Once is the fifth studio album by Finnishsymphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released on 7 June 2004 by Spinefarm Records in Finland and Asia, Nuclear Blast in Europe, and Roadrunner Records in the US and Australia. It is the last album to feature Tarja Turunen on lead vocals. The album cost nearly €250,000 to make, which made it Finland's most expensive recording ever until the release of Nightwish's next album, Dark Passion Play, which cost over €500,000 to produce. As of 2013, Once has sold 2.3 million copies worldwide, being Nightwish's most successful album to date.
Background
In 2008 Kerrang! interview Tuomas Holopainen remembered: "Doing this kind of really orchestral, symphonic stuff for four albums, you have to be prepared to take the next step and go 10 steps beyond, and that's how we ended up with the London Session Orchestra. At that time we also had the financial resources to do it. This was like our second breakthrough in a way; Oceanborn broke us, took us to the big league. Musically it was pretty laid-back from our side because everyone involved in the orchestra really knew their stuff, so we basically spent two days lying on the couch hearing all these people playing our songs, enjoying every moment. It was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. The first song they started to play was "Ghost Love Score", we had no idea what to expect, and I just thought: This can't be happening!"
Musical style
The album continues the more streamlined musical approach first heard on Century Child, moving further away from the power metal-influenced sound of their previous albums into symphonic metal with a slightly more mainstream, approachable feel. Once utilizes a full orchestra in nine of the eleven songs on the album; unlike Century Child, Nightwish chose an orchestra outside of Finland, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which has been featured on every album released since. Once is their second album to feature a full-length song in Finnish, "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan". The band added new elements to their music for this album, such as the chorus riff and synthesized drum-beat of "Wish I Had an Angel", and a long prayer chant on "Creek Mary's Blood". The song "Ghost Love Score" was described by Hietala as follows: "I'm a big fan of old prog rock and this is a song that has a lot of different parts going on, and different atmospheres in different places in order to support the story. My biggest influence from the prog world would be Jethro Tull, but I also love listening to Yes andGenesis and all those bands, and there's a correlation between the structures and the length of a lot of their songs and this one."
During the first week of its release, Once entered the German, Finnish, Norwegian and Greek charts as number one, selling over 80,000 copies in Germany alone. It was also the first Nightwish album to chart in the U.S., reaching No. 42 on the BillboardTop Heatseekers chart, and the band's first album to chart in UK, reaching No. 8 on the Rock Chart. In 2005, Once was ranked number 383 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. In 2017, it was ranked 89th at Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Once has sold triple platinum in Finland, platinum in Germany, gold in Sweden and later reached No. 1 also in the European Top 100 Albums chart. The single "Nemo" topped the charts in Finland and Hungary, and reached the top ten in four additional countries. It remained in the UK Rock Chart for more than a year. "Nemo" therefore remains their most successful single ever, and Once had reached number 47 in the list of best-selling albums of all time in Finland. The total sales of the album have achieved 2.3 million copies in 2013.
