- Century Child
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Century Child Studio album by Nightwish Released 24 May 2002 Recorded 2002 Genre Symphonic metal, power metal Length 50:11 Label Spinefarm, Century Media Producer Tuomas Holopainen, Tero Kinnunen Nightwish chronology Over the Hills and Far Away
(2001)Century Child
(2002)Once
(2004)Singles from Century Child - "Ever Dream"
Released: May 3, 2002 - "Bless The Child"
Released: July 21, 2002
Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating Allmusic [1]
Kerrang! Metal Storm [2]
Progressiveworld.net [3]
Sea of Tranquility [4]
The Metal Crypt [5]
Century Child is the fourth studio album of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released in 2002 by Spinefarm Records. It is the first album with current bassist and male vocalist Marco Hietala.
The album is a notable departure from previous Nightwish releases, lyrically and musically. The overall musical scheme is slower and darker than the more light-hearted likes of Oceanborn and Wishmaster, with more emphasis on ambience and melodic leanings. It contains orchestral backing, an ethereal production, a much more streamlined vocal work from Tarja Turunen and vocals by Marco in songs like "Ever Dream", "Slaying the Dreamer", "Dead to the World", "Feel for You" and "The Phantom of the Opera"; furthermore, the lyrics depict the strongest concept album undercurrents yet. This could also be considered one of Nightwish's darkest albums. The album received strong positive reviews. Century Child is also the first album on which guitarist Emppu Vuorinen tunes his guitar to D tuning in order to match Hietala's D-tuned bass.
Spinefarm Records released a 2-CD special edition version of the album in 2002. It includes the CD, liner art with the band members' signatures, and a Video CD containing the music video for their cover of Gary Moore's "Over the Hills and Far Away". In addition, the booklet contains an ID code that allows the owner to download the entire album and three extra tracks from the Internet for a limited time. The bonus tracks are "Nightwish", "The Forever Moments" and "Etiäinen", all from the band's first demo (1996).
The album was certified 2x platinum in Finland with more than 60,000 sold copies, the second most sold Finnish album in Finland in year 2002, Today, Century Child has sold more than 90,000 copies in Finland alone.[6] Worldwide, it sold more than 350,000 copies between 2002 and 2003.
Contents
Track listing
Title Writers Length 1. "Bless the Child" Holopainen 6:12 2. "End of All Hope" Holopainen 3:54 3. "Dead to the World" Holopainen 4:19 4. "Ever Dream" Holopainen 4:43 5. "Slaying the Dreamer" Holopainen & Vuorinen 4:31 6. "Forever Yours" Holopainen 3:51 7. "Ocean Soul" Holopainen 4:14 8. "Feel for You" Holopainen 3:54 9. "The Phantom of the Opera" Andrew Lloyd Webber 4:09 10. "Beauty of the Beast" Holopainen, Hietala, Vuorinen 10:21 11. "Lagoon" (bonus track) Holopainen 3:47 12. "The Wayfarer" (bonus track) Holopainen 3:25 Charts
Chart Peak
positionAustrian Top 40 Albums 15 Dutch MegaCharts 41 Finnish Albums Chart 1 French Albums Chart 32 German Albums Chart 5 Norwegian Albums Chart 19 Swedish Albums Chart 39 Swiss Albums Top 100 50 Credits
The band
- Tarja Turunen – Soprano Vocals
- Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen – Lead guitars
- Marco Hietala – Bass guitar, Vocals (3,5,8,9), Backing vocals (4,10)
- Tuomas Holopainen – Keyboards
- Jukka Nevalainen – Drums, and Percussion
Guests
- Mongo Aaltonen - orchestral percussion
- Sam Hardwick - Spoken parts (on tracks 1 and 10)
- Kristiina Ilmonen - Tin Whistle
- Joensuu City Orchestra, Juha Ikonen, Leader
- A chorus mostly consisting of the St. Thomas chorus of Helsinki - chorus, Hilkka Kangasniemi as choirmaster[7]
References
- ^ "Century Child: Nightwish". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r641059. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
- ^ "Nightwish- Century Child". Metalstorm.ee. http://www.metalstorm.ee/bands/album.php?album_id=2. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
- ^ "Nightwish- Century Child". Progressiveworld.net. http://www.progressiveworld.net/html/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=2173. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
- ^ "Nightwish: Century Child". Seaoftranquility.org. http://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=1056. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
- ^ "Review: Nightwish - Century Child". Metalcrypt.com. http://www.metalcrypt.com/pages/review.php?revid=740. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
- ^ "Nightwish albums". Ifpi.fi. http://www.ifpi.fi/tilastot/artistit/nightwish. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
- ^ "Nightwish credits for Century Child". Nightwish. http://www.nightwish.com/en/band/releases/details?id=5. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
External links
Categories:- Nightwish albums
- 2002 albums
- Concept albums
- "Ever Dream"
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