StarDragonX

This is an older project of mine. It is from the time I used the iMac (2013 model) and Logic X. The picture is also my design.

This is somewhat funny to me in a sense. As I understand, artists have to let out steam when they get older. Some artists have a tough life, so their mentality breaks at some point after 40 maybe. I think Marco is fine, but some people lose their mental health in the process. For me, this kind of material is a bit like a letter after leaving Nightwish. But in this case, it is a symbolic open letter to the whole world and how things work and don't work in this world. It is not just in one band, in this case Nightwish. I think that "Frankenstein's wife" is telling about weird relationships that Marco has encountered when touring the world. For instance, in the middle east, polygamy is more common than you would think in some places. So, some people in other countries have a very weird way of creating relationships, and some models are mentally sick. Sometimes these people say that they practice some foreign religion, like Voodoo, or Islam or Buddhism or whatever. Maybe you have encountered these weird relationship dramas infused with religion abroad. I think Marco has seen everything... HAHA... 😝 And I don't mean only close relationships, but you sometimes see so many weird things and power structures in life that you just have to get it out somehow, usually spiced with some kind of dark humor. As I said, Marco has probably seen everything. That is my theory about these weird light rock songs. They sound a little bit like Deep Purple or Jimi Hendrix, you know, psychedelic rock... 😜 Addition: Marco is playing with modern religious themes here also. The symbols in the beginning (first 10 seconds) represent symbols some people see, who are practicing a modern religion like New Age or the ones mentioned above. Some people see these red circles or crosses, which can be also an indication of mental health disease. Also the "lightning" is a common religious symbol and has widely used in Japanese rock and anime. The lightning reference is found in some very uncommon places. As I have talked about the Japanese girl band Lovebites, they have a song called "Thunder Vengeance" and so on. One of the earliest rock songs with this theme was AC/DC - Thunderstruck. That is just one example. There are many lightning references in rock history. It has become a common theme. The "lightning" theme is also found in ancient religions, like "Thor's lightning", or Christianity and early Shintoism and Buddhism (and other religions as well), where natural phenomena like lightning or thunder were believed to have supernatural power. These themes are commonly found in Japanese, Finnish and sometimes American rock music.

Delain - April Rain is one of those songs and albums that bug me a little bit after many years. Maybe it's the whole April Rain album. There is the very old April Rain video from 14 years ago. I always searched for a better quality than the 240p version by Roadrunner Records. One day I noticed that Delain Official channel has a better quality version than the other ones. The CGI is quite advanced for its time. I think this song is referencing some World War 2 event. War music or War Metal (as I call it) is in a genre of its own. There is this band IGNEA (UKR), which released their first single after the Russian invasion year 2014, and they have been active ever since. Anyway there is sometimes this war-like atmosphere to some songs. In the case for "April rain", rain is sometimes written to indicate some event in a real war, as "October Rain" by the Israeli Eurovision artist Eden Golan in European Eurovision. EBU (Eurovision highest power) stated that "October Rain" is not a valid song title and it was renamed to "Hurricane" (by Eden Golan). The word "hurricane" is mentioned also in this song. It is talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Anyway... my intention is not to start a fiery politics discussion here. But "April Rain" is probably also meaning some World War II event, I think, though I don't know exactly which one. And the quality of the Delain - April Rain album is super good, there is a very nice effect on Charlotte Wessel's voice, and I just love the sound. Anyway, here is the video. BTW, I love Delain as a band, the old and the new stuff. Another example of this style is Nightwish - 10th Man Down (old extra release). And I don't know how to explain the theme better than this. 🙂 So what actually bugs me is why do bands do sometimes these very difficult war or other references that are usually not politically correct. Maybe it is their way to have some kind of opinion.

I have learned one thing (actually many things) about song themes and lyrics. The thing is that some songs don't tell about those themes we instantly think about. For instance, people assume that every one of Tuomas's love songs are about Tarja, eg. I Wish I had An Angel and so on. That might be true in some cases, but some early songs might actually tell about other people Tuomas has met in his youth, maybe even a crush of his (or something like that). But those persons would propably want to keep themselves secret. Or maybe Tuomas want to keep those persons a secret haha... Anyway... In my opinion, Johanna Kurkela (Tuomas' wife) talks about Tuomas' or Nightwish's subject in a secret way. Johanna Kurkela is a well established Pop singer in Finland. There is the song "Kuolevainen" (and many others) by Johanna Kurkela, which means that man (or woman) is a mortal being. It talks about "secret" feelings of love. So Johanna Kurkela talks about Tuomas from her point of view in her songs, but it is written like some "secret code". I think few people actually realize, that Johanna Kurkela's songs are about her and Tuomas relationship and also things revolving Nightwish, but it is not stated in a way that is not crystal clear. So, Tuomas might be talking about his wife Johanna Kurkela in his Nightwish songs, not Tarja. Or some other person. This "problem" leads to an another point in my opinion. Because of these sensitive subjects in eg. early Nightwish songs, Tuomas doesn't actually want to reveal the identity of these persons or original subjects. And also, the Artist (Tuomas) wants to have a good story. Some fan theories, or fan fantasies actually have gone so wild that maybe telling the truth would be a little underwhelming in Tuomas' sense. And third point. Many people have this mentality that Tarja is somehow going to join Nightwish in the future, which is highly unlikely, in my opinion. Well, maybe there is a very small chance. Actually, Tarja and Marco is doing Nightwish II at the moment actually... haha. But I get the feeling that it is not enough for some people. They want to see Tarja with Tuomas' band Nightwish. So the artists understand that some of their fans want to hear a certain narrative. Maybe Tarja joining with Nightwish is the most obvious one. So because of the risk of drama, now Tarja has some references of this theme on every album, like "Little Lies" and "Diva", and "you and I". The list goes on. Some people think that these songs are about Tuomas, so the songs are written in a cunning way to fit the narrative. So, Tarja, for instance, can sell her albums to some people with this "story." I personally believe that the Nightwish artists have basically left the drama behind, and they are following the story written by fans in a sense. So you see that closing in on this subject psychologically is a little complicated, and I could maybe write a psychological novel about these things. So the conclusion is that people sometimes do not want to think. That is why it is easy to sell a very simple solution, like “Tarja and Tuomas are forever angry towards each other and they could have gotten married year 2003 and bla bla bla....” The story lives on. There are some fanfiction stories of The Beatles and other bands as well. And as an actual answer to your post: Nobody can clearly state if this song is about Marco or not, in my opinion. But there are some clues along the way. Tuomas is probably not going to state that “this song is about Marco”. Though, you are not necessary wrong thinking that “An Ocean Of Strange Oceans” is about Marco. It might be, but maybe we will never get a 100% to these questions. We have to keep guessing. As a reference: Johanna Kurkela: Kuolevainen (the mortal one), sorry, the song is in Finnish only 😞

This is one of my first final mixes, when I started out music producing a few years back. I used Shreddage II VST to write the electric guitar line in the early stage. This song went through some stages. And I also lost the passwords for this account, and the WAV file was gone after I cleaned up Hard Drive space. Anyway, it is on the internet, so no problem. 🙂 I figured out that I want to do shorter songs than 10 minutes. The production time was so long that it was a little bit exhausting, and things happened in between so it was a little bit risky. For instance, there might be some Apple Logic Pro fail that could corrupt the file or something or some plugin might stop working. POWER METAL FTW (for the win). I designed the logo by myself, as I do photography and visual work as well as music. The song is uploaded on Youtube year 2021.

As I stated elsewhere, this song "An Ocean Of Strange Islands" is my favorite song from the Yesterwynde album.

Yes, that's what I was trying to say. I agree that Yesterwynde is not one of Nightwish' heaviest albums. It is more on the light side. That is not necessary a bad thing for me. Though, there is a lot of dissonant chords in the orchestral background, which I like. But somehow, Tuomas would have potential in eg. the style of Dark Passion Play. That is maybe their heaviest album in my opinion. I also like songs like "Yours is an Empty Hope" (EFMB) and "Dead Gardens" (Once). But making the music a little bit towards light or pop music is also a business decision. There are very few people who buy modern classical music, with the very weird chords and all that. Tuomas is a realist in that sense. Most people like melodic music more than music with dissonant chords. Maybe you could call Delain a little bit more poppish in that sense. BTW, I love Delain as a band. One of Nightwish' heaviest songs is Master Passion Greed (DPP). Apart from the drama, I somehow very much like this nihilistic energy in that song, for a lack of a better word. I have bought the concert End Of An Era, the last concert with Tarja Turunen. There is this very tense atmosphere in these songs, as the band knows that Tarja is leaving and I think Tarja maybe had some clue of what's coming beforehand. She is giving her all in End Of An Era, I think. I think the neurotic stress is actually pushing the band to perform better. So, as a reminder, Master Passion Greed is written about Tarja's husband, Marcelo Cabuli (ARG). As I grow older, I think what a marriage gift this was, all on national TV. They are now happily married, as Tuomas and Johanna Kurkela. It is a little bit like having your ex in the band, concering the Tarja-Nightwish reunion fantasy. Why don't people understand, that Tuomas and Tarja got married to different persons, that's one reason tarja and Tuomas had to go different ways. But the Tarja-Nightwish fan fiction still lives on. Why did this become a long rant, all of a sudden. But anyway, there is interesting energy in these songs, which talk about the darker side of people, for me at least. My opinions might be unpopular for some people, maybe... Haha. My favourite song on the Yesterwynde album is "An Ocean Of Strange Islands" with the double bass pedals and stuff.

I try to keep the conversation polite. But sometimes I recognize funny things. This scuba diver reference reminds me a lot of Tarja - Until My Last Breath video from 2010. There might be some other hidden references, but sometimes I get the feeling that the artist "talk" to each other in a weird way. I don't really know, what the deep message actually is. Somebody asked in the Yesterwynde chat if there are some Japanese references in the album. The word "Yesterwynde" is a made up word from some welch words. In the past, Anime companies in Japan had a tendency to also invent names, which actually didn't mean anything, like Sword Art Online: Alicization. Alicization doesn't actually mean anything. There is also the Japanese composer Yasuharu Takanashi, who has composed Fairy Tail Anime. Some of the songs are basically Symphonic Metal. Anyway, here is the Scuba diver song.

In my opinion this the statement that "This will be our heaviest album" has been a meme for about 20 years. I remember Tuomas telling in 2006 that Dark Passion Play will be their "heaviest album ever". Tuomas has basically said this statement before every album release, as far as I can remember, at least before most of the albums. It is a bit like thinking "Tomorrow I will clean my garage". But I agree, that this is not technically a super "Heavy" album by Metal standads. But maybe this is a psychological thing that Tuomas thinks every time that the next album is the heaviest. But as I said, this statement has meme value for me. I think other bands say this as well. What I actually like about this new album is the orchestral part. I listen to music in Youtube Music. In Finland, Tuomas and other musicians have always been compared to Sibelius, the Finnish classical composer. The orchestral part of the album really got me. Tuomas has really developed his composing concerning orchestral, "classical" stuff. I know that there are many professionals in the background. Pip Williams and now James Shearman has arranged the orchestral parts in almost all of the Nightwish albums. Maybe Tuomas will become "Sibelius" II in the future. HAHA. Did you know a bulgarian artist Plamen Dimov actually put Nightwish together in the early days. He noticed that Tuomas is very talented, and things started rolling. Some early clips of Tarja singing and Tuomas playing in a classical group is actually Plamen Dimov's band. Tuomas told in this interview that they almost burned their Kitee bandcamp, as they lit candles and played "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan (Death Makes An Artist.)" If somebody wants to dive more deeply into the subject, here is a 50-minute Plamen Dimov interview. There is at least automatic subtitles in English.

This is a short classical piece. It is composed with Reaper DAW and BBC Discovery. It used to cost €50, but now I think it is free. It is a downgraded version from BBC Symphony Orchestra, which costs €500+ and it eats your processor like a dog eats food... in lack for a better analogy. There is also a little bit of Spitfire LABS percussion (completely free VST, a must-download) and and also Ferrum Free Version trailer music drums. I think all these VST's are free at the moment. Seems like there will be pieces in C minor as this one. BBC Discovery is a good background string instrument. I used it in my Dark Chest Of Wonders Cover.

Nightwish - Dark Chest of Wonders cover by me. I used this song as ear training. The whole song is copied by ear. I also downtuned the song from D to C, so I could play it with my Drop-C Washburn guitar.

Thanks for the list. I know there are tons of information on the Internet, but it is impossible to find every page and list. I noticed one specific Japanese girl rock band had a band release, where they informed that they will go to Sweden to record an album. I can't remember which one it was. I have listened to quite a lot of Japanese Rock and Metal. Some early material is not super well mixed, until quite recent years. One very good quality band is Anthem, which is globally quite famous. At least Anthem and Lovebites are signed to Nuclear Blast Records (Pun intended), which is from Germany I think. Anyway. I actually loved Lovebites so much two years ago, that I went and bought two of their CD:s from Levykauppa X in Finland. XD. They were available there. So concerning the lacking mixing aspect, I think that Japan has not had as stable a music production structure as Finland or USA, so they have needed help in this commercial aspect from other countries as Finland or USA. But for instance, the girl metal band Nemophila is super well mixed. I think they are mixed in Japan. Anyway, somebody may disagree with my opinion on the lacking mixing quality in some Japanese material, that is just my opinion. I like a lot of compression. I like eg. the new Stratovarius album Survive (2022) in the mixing/mastering sense.

Actually, merging my two accounts would be nice. I want to keep the name StarDragonX. Thank you for the service. 🙂

Please instruct me if there is already a dedicated forum space for personal songs and projects, for instance for covers. I didn't find that kind of a thread. I joked with my brother that we should start a band called Nightwish Insomnium and call Floor Jansen to record our vocals or something, as some Insomnium members are from my home town, Kotka, Finland. I have actually met Niilo sevänen, Insomnium in real life once. Anyway, I have developed my mixing skills and stuff. The material is usually recorded with a Washburn Drop-C guitar. I use Reaper DAW in Windows 11 right now. https://youtu.be/SVNb2AHAqCQ?si=CbMOjMdBPYev7u4D

Just one addition here. I checked, that almost all Lovebites material is mixed by Mikko Karmila and mastered by Mika Jussila / Finnvox Studios. They are the Nightwish mixers. I found that out later. Lovebites is super popular in Japan right now. This was my old account.

I am a 30-year-old male from Finland. I had an account on this forum, but I lost the key and there was some storms in life, so I had a long break from forum writing. I recognize that this forum is not very active, but it is good to try to generate some traffic to this Nightwish forum, to try at least. I was to become a professional musician. I have studied playing drums for 3 years in the past. Music career was not for me and it wasn't easy to generate money. My music career didn't launch as expected... That is why I am studying engineering in Finland, as engineer wages are high, around €3000 or more. I keep music as a hobby and love sharing some of my work and thoughts on Nightwish and other stuff. Cheers, StarDragonX, Finland