrated in July 2003; they lived in Buenos Aires with their daughter who was born in 2012. In an interview, Tarja explained that in 2016 they had plans to move back to Europe due to her touring schedule and that their daughter was starting school in the coming year. She currently lives in the south of Spain. In October 2021, she revealed she had a stroke three years earlier after a U.S. tour.

Tarja fluently speaks Finnish, English, Spanish and German.

Turunen played at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in July 2006 as main act; she sang alongside Finnish tenor Raimo Sirkiä, supported by the Kuopio Symphonic Orchestra. Turunen performed classical arias like "O mio babbino caro" by Giacomo Puccini, "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" by Giuseppe Verdi and some songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber—"Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "Phantom of the Opera"—among other songs.

Tuomas Halopainen originally intended Nightwish to be an acoustic band. His decision to make Nightwish a Heavy Metal project came, in part, from his time as an exchange student in the United States, where he saw Metallica Live for the first time, and then cemented by hearing Tarja Turunen's singing voice for the first time. He asked her to sing for his project because he knew her from being a former classmate, they were friends, he knew that she was a Voice major, and she agreed. Upon hearing her much stronger voice for the first time, he realized he had to make the music heavier to better suit her so that the music wouldn't be drowned out. Evidence of Nightwish's acoustic roots are evidenced in the album " Angels Fall First" self-titled song, "Angels Fall First".

Tuomas always used male vocals in addition to Tarja's, as evidenced by his first attempt to sing, in Nightwish's " The Carpenter", and by the other male singers hired later.
Four compositions, "The Carpenter", "Beauty and the Beast", "Astral Romance" and "Once upon a Troubadour" from the debut album "Angels Fall First" are the only songs in Nightwish’s discography featuring Tuomas Holopainen’s vocals.

Marko Hietala (Tarot, Sinergy, Northern Kings etc.) officially joined Nightwish in 2001, after Sami Vänskä's firing. His hiring turned Nightwish into an official Heavy Metal band, and attracted many Metal fans. Marko enabled Tuomas to add an aggressive, masculine component to Nightwish's music, to contrast with Tarja's soft, feminine soprano vocals; a modernized, more pleasant usage of the "Beauty and The Beast" effect that's common in Gothic Metal bands. His Nightwish debut was "Century Child". Previously when Tuomas needed a male voice, he'd either ask Tapio Wilska (Finntroll) or Tony Kakko (Sonatica Artica).

Anette Olzon's last concert as Nightwish lead singer was at The Complex, September 29th, 2012, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was hospitalized with a liver cyst, and was forced to cancel subsequent shows. Nightwish tapped Elize Ryd of Amaranthe, and Alissa White-Glutz of then-The Agonist, to fill her place as singer(s) for her shows instead of wanting to cancel them. Olzon was extremely upset by this, and traded barbs online with Nightwish via her hospital bed. Nightwish fired Anette Olzon on October 1st, 2012 subsequently. Anette has gone on to theorize that the reason she was fired was because she was pregnant. Nightwish vehemently denied this, stating they were all congratulatory to her, but that "the split with Anette wasn't because of pregnancy or illness. We discovered her personality didn't fit this work community, and was even detrimental to it." Anette further went on stating that she was fired exactly the way Tarja was, and wants to speak to Tarja directly, so that they can share their experiences. Tarja is supposedly yet to do so, and seems unlikely to, as in all interviews since her solo career, answers in questions regarding Nightwish that she is proud of what she and Nightwish did together, but has since moved on. "I have my life, they have theirs."

After, Floor Jansen was called whilst at her sister, Irene Jansen's wedding, and asked to be Anette Olzon's temporary, emergency replacement for Nightwish, still on mid-tour. Floor agreed, and learned Nightwish's setlist on the plane ride over to the United States, documented in Nightwish's "Please learn the setlist in 48 hours". Floor Jansen's first debut with Nightwish was in October 2012, in Seattle, Washington, to raving reviews. Floor Jansen was officially announced as Anette Olzon's permanent replacement, and Nightwish's third Lead Vocalist in October 2013.

The two most personal songs in Nightwish's entire discography are "Dead Boy's Poem" and "The Poet And The Pendulum". "Dead Boy's Poem" is Tuomas Holopainen's autobiographic song, and "The Poet And The Pendulum" contains excerpts of what Tuomas's parents actually said to him ("Mother and Father" sequence) in the wake of the Tarja's sacking debacle. He requested Audio Tech to mute his earphones from the vocals in "The Poet And The Pendulum" multiple times.

As of 2021, Nightwish no longer performs "The Poet and The Pendulum" live; Tuomas's father, Pentti Holopainen, died on February 4th, 2021.

Plamen Dimov and Tony Kakko (Sonatica Artica) are directly responsible in both the formation of Nightwish, and continuing its existence. Plamen Dimov was Tuomas Holopainen and Emppu Vuorinen's music teacher and mentor, and Tarja's vocal teacher in comprehensive High School. Plamen Dimov mentored Emppu in how to best handle his frustrations at feeling "like a hired gun who does what he's told", at a time when Emppu was seriously considering quitting the band because Sami was lowering morale. During a hike, Tuomas divulged to Tony Kakko that he was seriously considering disbanding Nightwish due to rising tensions over Sami's behavior. Tony convinced him not to quit because he'd regret it, and offered some advice in how to handle it. When they got back from their hike, Tuomas officially hired Ewo Pohjula as Nightwish's personal Manager, and had Sami Vänskä fired.

"Passion & the Opera" (in "Oceanborn") is secretly dedicated from Tuomas to Tarja. She understood his love and interest to her but pretended not to.

"Nightquest" (on "Oceanborn") was written implying the hopeful belief that Tuomas (the storyteller and pied piper), Tarja (the maid and queen of the night), Jukka (the warrior), and Emppu (the merry minstrel) would be in the band as friends for its entire duration, and likened it to a Fantasy Quest. Sadly, this would prove not to be the case.

"Shoemaker" (Human/Nature) is in honor of the true story of American geologist, and a founder of Planetary Science, Eugene Merle Shoemaker (April 28, 1928 - July 18, 1997). He co-discovered Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Carolyn S. Shoemaker (his wife) and David H. Levy. This comet hit Jupiter in July 1994, with the impact televised around the world. Shoemaker studied terrestrial craters, such as Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona, and along with Edward Chao which provided the first conclusive evidence of its origin as an impact crater. He was also the first director of the United States Geological Survey's Astrogeology Research Program, and worked closely with NASA in training U.S. astronauts. He himself was candidate to be an Astronaut for one of the Apollo missions, but was disqualified after he was diagnosed with Addison's disease (disorder of the adrenal gland). Sadly on July 18th 1997, he was killed in a head-on car accident, while on his way to visit an impact crater site, on the Tanami Track, in Australia. His wife was with him, and was severely injured in the crash but survived. His remains were cremated with half his ashes given to his wife, and the other half given to NASA to take to the Moon for his final resting site, on the Lunar Prospector mission; for his contributions to science and in honor of his part in training their astronauts. His urn is inscribed with the excerpt: "And, when he shall die Take him and cut him out in little stars And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun."
The excerpt comes from William Shakespeare's " Romeo and Juliet". The brass foil wrapping on Shoemaker's memorial capsule is also inscribed with images of Comet Hale-Bopp and the phrase "The last comet that the Shoemakers observed together". He is the only human being whose remains are interred on the Moon.

The final lyric "Laudato si Ad Astra" is Latin for 'Glory to the stars'. This is the first Nightwish song to feature Tuomas Halopainen's wife (married in 2015) Johanna Kurkela, who speaks the Shakespeare excerpt.

"The Kinslayer" from the "Wishmaster" full-length is based on the Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999; the lyrics are based on both the shooters, and survivors perspectives.

Nightwish were announced as an inductee of the Finnish Music Hall Of Fame on October 26th, 2018.

At Tuomas's request, the band has agreed that the song "Ocean Soul" will never be played live. Tuomas says it is because it is a very personal song to him.

Nightwish have two animal species named after them: (Tanidromites nightwishorum and Sciophila holopaineni).




New trivia about this album are the following:

Back in '97 Holopainen used to play in Nattvindens Grat and was on tour with Babylon Whores, whose rhythm guitarist Ewo Pohjola was doing A&R work for Spinefarm Records, the record company of both of the bands.
He brought a big bag with several demos of bands that were hoping for a deal with the label, but the majority of them were unceremoniously thrown out of the window because lacking ideas. Tuomas was afraid that somebody would find the demo of his new project on the road crushed by a truck, but in the end he decided to try and give Nightwish a chance, and he was actually rewarded since it was an acoustic band, different from all the others in a good way. In particular, the track "The Carpenter" landed Nightwish a deal.

Despite the male members' army duties and Tarja's operatic commitments, as well as an injury to drummer Jukka, the album came out in Finland in 1997. It contained 7 tracks and was dropped in only 500 copies. More tracks were added on the re-releases and in 2001 it achieved gold status.

The music for the demo was composed when Tuomas was in the army as a clarinet player.

"The Carpenter" is Nightwish's first single and official video. It reached position nr. 3 in the Finnish singles charts in 1999.

On the original packaging of "Angels Fall First" it was written Holopainen's home address!

Guitar player Emppu played the bass parts on the debut album, then in spring '98 Nightwish hired bassist Samppa Hirvonen.

Nightwish started as a Christian band mainly, but the latest two albums are about evolution and the natural world, thanks to Tuomas' love for nature and vegetarianism and his being open-minded.

All the lyrics are from Holopainen, the majority in English, some in Finnish. They deal with love, nature, religion, fantasy, beauty, and some of them are of Christian orientation, contrasting with the evolution theories expressed in the band's recent albums. Tolkien and Dragonlance are other major influences for Holopainen, too.
Here is what they are about in detail:

* a meeting with eleves and other characters of the forest.
* the impossible love after a night date between a beautiful girl and a beast.
* the historical figure of Jesus described in an unusual way, not a praising manner, at least that is what it means to me. The video accompanying the song is about a God-fearing carpenter inspired by Icarus; maybe it was inventor Leonardo Da Vinci. That man spent a good part of his life to build wings; his life is a symbol of attending to reach perfection, to be divine, but his actions went unnoticed and he fails to fly.
Some people claim this song is about Icarus inspired by Jesus.
* a century-long love story, where the beloved female partner is reached after the missed bridegroom's death.
Another high point where the lyrics are matched with the vocals of Tomas and Tarja.
* the descent of an angel come to remind us the shortness of life and the existence of another life in the hereafter.
* Tutankhamen's rebirth and rejoining with his queen after 3 millennia of her guarding his eyes.
* a sexual encounter after a man returns home with the scent of another woman on.
* the reason why a nightingale sings is the answer to everything. His singing makes someone's soul fly in the joy of life even if they have no wings.
* an ode to Lapland.
* a female tyrant's come-back to the sea.

The historical value of this album and the demo included in this version is high and it is no surprise that the members of Nightwish didn't realize they had so much talent, great ideas and arranging capacities since they were only high school students, but things were actually so.

I like to have this version in my hands because of the additional material mentioned above, so the value is higher than the original one, even if not as high as a deluxe boxed set freserved to rich fans.