Nightwish part company with Anette Olzon

blastman

Blabbermouth are reporting she's out, and it looks like it's not entirely amicably either.

Joe_Dull

Good riddance, I found her a very bland replacement for Tarja.

Max Power1

I for one was not a fan of the post Tarja Nightwish in the first place, so I cant pretend not to be glad about this news

Dark Artist

Floor Jansen from ReVamp is taking over for the remainder of the tour. Her vocal capability is arguably unmatched in the genre. Hopefully they'll keep her on permanently. I'd probably sh*t my pants with happiness if they did.

That said, I am sad Anette is gone. She had a unique quality and gave very touching performances on the two albums she did with them.

BlaasForRafa

Floor Jansen is great but I hope they bring Tarja back, its unlikely but one can hope.

ush

Metal?

Max Power1

ush wrote: »

Metal?

Take your BS elsewhere

Nightwish are very much metal. One of the bands (if not THE band) to the forefront of the Symphonic Metal genre

Grid.

Any chance Tarja could be tempted back??

Max Power1

Grid. wrote: »

Any chance Tarja could be tempted back??

Wasnt she fired in bad taste?
I dont think it was the most amicable of partings considering the public letters so Id consider it fair to consider there to be ill will on both sides

Dark Artist

No chance of Tarja returning. She already has her solo career which seems to be successful enough to keep her head above water, and she wanted that for a while before being kicked out of Nightwish anyway. It would be pretty cool if she did re-join but it's never going to happen.

I do see the possibility of her making a guest appearance on their last-ever album or something like that, because it's still a while off and the bad blood would surely have died down by then.

Twilightning

Nightwish would have disbanded completely if Tarja was kept on, I guess most people forget the reasons/simply don't know or care about the reasons for her being fired before the inevitable "GET TARJA BACK" comments begin. I really wish they'd just automatically filter out anybody who mentions her name on Nightwish's Facebook page, the amount of idiots commenting on the band's announcement is astounding; bitter fanboys perpetually stuck in the past, unable to move on, who abused Anette in the past (one of the reasons for her departure I'm sure) who're crowding around and celebrating the fact that she's no longer with them and that the band's better for it, despite the fact Dark Passion Play was released in 2007. Nightwish could move on, the fans never could. It's why I always maintain Nightwish fans are some of the worst in the industry because of this stupid drama over their vocalist.

Imaginaerum is definitely one of their strongest releases. I love both eras of their music and I'm sad to see Anette go. As much as people whine and moan about her technical ability when it comes to vocals, Tuomas tailored the latest album to her abilities and the result was wonderful. Could you honestly see Tarja singing this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12KFQaw9mOw

blastman

Agree with a lot of what Twilightning said, I liked Tarja as a vocalist but I also think Imaginaerum is a really good album. Tarja ain't coming back, so let's all get on with our lives.

BlaasForRafa

Twilightning wrote: »

Nightwish would have disbanded completely if Tarja was kept on, I guess most people forget the reasons/simply don't know or care about the reasons for her being fired before the inevitable "GET TARJA BACK" comments begin. I really wish they'd just automatically filter out anybody who mentions her name on Nightwish's Facebook page, the amount of idiots commenting on the band's announcement is astounding; bitter fanboys perpetually stuck in the past, unable to move on, who abused Anette in the past (one of the reasons for her departure I'm sure) who're crowding around and celebrating the fact that she's no longer with them and that the band's better for it, despite the fact Dark Passion Play was released in 2007. Nightwish could move on, the fans never could. It's why I always maintain Nightwish fans are some of the worst in the industry because of this stupid drama over their vocalist.

Imaginaerum is definitely one of their strongest releases. I love both eras of their music and I'm sad to see Anette go. As much as people whine and moan about her technical ability when it comes to vocals, Tuomas tailored the latest album to her abilities and the result was wonderful. Could you honestly see Tarja singing this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12KFQaw9mOw

Sounds like you swallowed Tuomas's side of the split hook line and sinker. And now he's ditched another vocalist in dubious circumstances you back him to the hilt as well, hmmmm

The reason people would like to see Tarja back is that she was and is a FAR, FAR better singer than Annette. Wishmaster and Century Child were Nightwish's best albums and Tarja was what made NW stand out from similar bands of the time. Tuomas tried to diminish Tarja's role by over-orchestrating Once and then got rid of her in a fairly sh***y way after the filming of the Helsinki concert in 2005.

Tuomas wants the band to be all about him... he's the main songwriter after all...and he just can't take when someone else gets too much attention and he doesn't get what he perceives as his due credit.

The Annette era of Nightwish is like the Blaze Bayley era of Iron Maiden, sometimes interesting but ultimately unsatisfying.

Twilightning

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

Sounds like you swallowed Tuomas's side of the split hook line and sinker. And now he's ditched another vocalist in dubious circumstances you back him to the hilt as well, hmmmm

The reason people would like to see Tarja back is that she was and is a FAR, FAR better singer than Annette. Wishmaster and Century Child were Nightwish's best albums and Tarja was what made NW stand out from similar bands of the time. Tuomas tried to diminish Tarja's role by over-orchestrating Once and then got rid of her in a fairly sh***y way after the filming of the Helsinki concert in 2005.

Tuomas wants the band to be all about him... he's the main songwriter after all...and he just can't take when someone else gets too much attention and he doesn't get what he perceives as his due credit.

The Annette era of Nightwish is like the Blaze Bayley era of Iron Maiden, sometimes interesting but ultimately unsatisfying.

Disliking the fact that Tuomas wants to be at the songwriting core of the band isn't really evidence or reason enough to believe that he just 'ditched' Anette. Her leaving was said to have happened mutually (while it was made clear with Tarja's open letter she was being fired) and while there were probably other tensions within the band itself, all of which we'll probably never know, Anette's yet to say anything contrary to the press statement the band issued on their Facebook page/website. The letter's even signed "Nightwish & Anette Olzon".

Again, you can say what you want about Tuomas but saying something as overly simplistic as "he just can't take when someone else gets too much attention and he doesn't get what he perceives as his due credit." when speculating about Anette's leaving is totally unrealistic. It's obvious the whole fiasco with her being sick and 'replaced' at one of their shows was a catalyst to this happening, but he personally brought her into the band, recorded two studio albums and a live album with her, he's hardly just going to drop her because he feels like he's not getting enough attention. Comparing Nightwish's last 5 years to Iron Maiden's 1990s period is silly too. That wasn't about just Blaze Bayley, it was **** songwriting in general. It's obvious you just don't like Anette as a singer, but Tuomas still wrote and built everything from the ground up on Dark Passion Play and Imaginaerum and both contain some wonderful songwriting; disliking the vocalist isn't reason enough to discount them both. As a matter of preference? Yes. Badly written/produced albums? Certainly not. This is coming from somebody who thinks Oceanborn and Once are the band's best albums, it's nothing to do with Anette.

ush

Twilightning wrote: »

It's why I always maintain Nightwish fans are some of the worst in the industry because of this stupid drama over their vocalist.

The whole female vocalist thing is central to these bands business idea. Call me a cynic, but they are counting on an emotional attachment.

Dark Artist

ush wrote: »

The whole female vocalist thing is central to these bands business idea. Call me a cynic, but they are counting on an emotional attachment.

Not sure what this is supposed to mean... that they have female vocalists because it's easier for fans to become emotionally attached to them? What would the evidence of this be?

Twilightning

ush wrote: »

The whole female vocalist thing is central to these bands business idea. Call me a cynic, but they are counting on an emotional attachment.

It's definitely just you being too much of a cynic. Nightwish formed in 1996, I don't think Tuomas suddenly said to himself one day "I'm gonna form this group and get a huge international following within the next decade but have a woman at the front so fans will be more attached to us."

ush

Twilightning wrote: »

It's definitely just you being too much of a cynic. Nightwish formed in 1996, I don't think Tuomas suddenly said to himself one day "I'm gonna form this group and get a huge international following within the next decade but have a woman at the front so fans will be more attached to us."

Maybe, maybe not. Its an industry. Scandinavians are very savvy when it comes to producing music for export. Alot of the Swedish/Norwegian/Finnish metal bands have a very professional attitude. Many of them have backgrounds gigging in what we'd call showbands. Metal is mainstream up here.

Most bands, more or less, are looking for international success. And you know what, an intelligent, middle-class Finn making business decisions starting a band, doesn't strike me as odd. These bands were trying to stick out by having a female vocalist. There's been a heap of them since then.

ush

Dark Artist wrote: »

Not sure what this is supposed to mean... that they have female vocalists because it's easier for fans to become emotionally attached to them? What would the evidence of this be?

Bring back Tarja!!!!

blastman

Went to their gig in Birmingham during the week (first time I've seen them live) and was pretty impressed by Floor on vocals. I don't know how long she's there for, but there's no denying she's a good singer, although I thought she was a little bit low in the mix. They've also got an uileann piper on stage practically full-time now, too, that must be a first for a Finnish heavy metal band!

I'll get a couple of pics up shortly, the biggest disappointment was that I couldn't get a tour t-shirt, they must have brought feck all as they were sold out before the support band (Pain) were on stage!

Twilightning

blastman wrote: »

Went to their gig in Birmingham during the week (first time I've seen them live) and was pretty impressed by Floor on vocals. I don't know how long she's there for, but there's no denying she's a good singer, although I thought she was a little bit low in the mix. They've also got an uileann piper on stage practically full-time now, too, that must be a first for a Finnish heavy metal band!

I'll get a couple of pics up shortly, the biggest disappointment was that I couldn't get a tour t-shirt, they must have brought feck all as they were sold out before the support band (Pain) were on stage!

I caught them in London on Monday and they were fantastic. They've had Troy Donockley playing the uileann pipes with them on tour since the release of Dark Passion Play, he was with them here in Dublin at Vicar Street in 2008. Probably sold out of all the good merch at the London show. :P I picked up a tour shirt, flag and a hoodie outside after the show.

devildriver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG-ahEP3EF0

First official video with Floor on vocals.

blastman

The scale of that show is a lot bigger than the one I saw! (not a complaint, BTW)

silvervixen84

I saw them in London too and was very impressed with Floor's vocals. She was very relaxed and interacted well with the rest of the band. She tackled most of the songs with ease, but there were one or two songs from Tarja's time that she struggled with. I'd be quite happy if they took her on permanently though.

ThunderZtorm

Anette was quite good on studio albums, but she was absolutely horrible live. My mate, a "life-long" Nightwish fan from Finland said it the best - his only comment to Anette was "she sounds like a child, it's so sad.." - and before anyone comes in, he was very much for Anette in general.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Nightwish with Floor Jansen at Wacken next year. I've been a fan for years and I was honestly not too happy about seeing them with Anette..

Twilightning

ThunderZtorm wrote: »

Anette was quite good on studio albums, but she was absolutely horrible live. My mate, a "life-long" Nightwish fan from Finland said it the best - his only comment to Anette was "she sounds like a child, it's so sad.." - and before anyone comes in, he was very much for Anette in general.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Nightwish with Floor Jansen at Wacken next year. I've been a fan for years and I was honestly not too happy about seeing them with Anette..

I'd refer back to the link I posted of performing one of the newer tracks live, she's far from 'absolutely horrible' performing it. Granted she was nowhere near the live singer Tarja was and had huge shoes to fill around after the release of Dark Passion Play in 2007/2008 but she's still decent. Along with referring to that video on the previous page I'd tell anyone to listen to their last live album too, Made in Hong-Kong. She sounds fine.

ThunderZtorm

Twilightning wrote: »

I'd refer back to the link I posted of performing one of the newer tracks live, she's far from 'absolutely horrible' performing it. Granted she was nowhere near the live singer Tarja was and had huge shoes to fill around after the release of Dark Passion Play in 2007/2008 but she's still decent. Along with referring to that video on the previous page I'd tell anyone to listen to their last live album too, Made in Hong-Kong. She sounds fine.

Well, her crappiness was our experience at Masters of Rock this year - so about half a year ago. Apparently one of the last concerts she got to do with Nightwish. I dunno, maybe she just couldn't be arsed being worthwhile that evening - but that's never really any excuse for a metal band now, is it?