Floor Jansen to join Delain for a guest appearance

Delain’s special show on October 31st will feature two special guests – Nightwish singer/bass player Marco Hietala and back-in-the-headlines Floor Jansen.

Although the show is sold out you can also find plenty of great information about Delain and their stirring metal music at: www.delain.nl

We have been mentioning Delain on Twitter for a while but the links between Twitter and WordPress are still very basic. You can follow Delain via @DelainInt and we think you should!

Metal Rools!

Best Gothic Metal Band / Best Symphonic Metal Band

Sharon den Adel of Within Temptation

in January 2006, Within Temptation won the Dutch Pop Prize and the Dutch Export Prize (for the best-selling Dutch artist outside the Netherlands) :: this was the third time in a row they had won the Export prize

just notice the ‘Pop’ label :: although they have successfully toured throughout Europe, none of their singles or albums were given wide releases in America :: it’s not until 2008 that all their albums had full release in the US :: the power of the internet music sites, nonetheless, makes Within Temptation appear on just about every list of best gothic/symphonic metal, even in the States

Anette Olzon of Nightwish

Nightwish, on the other hand, promoted themselves through singles and videos in the States, and were rewarded with MTV airplay :: also, again in large part due to the web, the replacement of Tarja Turunen with Anette Olzon added significantly to their public awareness

the 2007 Nightwish album Dark Passion Play went to No 1 in four countries, and Top 10 in eight ::t he recent album release from Within Temptation, Black Symphony, will probably be their most successful, especially as it is the first one with major label support :: Nightwish, on the other hand, had support from both their strong niche labels – Century Media and Nuclear Blast

it may be too early to decide which of these is the best gothic/symphonic metal band, so let’s make them first equal – for now, at least :: your comments are welcome

Nightwish

beginning in 1996 in Finland, the band had 9 years of rising fame, in large part due to the vocals of Tarja Turunen :: Nightwish are considered a major force in the growth of symphonic metal and have been flying the flag really well.

their albums Oceanborn (1998) and Wishmaster (2000) put them on the world stage and by 2004 they were regulars on MTV in the States, with Wish I Had an Angel gaining lots of attention from three film soundtracks.

ripples across the metal ocean were spread wide when vocalist Tarja Turunen was asked to leave the band, but you probably already know all that.

the next major event in the band’s history was May 2007 when Anette Olzon from Sweden (formerly in Alyson Avenue) was revealed as Turunen’s replacement :: the new album with Anette is Dark Passion Play.