Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Music in the Blood

Music in the Blood

TOP 10 METAL KEYBOARDISTS

Posted: 12 Aug 2009 07:41 AM PDT


Rudess Michael Pinella

1. Michael Pinnella
2. Jens Johansson
3. Kevin Codfert
4. Tuomas Holopanien
5. Jordan Rudess
6. Derek Sherininan
7. Joost van Broek
8. Richard Andersson
8. Vitalij Kuprij
10. Martin Hedin
In the Hell

TUOMAS HOLOPAINEN: NIGHTWISH'S KEYBOARDIST

Posted: 12 Aug 2009 07:48 AM PDT




Tuomas Holopainen was born on December 25th 1976. in a land of thousand lakes, Finland. It was a birth of a prodigious mind, a birth of an Ocean Soul. Even as a child he was very complicated personality, and main event from childhood, as he says, are his affection for Disney characters and imagination which this production created, and second main event is the moment he read Lord of the Rings. Those events maybe the ones which will define his future.

Considering he became Tolkien fan in the age of 7, it's not a surprise he has a great passion for fantasy stuffs. He was smart as a boy, and he learned some things faster and he was always ahead his matches; the bigger part of his teenage period he was a "lost boy". His music career starts at the age of 7 when his mother signed him on piano classes. In music school he was managing better on clarinet than on piano.

He knows the basics of music theories, can read notes and follows with piano. While he was in the army he was playing clarinet for nine and a half months, and after that he never played it again. First band which brought him some progress was band entitled Darkwoods my Bethrothed (he recorded one release with them in 1995). Approximately at that time he composed his first song, outro for band Heirs of Northstar, and the outro was titled "A New Heaven A New Earth". Last band he worked with was Nattvindens Grat. In these bands Tuomas was just a studio session musician and he never had a chance to write his own songs, which didn't bother him at the beginning. But the lust for writing his own lyrics, his thoughts, was growing and eventually he decided to create his own project. It was a night at the campfire under the stars of North when many wishes become true. wanted to make a project with slow music, acoustic guitar, piano, flute and female vocals.

TuomasTuomas, together with Emppu, went to his friend from high school, Tarja Turunen. Tarja and Tuomas were together in a high school jazz band in which Tarja was a vocal and Tuomas played clarinet. Tarja agreed to Tuomas proposal and they went to studio to make project Nightwish. Jukka joined the band and first demo "Nightwish" was released. Soon after that Tuomas wanted to do a metal project so Emppu played electric guitar instead of acoustic. The new era of Tuomas' live has begun, life full of journeys, beautiful, emotive, fantasy songs and big concerts.

With each album Tuomas was developing his poetry skills, and the song he calls his masterpiece is "Dead Boy's Poem" – a tribute to his poetry heart. After "Wishmaster" album and tour which followed it, Tuomas decided to end with this band because of different complication within the band. With his friend Tonni (Sonata Arctica) he went to forests of Lappland in search for himself. And he succeeded to find himself and Nightwish in his life. He calls members of the band and continues the work with Nightwish, but under one condition, Sami had to leave the band because he was the one who tears the band and Tuomas just couldn't continue with him. Long after that he gets into personal crisis because of the separation with his girlfriend. As a result he creates one of the most complex and most emotive Nightwish albums – "Century Child".

After great success of the Century Child, he started with writing for the next album. For "Once" album he hired symphonic orchestra and he wrote the music for it. Seeing he cannot continue with his bandmate Tarja Turunen he expressed wish to part ways with her for the good of the band. This happened at the end of "Once" tour in an open letter which was published on their web page. There are many reasons, but the main one is that he realized on this tour he don't want to end Nightwish story yet as Tarja did. As he said "I will write music and lyrics for Nightwish as long as I have the inspiration…" So let it be!
In the Hell

MASTERPIECE FROM TUMOAS HOLOPAINEN

Posted: 12 Aug 2009 08:06 AM PDT


DEAD BOY'S POEM

Born from silence, silence full of it
A perfect concert my best friend
So much to live for, so much to die for
If only my heart had a home
Sing what you can`t say
Forget what you can`t play
Hasten to drown into beautiful eyes
Walk within my poetry, this dying music
My loveletter to nobody

Never sigh for better world
It`s already composed, played and told
Every thought the music
I write Everything a wish for the night
Wrote for the eclipse, wrote for the virgin
Died for the beauty the one in the garden
Created a kingdom, reached for the wisdom
Failed in becoming a god Never sigh... "
If you read this line, remember not the hand that wrote it
Remember only the verse, songmaker`s cry the one without tears
For I`ve given this its strength and it has become my only strength.

Comforting home, mother`s lap, chance for immortality where being wanted became a thrill
I never knew The sweet piano writing down my life" "Teach me passion for I fear it`s gone
Show me love, hold the lorn
So much more I wanted to give to the ones who love me
I`m sorry Time will tell (this bitter farewell)
I live no more to shame nor me nor you And you... I wish I didn`t feel for you anymore...
" A lonely soul An ocean soul"


 POET AND THE PENDULUM

The end.

The songwriter's dead.
The blade fell upon him
Taking him to the white lands
of empathica,
of innocence
Empathica
Innocence

[Part 2: Home]

The dreamer and the wine
Poet without a rhyme
A widow writer torn apart by chains of Hell

One last perfect verse
It's still the same old song
Oh Christ, how I hate what I have become

Take me home

[Chorus:]
Get away, run away, fly away
Lead me astray to dreamer's hideaway
I cannot cry 'cause the shoulder cries more
I cannot die, I, a whore for this cold world
Forgive me,
I have but two faces
One for the world,
One for God,
save me
I cannot cry 'cause the shoulder cries more
I cannot die, I, a whore for this cold world

My home was there and then, those meadows of heaven
Adventure-filled days
One with every smiling face

Please, no more words
Thoughts from a severed head
No more praise,
Tell me once my heart goes right

Take me home

[Chorus]

[Part 3: The Pacific]

Sparkle my scenery
With Turquoise waterfall
With beauty underneath
The ever free

Tuck me in beneath the blue
Beneath the Pain,
Beneath the rain
Goodnight kiss for a child in time
Swaying blade my lullaby

On the shore we sat and hoped
Under the same pale moon
Whose guiding light chose you,
Chose you all

"I'm afraid, I'm so afraid.
being raped, again and again, and again
I know I will die alone
but loved.

You live long enough to hear the sounds of guns,
Long enough to find yourself screaming every night,
Live long enough to see your friends betray you.

For years I've been strapped unto this altar.
Now I only have three minutes and counting.
I just wish the tide would catch me first and give me
a death I always longed for."

[Part 4: Dark Passion Play]

2nd robber to the right of Christ
Cut in half - infanticide
The world will rejoice today
As the crows feast on the rotting poet

Everyone must bury their own
No pack to bury the heart of stone
Now he`s home in hell, serves him well
Slain by the bell, tolling for his farewell

The morning dawned upon his altar
Remains of the dark passion play
Performed by his friends without shame
Spitting on his grave as they came

[Chorus]

"Today, in the year of our Lord, 2005
Tuomas was called from the cares of the world
He stopped crying at the end of each beautiful day.
The music he wrote had too long been without silence.
He was found naked and dead,
With a smile in his face, a pen and 1000 pages of erased text."

Save me

[Part 5: Mother And Father]

Be still, my son
You`re home
Oh when did you become so cold?
The blade will keep on descending
All you need is to feel my love

Search for beauty, find your shore
Try to save them all, bleed no more
You have such oceans within
In the end, I will always love you

The beginning.
In the Hell

at 5:23 PM