Although Nightwish have been prominent in their home country since Angels Fall First, they did not achieve wider success until the release of the albums Oceanborn (1998), Wishmaster (2000) and Century Child (2002).

[3][4] The band produced three more singles and two music videos for Once, as well as a re-recording of "Sleeping Sun" for the compilation album, Highest Hopes: The Best of Nightwish (2005), before Turunen's dismissal in October 2005.

In July 2019, Nevalainen, who had been inactive since 2014 due to severe insomnia, announced that he would not be returning to the band, with Kai Hahto, who had acted as his replacement since 2014, becoming the official drummer.

[16] After playing keyboards in several heavy metal bands in the 1990s, including Darkwoods My Betrothed, Tuomas Holopainen decided to create his own project while sitting around a campfire with friends on July 6, 1996.

I listened to Kveldssanger a lot and thought that maybe I should try to do that kind of stuff even better.— Tuomas Holopainen[17]He soon invited friend and schoolmate Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen to play acoustic guitars, and the classical vocalist Tarja Turunen, who had shared the same music teacher, Plamen Dimov, a few years earlier.

[21] During early 1998, the band performed seven concerts, while Turunen was finishing her schooling, and Nevalainen and Vuorinen were serving their obligatory Finnish military service.

Adopting a more technical and progressive sound than Angels Fall First,[22] Oceanborn saw the band abandon much of the ambient and folk elements present on their debut release, with the exception of the song "Moondance".

Despite winning the public vote, Nightwish eventually finished in third place, with the jury choosing gospel singer Nina Åström to represent Finland.

[30] However, German magazine Rock Hard declared Wishmaster "Album of the Month", despite competing against long-awaited May releases from Iron Maiden and Bon Jovi.

In the summer, the band returned to Europe for their first headlining European tour with Sinergy and Eternal Tears of Sorrow, appearing at the Wacken Open Air festival and the Biebop Metal Fest.

[3] The issues centered on the bassist, Sami Vänskä, who had started misbehaving towards the band, according to Holopainen, by missing appointments and failing to take concerts as seriously as the other members did.

[33] When he returned from Lapland he immediately received a phone call from Ewo Pohjola, CEO of Spinefarm, offering to become their manager and help him straighten things up, and Holopainen agreed.

[38] This would hold true for 17 years until 27 and 28 November 2022, when Nightwish was joined by Dutch singer Henk Poort on stage at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam to perform the song.

The popularity of Evanescence in 2003 had piqued international and especially American interest in symphonic goth metal bands like Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, and Within Temptation.

After a concert in the Hartwall Areena (Helsinki) on 21 October 2005, recorded for the live DVD End of an Era (released June 2006), they expressed their decision through an open letter which was given to Turunen by Holopainen, and afterwards posted on the band's website.

[citation needed] On June 13, Nightwish revealed the title and artwork for the new album on their official website, as well as the name and cover of the second single (this time CD), "Amaranth";[55] it was released in Finland on August 22 and included a bonus track entitled "While Your Lips Are Still Red" written by Tuomas as the main theme for the upcoming Finnish feature film Lieksa!.

[83][84][non-primary source needed] In May 2014, Holopainen updated his official website, stating that he and producer Tero "TeeCee" Kinnunen had been recording 12 demos (and possibly three bonus tracks) for the new album in Hattula, Finland.

[85] The band expected to start rehearsing in July in Eno, Finland, to complete recording by January 2015, and to release the album in spring of that year, "If everything goes as scheduled".

[85] Commenting on the music, Tuomas said:[85] It's still too early to analyze the material more closely, but the album will once again explore all the ends of the spectrum, bringing the very best out of the newcomers Floor and Troy.

To promote the album's release, the band went on the Endless Forms Most Beautiful World Tour, which started on April 9, 2015, in New York City[93] and concluded on October 9, 2016, in Saitama, Japan.

In July 2015, it was announced that Sonata Arctica's vocalist Tony Kakko would replace Jukka Nevalainen as the band's special guest at the 2015 edition of Rock in Rio.

The World Land Trust works with governments to find alternative financial outlets for local people to stop logging and deforestation.

[117]On 10 July 2020, a new crab species, the Tanidromites nightwishorum, which was discovered by curator of palaeontology Dr. Adiel A. Klompmaker of the Alabama Museum of Natural History, was named in honor of the band, in particular for their 2015 album Endless Forms Most Beautiful.

[137] He stated in May 2021 that he had been working on new material for "the past month or two" while he was busy with his side projects Auri and the reunited Darkwoods My Betrothed in which he became a full-time member.

[183] Following the departure of Tarja Turunen from the group, Nightwish left behind the "signature operatic vocals" of their earlier albums, though the band somewhat reintroduced this style when Floor Jansen became lead singer.

[183] While the music of Nightwish is centered on a female lead singer,[184] the band has also featured some male vocals on their albums ever since their debut release, Angels Fall First.

Songs such as "Wishmaster," "Elvenpath," and "Wanderlust" make fairly clear references to fantasy novels, in this case the Dragonlance series and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

[176][190] The song "The Poet and the Pendulum's" first section is called "The White Lands of Empathica", which is a reference to the seventh book in the Dark Tower series.

[201] Songs like "Beauty of the Beast" (from Century Child), "Ghost Love Score" (from Once) and "The Poet and the Pendulum" (from Dark Passion Play) are examples of this influence.

[201] He likes, for example, the musical scores to The Village, Van Helsing, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Crimson Tide, and practically everything written by Hans Zimmer.