Night Wishes for Nightwish Trivia Quiz

Answer: Angel

"Wish I Had an Angel" was the last song played in the last concert Tarja Turunen sang for Nightwish. A few hours later, the band informed her in an open letter that she was no longer part of the group. This 2005 Helsinki concert was filmed for DVD and was released as "End of an Era".

Answer: Deep Silent Complete

"Deep Silent Complete" from "Wishmaster" uses and alters lines from Shakespeare's sonnets. Sonnet 93 contains the lines, "But heaven in thy creation did decree/That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell." Tuomas's lyric goes, "In your creation heaven did decree/That in your arms sweet death should dwell." I did a double take when I noticed that. The last verse nearly copies sonnet 17, which says, "The age to come would say 'This poet lies; Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.'"

Overall, this album has a fantasy bent, with multiple references to "The Lord of the Rings", "Dragonlance", and Disney films, but it's nice to see Shakespeare make an appearance too.

Answer: Something beautiful

In this "Century Child" song, the singer wants to do this "Through my music, through my silent devotion". The phrase "ocean soul" appears in other Nightwish songs, like "Bless the Child", "Dead to the World", and "Dead Boy's Poem", the latter two of which call the ocean soul a "lonely soul".

Answer: Sleeping Sun

The song was written in honor of a solar eclipse visible in Europe in 1999. Thus, it did not appear on the first pressing of "Oceanborn", which came out late 1998, but was added to the album later. Tarja recorded a new version of it for the compilation "Highest Hopes", making it one of the last songs she recorded for the band. (Personally, I prefer the "Oceanborn" version.)

Answer: "It was the night before, when all through the world"

This song comes from "Imaginaerum". Appropriately for a song about stories, it begins with a fairy tale-style beginning that is very similar to the opening of the poem "A Visit from Saint Nicholas", also called "The Night Before Christmas". "Scaretale" from later on the album starts with "Once upon a time in a daymare". "Dark Chest of Wonders" begins with "One night the clock struck twelve".

Answer: "Everything a wish for the night"

The dead boy states his desire to be remembered for his music and writing, not for himself. Yet he still thinks that his writing has failed, he has no more to say, and everything will be forgotten. Many other songs share this sentiment, like "Ocean Soul", "Slaying the Dreamer", "Dead Gardens", "The Poet and the Pendulum", and "Beauty of the Beast".

The dead boy is directly mentioned in "Beauty of the Beast" and "Song of Myself".

Answer: My Walden

The song begins with Troy singing in Welsh. An approximate translation through Google is: "The sound of mist, smell of moss-grown woods/Granite, lichen, the trees and the Moon/Weaving my world into tapestry of life." Quite appropriate for the album's theme of life and its many beautiful forms.

Answer: Whoever Brings the Night

This song comes from their sixth album, "Dark Passion Play". As the title suggests, the CD is full of bleak, depressing lyrics, and this song's no exception, with lines about zombie fantasies, poisonous desires, rotten beauty, and love being a lie.

Answer: Soothing rain

"Oh how I wish for soothing rain/All I wish is to dream again". "Nemo" means "no name" in Latin. "Nemo" comes from the 2004 album "Once", which came out one year after the movie "Finding Nemo" was released. Composer Tuomas Holopainen has said several times that the song comes from the Latin word and has nothing to do with the Pixar film.

Answer: Slaying the Dreamer

Here's a depressing, brutal song from "Century Child". The singer appears angry that others have taken her words and now profit from them without really understanding them.