Nightwish
Nightwish is a symphonic metal band from Kitee, Finland. Early on, their lyrical themes predominantly dealt with mythological and fantasy themes. Though these themes are still occasionally used, lyricist Tuomas Holopainen has used more personal lyrics on recent albums, dealing with sexuality, loneliness and childhood, as well as the split with former singer Tarja Turunen.
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[edit]- The only true love I ever knew was behind those downcast eyes. The only comfort I ever felt was during those long hours of loneliness when I felt for you. I do believe only Innocence can save the world.
- From the album booklet of the 2002 album Century Child.
Song lyrics
[edit]
The innocence,
the dreams of every man
I am the empty crib of Peter Pan
All lyrics written by Tuomas Holopainen.
Angels Fall First (1997)
[edit]- In the sheltering shade of the forest
Calling calming silence
Accompanied only by the full moon
The howling of a night wolf
And the path under my bare feet...
...The Elvenpath- Elvenpath
- The moon witch took me to a ride on a broomstick
Introduced me to her old friend Home Gnome
Told me to keep the sauna warm for him- Elvenpath
- Your trembling paw in my hand
Dreaming of that northern land
Touching me with a kiss of a beast- Beauty and the Beast
- Love me before the last petal falls.
- Beauty and the Beast
- However cruel the mirrors of sin
Remember, beauty is found within- Beauty and the Beast
- ...Forever shall the wolf in me desire the sheep in you...
- Beauty and the Beast
- Why? Was the wine of the grail
Too sour for man to drink
- I hear you
Through the symphonic voices of nature
The purity I could never doubt
They tell me to lie on the grass
And observe my saviour
The one crucified to the chirping of birds
- The Carpenter
- Hymn of gathering stars as my guide
As I wander on this path of the night- Astral Romance
- The nightwish I sent you centuries ago
Has been heard by those
Who dwelled in a woe- Astral Romance
- Departed by the guillotine of death
I received a letter from the depth
The dream of my lover it carried inside- Astral Romance
- Above the universe
Beneath the Great Eye
I shall desire you forevermore- Astral Romance
- Bury my dreams dig up my sorrows
Oh Lord why
The angels fall first?- Angels Fall First
- Not relieved by thoughts of Shangri-La
Nor enlightened by the lessons of Christ
I'll never understand the meaning of the right
Ignorance lead me into the light- Angels Fall First
- Sacrifice me
Tutankhamen
And let me be your queen
Take me
Tonight and always
We'll breed to fill all earth- Tutankhamen
- Old love lies deep you said
Deeper shall be the wound between your legs- Nymphomaniac Fantasia
- Know why the nightingale sings
Is the answer to everything- Know Why the Nightingale Sings
- Dismal are the mirrors of a wolf
- Lappi (Lapland)
- Seadrops foam all empty human skulls
Those on the shores of Atlantis
Darwin's resurrection is witnessed
By turtles he used to play with- A Return to the Sea
- Oracle of the Delphian Domine
Witness of Adam's frailty
Seer of the master prophecy
The stellar world her betrothed- Stargazers
- Enchantment has but one truth:
I weep to have what I fear to lose- Gethsemane
- I knew you never before
I see you never more
But the love the pain the hope O beautiful one
Have made you mine 'till all my years are done- Gethsemane
- Without you
The poetry within me is dead- Gethsemane
- Hail the Oceanborn!
- Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean
- Disgraced is my virginity
Death has woven my wedding dress
Oh Great Blue breathe the morning dew
For you are the cradle of the image of god- Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean
- From cradle to coffin
Shall my wickedness be your passion- Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean
- We shall come to set the dolphins free
We shall wash the darkened bloodred sea
Our songs will echo over the mountains and seas
The eternity will begin once again in peace- Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean
- I want to hunt with the tameless heart
I want to learn the wisdom of mountains afar
We will honor the angel in the snow
We will make the streams for our children flow
- A sight so cursed
Breasts which never nursed
- An Aphrodite for mortal souls
Playing hide and seek in lecherous roles
Their erotic hour my tearless weep
Their satisfaction my infinite sleep- Passion and the Opera
- In my world
Love is for poets
Never the famous balcony scene- Swanheart
- Crystal pond awaits the lorn
Tonight another morn for the lonely one is born- Swanheart
- You think you dwell in wisdoms sea
Still sweet ignorance is the key
To a poet's paradise
Challenge the Riddler and you will see...- The Riddler
- For nature hates virginity
I wish to be touched
Not by the hands of where's and why's
But by the Oceans' minds- The Riddler
The Unicorn arrives with the westwind to dream His funeral
"Thou art born for Horus dwells in Thee"Slumbering with the ebb and the flow of this foaming tomb
"Thou art born for Seteh dwells in Thee"- The Pharaoh Sails to Orion
- Open thy veins for my venom
Kiss the cobras with thy twisted tongue
So shalt thou join the empyrean circus
Where beggars mourn and seraphs dance
In this twilight cathedral
Shall I wed thee,
O Bride of the Netherworld- The Pharaoh Sails to Orion
- Join my soul the Hunter in the sky
- The Pharaoh Sails to Orion
- I wish for this night-time
to last for a lifetime
The darkness around me
Shores of a solar sea
Oh how I wish to go down with the sun
Sleeping
Weeping
With you
- Sorrow has a human heart
From my god it will depart
I'd sail before a thousand moons
Never finding where to go- Sleeping Sun
- Patriotic to the promised land
of never-waking dream.- Nightquest
- The dreams remain – they only break.
- Nightquest
First ones to walk this path of night
Lady in black lady in white
Followed by legions of night-time wanderersGuardians of the halls of heart
When we from my homeland depart
To challenge the gods of emptiness
May the quest begin!- Nightquest
Wishmaster (2000)
[edit]- Take heed, dear heart
Once apart, she can touch nor me nor you
Dressed as one
A wolf will betray a lamb- She Is My Sin
- I am the Fallen
You are what my sins enclose
Lust is not as creative
As its discovery- She Is My Sin
- God I must confess...
...I do envy the sinners- She Is My Sin
- Need to understand
No need to forgive
No truth no sense left to be followed- The Kinslayer
- Facing this unbearable fear like meeting an old friend
- The Kinslayer
- In this world of a million religions everyone prays the same way
- The Kinslayer
- Dry the rain from my beaten face
Drink the wine the red sweet taste of mine- Come Cover Me
- For me
For you
Time devours passion`s beauty
With me
With you
In war for the love of you
(Tonight any dream will do)- Come Cover Me
- I want to find The Secret Path
A bird delivered into my heart- Wanderlust
- Drown into my eyes and see the wanderer
See the mirrors of a wolf behold the pathfinder- Wanderlust
- Now let us lie
Sad we lived sad we die
Even in your pride
I never blamed you- Two For Tragedy
- A dreamy-eyed child staring into night
On a journey to storyteller`s mind
Whispers a wish speaks with the stars the words are silent in him- Wishmaster
Your world shall rest on Earth no more
- To august realms, the sorcery within
If you hear the call of arcane lore,
Your world shall rest on Earth no more- Wishmaster
- Just a child without a fairytale am I
Dark but so lovely
A Little Match Girl freezing in the snow- Bare Grace Misery
- Roaming on razor-sharp castles
Ruling all but myself
(Now my night is laid to sleep)- Crownless
Heaven never touched earthly face
The age will say "This night was ours"
Blessed with the Deep
The Silent the Complete
- The age will say "This poet lies"
Heaven never touched earthly face
The age will say "This night was ours"
Blessed with the Deep
The Silent the Complete
- Sing what you can`t say
Forget what you can`t play- Dead Boy's Poem
- 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- Dead Boy's Poem
- 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- Dead Boy's Poem
- A lonely soul... An ocean soul...
- Dead Boy's Poem
- Wish upon a star
No matter who you are
The second star to the right
Century Child (2002)
[edit]- I was born amidst the purple waterfalls.
I was weak, yet not unblessed.
Dead to the world. Alive for the journey.
One night I dreamt a white rose withering,
a newborn drowning a lifetime loneliness.
I dreamt all my future. Relived my past.
I witnessed the beauty of the beast
- There's a poison drop in this cup of Man
To drink it is to follow the left hand path- Bless the Child
hope is only an illusion & Ocean Soul's nothing but a name...
Time pays us but with earth & dust, and a dark, silent grave.
Remember, my child: Without innocence the cross is only iron,
hope is only an illusion & Ocean Soul's nothing but a name...The Child bless thee & keep thee forever
- Bless the Child
- It is the end of all hope
To lose the child, the faith
To end all the innocence
To be someone like me
This is the birth of all hope
To have what I once had
This life unforgiven
It will end with a birth- End of All Hope
- Angels, they fell first but I'm still here
- End of All Hope
- Mandylion without a face
Deathwish without a prayer
End of hope
End of love
End of time
The rest is silence- End of All Hope
- It's not the monsters under your bed
It is the Man next door
That makes you fear, makes you cry,
Makes you cry for the child- Dead to the World
- I don't want to die a scarless man
A lonely soul- Dead to the World
I joined the sinful to regain innocence
- I studied silence to learn the music
I joined the sinful to regain innocence- Dead to the World
- As he died, he will return to die in me again
Weaving the cloth, giving birth to the Century Child
Who gave his life not for the world but for me
Innocence reborn once more- Dead to the World
Ever felt away with me
Just once that all I need
Entwined in finding you one dayEver felt away without me
My love, it lies so deep
Ever dream of me
- Would you do it with me
Heal the scars and change the stars- Ever Dream
- Come out, come out wherever you are
So lost in your sea
Give in, give in for my touch
For my taste for my lust- Ever Dream
- Put a stake through my heart!
And drag me into sunlight
So awake for your greed
As you're slaying the dreamer- Slaying the Dreamer
- Wake up, mow the weed
You'd be nothing without me
Take my life if you have the heart to die- Slaying the Dreamer
- Whatever walks in my heart will walk alone
- Forever Yours
- Crying for me was never worth a tear
My lonely soul is only filled with fear- Ocean Soul
- Losing emotion
Finding devotion
Should I dress in white and search the sea
As I always wished to be - one with the waves
Ocean Soul- Ocean Soul
Through my music, through my silent devotion
- I only wished to become something beautiful
Through my music, through my silent devotion- Ocean Soul
Every single verse can only be born of the greatest of wishes
- All of my songs can only be composed of the greatest of pains
Every single verse can only be born of the greatest of wishes- Beauty of the Beast
- Sanest choice in the insane world:
Beware the beast but enjoy the feast he offers- Beauty of the Beast
- Oh, sweet Christabel. Share with me your poem.
For I know now, I'm a puppet on this silent stage show.
I'm but a poet who failed his best play.
A Dead Boy, who failed to write an ending
To each of his poems.- Beauty of the Beast
- Feeling lonely and content at the same time,
I believe,
is a rare kind of happiness- Lagoon
And this is it
- Once I had a dream
And this is it- Dark Chest of Wonders
- Once I knew all the tales
It's time to turn back time
Follow the pale moonlight- Dark Chest of Wonders
- Fly to a dream
Far across the sea
All the burdens gone
Open the chest once more- Dark Chest of Wonders
- Old loves they die hard
Old lies they die harder
- Last dance, first kiss
Your touch my bliss
Beauty always comes with dark thoughts- Wish I Had an Angel
- This is me for forever
One of the lost ones
The one without a name
Without an honest heart as compass
- Oh how I wish
For soothing rain
All I wish is to dream again
My loving heart
Lost in the dark
For hope I`d give my everything- Nemo
- My flower, withered between
The pages 2 and 3
The once and forever bloom gone with my sins- Nemo
- The 1st rock thrown again
Welcome to hell, little Saint
Mother Gaia in slaughter
Welcome to paradise, Soldier- Planet Hell
- You fool, you wanderer
You challenged the gods and lost- Planet Hell
- Save yourself a penny for the ferryman
Save yourself and let them suffer
In hope
In love
This world ain't ready for The Ark
Mankind works in mysterious ways- Planet Hell
- Our souls will join again the wild
Our home in peace 'n war 'n death- Creek Mary's Blood
I still dream every night
Of them wolves, them mustangs, those endless prairies
The restless winds over mountaintops
The unspoilt frontier of my kith 'n kin
The hallowed land of the Great Spirit
I still believe
In every night
In every day
I am like the caribou
And you like the wolves that make me stronger
We never owed you anything
Our only debt is one life for our Mother
It was a good day to chant this song
For HerOur spirit was here long before you
Long before us
And long will it be after your pride brings you to your end- Creek Mary's Blood
- All the tales are told
All the orchids gone
Lost in my own world
Now I care for dead gardens
- Dead Gardens
- My song is little worth anymore
Time to lay this weary pen aside- Dead Gardens
Where are the wolves, the underwater moon
The elvenpath, the haven of youth
Lagoons of the starlit seaHave I felt enough for one man's deed?
Or is it time to challenge the Ancient of Days
And let the virgin conceive- Dead Gardens
- Romanticide
Till love do me part- Romanticide
- See me ruined by my own creations
- Romanticide
- Take me
Cure me
Kill me
Bring me home
Every way
Every day
Just another loop in the hangman's noose- Ghost Love Score
- Redeem me into childhood
Show me myself without the shell- Ghost Love Score
- My fall will be for you
My love will be in you
You were the one to cut me
So I'll bleed forever- Ghost Love Score
- Passiontide
An angel by my side
But no Christ to end this war
To deliver my soul from the sword
Hope has shown me a scenery
Paradise poetry
With first snow I`ll be gone- Higher Than Hope
- The hopes were high
The choirs were vast
Now my dreams are left to live through you- Higher Than Hope
- Your death saved me
- Higher Than Hope
Dark Passion Play (2007)
[edit]- Forgive me
I have but two faces
One for the world
One for God
Save me- The Poet and the Pendulum
- 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 Poet and the Pendulum
- 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- The Poet and the Pendulum
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.- The Poet and the Pendulum
- Be still, my son
You're home
Oh when did you become so cold?- The Poet and the Pendulum
- 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 Poet and the Pendulum
- Did you ever hear what I told you
Did you ever read what I wrote you
Did you ever listen to what we played
Did you ever let in what the world said
Did we get this far just to feel your hate
Did we play to become only pawns in the game
- ...How blind can you be, don't you see...
...that the gambler lost all he does not have...- Bye Bye Beautiful
- Caress the one
the never-fading rain in your heart
the tears of snow-white sorrow
Caress the one
the hiding amaranth
in a land of the daybreak- Amaranth
- Who the hell are you to tell me
What to do, why to do, why bother
Leech in a mask of virtue
Such waste, to ever think of you again- Master Passion Greed
- Time for one more daring dream
- Heaven today is but a way
To a place I once called home- For the Heart I Once Had
- Once my heart beat to the rhythm of the falling snow
Blackened below, the river now flows
A stream of molten virgin snow- For the Heart I Once Had
- I'll believe and foresee
Everything I could ever be- For the Heart I Once Had
- The wolves, my love, will come
Taking us home where dust once was a man- 7 Days to the Wolves
- This is my church of choice
Love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice- 7 Days to the Wolves
- This is
Where heroes
And cowards
Part ways- 7 Days to the Wolves
Leave the city of fools
Turn every poet loose
- Take the road less traveled by
Leave the city of fools
Turn every poet loose- 7 Days to the Wolves
- A nightingale in a golden cage
That's me locked inside reality's maze
Come someone make my heavy heart light
Come undone bring me back to life
It all starts with a lullaby- Escapist
Imaginaerum (2011)
[edit]- I am the voice of Never-Never-Land
The innocence, the dreams of every man
I am the empty crib of Peter Pan
- Imaginarium
A dream emporium
Caress the tales
And they will dream you real- Storytime
He will go down he will drown drown, deeper down
The river wild will take your only child
He will go down he will drown drown deeper down
The mills grind slow in a riverbed ghost townHe will go down he will drown drown, deeper down
If you want me, then do come across- Ghost River
- The bride will lure you, cook you, eat you
Your dear innocence boiled to feed the evil in need of fearBurning farms and squealing pigs
A pool of snakes to swim with, oh sweet poison bite me bite me- Scaretale
- Ladies and gentlemen
Be heartlessly welcome!
To Cirque De Morgue
And what a show we have for you tonight!- Scaretale
- Every little memory resting calm in me
Resting in a dream
Smiling back at me
The faces of the past keep calling me to come back home
To caress the river with awe- Rest Calm
- Don`t give me love
Don`t give me faith
Wisdom nor pride
Give innocence insteadDon`t give me love
I`ve had my share
Beauty nor rest
Give me truth instead
- What`s God if not the spark that started life
- Riding the day, every day into sunset
Finding the way back home- Last Ride of the Day
- Once upon a night we`ll wake to the carnival of life
The beauty of this ride ahead such an incredible high
It`s hard to light a candle, easy to curse the dark instead
This moment the dawn of humanity
The last ride of the day- Last Ride of the Day
- Wake up, Dead Boy
Enter adventureland- Last Ride of the Day
- The nightingale is still locked in the cage
- Song of Myself
- A song of me a song in need
Of a courageous symphony
A verse of me a verse in need
Of a pure-heart singing me to peace- Song of Myself
- All that great heart lying still and slowly dying
All that great heart lying still on an angelwing- Song of Myself
- An obese girl enters an elevator with me.
All dressed up fancy, a green butterfly on her neck.
Terribly sweet perfume deafens me.
She`s going to dinner alone.
That makes her even more beautiful.- Song of Myself
How can you "just be yourself" when you don`t know who you are?
Stop saying "I know how you feel"
How could anyone know how another feels?Who am I to judge a priest, beggar, whore, politician, wrongdoer?
I am, you are, all of them already- Song of Myself
- Dear child, stop working, go play
Forget every rule
There`s no fear in a dream- Song of Myself
- And there forever remains that change from G to Em
- Song of Myself
Endless Forms Most Beautiful (2015)
[edit]- Awake, oceanborn
Behold this force
Bring the outside in
Explode the self to epiphany- Shudder Before the Beautiful
- The music of this awe
Deep silence between the notes
Deafens me with endless love
This vagrant Island Earth
A pilgrim shining bright
We are shuddering before the beautiful
Before the plentiful
We, the voyagers- Shudder Before the Beautiful
- Your only truth
Tribal poetry
Witchcraft filling your void
Lust for fantasy
Male necrocracy
Every child worthy of a better tale- Weak Fantasy
- From words into war of the worlds
This one we forsake with scorn
From lies the strength of our love
Mother's milk laced with poison for this newborn- Weak Fantasy
- Come
Taste the wine
Race the blind
They will guide you from the light
Writing noughts till the end of time
Come
Surf the clouds
Race the dark
It feeds from the runs undone
Meet me where the cliff greets the sea- Élan
- Riding hard every shooting star
Come to life, open mind, have a laugh at the orthodox
Come, drink deep let the dam of mind seep
Travel with great élan, dance a jig at the funeral- Élan
- Stop! Life is now, still all for you
Turn from the hate, turn from the smoke
I see the parchment of your soul
The notes, the song
Join your voice- Yours Is an Empty Hope
- Our walk has been sublime
A soaring ride and gentle lead
You have the heart of a true friend
One day we'll meet on that shore again - Our Decades in the Sun
- Weaving my wings from many-colored yarns
Flying higher, higher, higher
Into the wild
Weaving my world into tapestry of life
Its fire golden
In my Walden- My Walden
- Deep into the past
Follow the aeon path
Greet a blade of grass
Every endless form most beautiful
Alive, aware, in awe
Before the grandeur of it all
Our floating pale blue ark
Of endless forms most beautiful- Endless Forms Most Beautiful
- We are the Edema Ruh
We know the songs the sirens sang
See us dream every tale true
The verse we leave with you will take you home- Edema Ruh
- We were here
Roaming on the endless prairie
Writing an endless story
Building a Walden of our own
We were here
Grieving the saddened faces
Conquering the darkest places
Time to rest now and to finish the show
And become the Music, one with alpenglow- Alpenglow
- We are one
We are a universe
Forbears of what will be
Scions of the Devonian sea
Aeons pass
Writing the tale of us all
A day-to-day new opening
For the greatest show on Earth- The Greatest Show on Earth
- Man, he took his time in the sun
Had a dream to understand
A single grain of sand
He gave birth to poetry
But one day'll cease to be
Greet the last light of the library- The Greatest Show on Earth
- We were here!
- The Greatest Show on Earth
Human. :II: Nature. (2020)
[edit]Music
Fanning the flames of a mystery
Deepening the listening
Losing
Yourself to the endless symphony
Of nowHuman
Singing the tale of another man
Have you ever heard
Music
It's coming, coming, coming your way
The very first song- Music
- Noise
From a sunless world
Your mirror is black, only a copy stares back
At a slave of brave new world
Noise
To decoy the human voice
Brain insomniac, paranoiac
Endless noise- Noise
- Here I came to be
Your reach into the far
On the stellar sea
Cut in little stars- Shoemaker
- Laudato Si
Ad Astra- Shoemaker
- Join the harvest of hundred fields, hearty and tame
All going back to one single grain
Offer light to the coming day, inspire a child
Water the field, surrender to the earth
Water the field, surrender to the earth
Water the field, surrender to the earth- Harvest
- A moment alone
With unbeknown
Reset the world
Imagine home
A primal need
To touch the stars
Only way there
To enter- Pan
- A pale beautiful theatre stage
A feast of beautiful tragedy, wonderful fantasy
The play is yours to write
Yours to live
Ready the night by a playwright- Pan
- How's the heart
Underneath the silence?
How's the one
Drowning in the mire?
Let us sound a human paean
Come in, the fire's warm
Burn the rope and dance some more- How's the Heart?
- We have been here a while
At the end of Pi, as along came harvest- Procession
- We will remember all the suffering
We wrote this in a tongue you will understand
Words and melodies with a touch of coloring
We were there and will remember mankind
Our kin
Aeons ago- Procession
- Sing the praise of your creation
Bride-prices, thought crimes, blind minds
The Word hides vivid monsters
To bed the tribal itch- Tribal
- Someone in the tomorrow
Is waiting for me
Someone to share the thief with
Dust with a meaning
Precious and rare- Endlessness
- An unscarred land
Unsung yarn
Unborn child
Await my touch, the luck of the draw
Enter now
Come
Here is life- Endlessness
Soon, beyond the fields you've come to know
You will join the silent flow
Follow me, I am the spark
At the end of everythingTip the reaper to ensure
The blade is sharp
As soon we'll go
Follow me into the dark
To the birth of everything- Endlessness
Other
[edit]- Today I killed, he was just a boy
Eight before him, I knew them all- 10th Man Down, from the 2001 EP Over the Hills and Far Away
- One by one, We will fall, down
- 10th Man Down
- Every dream's a journey away
- Away, from the 2001 EP Over the Hills and Far Away
- For this gift of dream I must pay the price
with the loss of life's pleasures- Away
