Wishmaster

Wishmaster is the third studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released on 8 May 2000 through Spinefarm Records in Finland. The album was released in the rest of Europe by Drakkar Entertainment on 29 May, and in Japan by Toy's Factory on 19 July. In the US, it was released by Century Media on 6 February 2001. Wishmaster peaked at No. 1 in the official Finnish charts; the album also debuted in the European charts at No. 21 in Germany and No. 66 in France. Wishmaster has sold more than 79,447 copies in Finland alone. In 2019, Metal Hammer ranked it as the 18th best power metal album of all time. Most reissues of the album contain the song "Sleepwalker", which was released in July 2000 to compete in the Finnish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2000. Background and release The writing and recording of Wishmaster was very fast and devoid of complications, in contrast with what had happened for Oceanborn. The main composer Tuomas Holopainen considers the album "the most distant and least personal (...) in the Nightwish catalogue", despite containing the "mother of all Nightwish songs - Dead Boys' Poem." The image of the dead boy would reappear in several songs of the following albums. Wishmaster was issued on 8 May 2000, a few days earlier than its scheduled release, because the music had leaked onto the Internet.