Oceanborn  by Nightwish

One year after their debut, the Finnish band Nightwish returns discographically with their second album, titled Oceanborn. The album will be released at the end of 1998 in Finland and at the beginning of the following year in the international market. Here, Nightwish composes an album that falls under symphonic metal, but with very strong power metal elements. The performance of Tarja Turunen, who is just 21 years old (!), plays a prominent role in all the songs of Oceanborn.

The album consists of eleven compositions, most of which are created by the band's founder, Tuomas Holopainen, who stated in an interview ten years later in Kerrang! magazine that they were all surprised by the unexpected success of their first album and that a great burden had fallen on their shoulders since, in reality, they were an amateur band not familiar with studio recordings. The first single from the album was Sacrament Of Wilderness, while the album closes with a cover of Walking In The Air by English composer Howard Blake, which was the second single from Oceanborn.

The album reached No. 2 in Finland, where it has sold close to 70,000 copies, and it also succeeded in Germany. With this release, Nightwish laid the foundations for what followed in their career over the next few years, during which they became a significant band in the European metal community.