4 songs that the band only played live once

You can’t talk about symphonic metal without mentioning the Nightwish. Shortly after forming in the mid-90s, the majestic muses of Tuomas Holopainen became the standard for the genre. They achieved regular chart success in their native Finland. Furthermore, at the same time they won critical acclaim, thanks to their unimpeded vision, with all the instruments resonating.

Nightwish has written over 100 songs since its inception. So much so that most of them rocked fans during their series of live shows during this period. Hammer has already listed the tracks these maximalists never played. But an even more exclusive club is the one they introduced once and immediately discarded. Below are the four songs that Nightwish played live only once, according to the setlist database setlist.fm.

Moondance (Oceanborn, 1998)

The debut of Nightwish, Angels Fall First, from 1997, and the writing and recording happened with the intention of being a demo. But it became a fully developed studio album. As a result, it’s much more rough and ready than anything else the Finns have ever released. The Oceanborn, which quickly followed, took them down grander paths. Thus, the instrumental Moondance is indicative of the more heroic sound the band desired: keyboardist Tuomas delivers a bombastic melody while his fellow musicians gallop along.

However, perhaps because it would leave the Nightwish singer with nothing to do for a while, this transition only happened once in the set. It was at Club Feeniks, in Turku, Finland, on February 13, 1999. In fact, performed as part of a larger instrumental suite later in the night.

Sleepwalker (2000)

Oceanborn marked Nightwish’s commercial presentation party. Its lead single, Sacrament Of Wilderness, was the band’s first song to top the Finnish charts, and the album cover for Walking In The Air repeated this feat in 1999. Because of this success, the maestros decided to fight for a place in Eurovision Song Contest of 2000, hoping to represent his home nation with a newly written song, Sleepwalker.

Sleepwalker won the public vote when Nightwish pleaded their case on national TV to represent Finland, but scores from a jury saw them place third overall. The attempt was frustratingly botched, meaning the only performance of this song was for those boring judges in Helsinki on February 12, 2000.

Meadows Of Heaven (Dark Passion Play, 2007)

Nightwish ended the 2007 Dark Passion Play tour in poetic fashion. Meadows Of Heaven is the last song on the sixth album (the first to feature Anette Olzen on vocals), and ends 75 minutes of cinematic metal in appropriately operatic fashion. Their live debut was reserved for the last show the band played before retreating to the writing room to create Imaginaerum, fittingly closing the main set.

O Nightwish didn’t return to the stage until 2012, by which time they had another 75 minutes and 13 songs in their arsenal. Not surprisingly then, Meadows Of Heaven became a one and done, but it fulfilled its role beautifully the one time it appeared.

Pan (Human :||: Nature, 2020)

Like many other metal bands, Nightwish got through the pandemic by replacing the tours they were supposed to do for 2020’s Human :||: Nature with a livestream. In fact, take it away: they made two. The band played a two-night set, called An Evening With Nightwish In A Virtual Worldwhich marked the debut of several songs from the previous album, including Shoemaker, Tribal It is We are.

The only one that didn’t make it to the real-life stage was Pan. It’s a shame, as the song continues the campy ways of Nightwish no holds barred, but also displays some pretty robust riffs. Unfortunately, however, the fact remains: this anthem was dropped after its livestream debut. And, given that the Nightwish is preparing to launch the successor to Human :||: Naturehe’s unlikely to get his moment in the sun.