Nightwish Family Tree
Metal Family Tree
This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.
We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.
Nightwish is a hugely important band being that they are the kick starters of the Symphonic metal movement. Since they’ve began there has been a surge of symphonic bands with female vocals some more original and some more derivative but most inspired by Nightwish. At the heart of Nightwish is Tuomas Holopainen. The composer and key-keyboardist has been writing the vast majority of Nightwish music with little exceptions. Other members have co-written more often on recent albums but there are few songs not written by Tuomas. His influences are most important in shaping the band but we will also look at other members.
Howard Blake
Vangelis
Mike Oldfield
James Newton Howard
Trevor Jones
Hans Zimmer
Tuomas said he is a big fan of the whole Finnish metal scene. He says he is also a sucker for what he calls “90’s disco” talking about Aqua, DJ BoBo, and Mr President.
Marco has occasional so writing/co-writing credits since he joined in 2001 (Century Child onward). He also does backing and co lead vocals. He had three years of classical guitar, vocals, and music theory study and two more of bass at Oulunkylä Pop and Jazz Conservatory. Besides noted bands above, Marco is also a big fan of Deep Purple, Thin LIzzy, Jethro Tull, AC/DC, Tori Amos, Kansas, Pantera, Metallica, Slayer, and Danko Jones.
Tarja has no writing credits with Nightwish, but despite this it is impossible to say her style didn’t shape the sound of the band. Whitney Houston was a big influence on her when she was young. She is also a big Peter Gabriel fan. Tarja first pursued learning classical singing after hearing Sarah Brightman’s performance of “Phantom of the Opera”
Jukka Nevalainen who has been the long time drummer of Nightwish untill recently has no writing credits. With that said it’s hard to say that a drummer doesn’t change how a band feels. He names his influences as Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater and Jörg Michael of Stratovarius.
Anette has no writing credits, her style was more pop than other Nightwish singers. some of her favorites albums are from bands that include ABBA, Chisu, Kamelot, Kari Rueslåtten, and Robert Plant and Allison Krauss.
Floor brings in more rock style vocals than previous singes. Early influences include Roxette and Andrew Lloyd Webber. She then got into Skunk Anansie and The Gathering. She also mentioned being a fan of Russel Allen (Symphony X and other things)
Sami the original bassists has no writing credits.
Bands influenced by Nightwish!
As this project advances, bands will be added here… there are many!
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRYME8te19E
https://www.loudersound.com/features/discs-of-doom-tuomas-holopainen-nightwish
https://web.archive.org/web/20070602000431/http://www.nightwish.com/en/band/members/facts?id=4
http://www.wingsofdarkness.net/php/profile_marco.php
https://web.archive.org/web/20070603093738/http://www.nightwish.com/en/band/members/facts?id=2
https://web.archive.org/web/20070602000413/http://www.nightwish.com/en/band/members/facts?id=3
http://www.wikimetal.com.br/interview-with-tarja-turunen/
https://web.archive.org/web/20120201131746/http://www.nightwish.com/en/band/members?id=1
https://web.archive.org/web/20120209023144/http://www.nightwish.com/en/band/members?id=3
https://crypticrock.com/interview-floor-jansen-of-revamp-nightwish/