For almost 20 years, Marko Hietala was one of the key players in symphonic metal giants Nightwish. Bassist, back-up vocalist and songwriter, Hietala's skills are multi-faceted and even long before he joined Nightwish he'd established himself as an esteemed musician with heavy metal group Tarot in the mid-80s.
Since departing Nightwish, he's spread his wings as a solo artist, releasing his second album Roses From The Deep in February as well as collaborating live with former bandmate Tarja Turunen. We asked Marko to guide us through the songs that set him on the path to music, from the time Metallica borrowed his equipment to the album that was symphonic metal before the genre even existed...
1. Black Sabbath - Into The Void (Master Of Reality, 1971)
"My love for Black Sabbath began at nine years old. It was a summer day, and I was lying on the couch reading this kiddy book – Tove Jansson’s Comet in Moominland – which had a real doomsday feeling. Seas were boiling, things were dying, trees were wilting. Then my brother walks in with a record he’d borrowed from the neighbours – Sabbath’s Master Of Reality – and the whole weird thing connected for me.
The doom of Into The Void particularly, alongside the imaginary doom of a comet approaching in the book… I spoke no English at the time, so I didn’t understand the lyrical stuff at all, but when I got older, I found out just how similar it was to the stuff I enjoyed when I was a kid. That was a funny connection to make!"
2. Deep Purple - Burn (Burn, 1974)
“I came across Deep Purple around the same time. Burn is one of the best rock/metal albums ever, and [drummer] Ian Paice’s work throughout is really impressive. It just rocks every time I listen to it – the title track is definitely in my desert island selection!"
3. Rainbow - Gates Of Babylon (Long Live Rock 'n' Roll, 1978)
“Gates Of Babylon by Rainbow really got me into sophisticated pre-symphonic metal. Though that genre didn’t really exist at the time, I saw that it would become something big after a decade or so. I loved Stargazer too, but Gates… had probably the most brilliant solo that [Ritchie] Blackmore has ever done. I have a long history of combining a lot of things, having an ambitious attitude towards music and a lot of imagination. Probably because of the stuff I fill my head with!"
4. Dream Theater - Metropolis I: The Miracle And The Sleeper (Images And Words, 1992)
"So Rainbow and Metropolis I by Dream Theater – that song also got me interested in being a real listener of music. I used it as something of a musical arrangement playbook when experimenting myself!"
5. The Beatles - Revolution 1 (The Beatles, 1968)
“I’ve gotta blame my dad for a lot of my music taste growing up. He had The Beatles’ White Album, and there were quite a few songs on it I liked and everything… but man, Revolution 1! All that fuzzy guitar, that was a very important thing to me. It made it sound… bad, almost, and it had a real impact on me!"
6. Jethro Tull - Dun Ringill (Stormwatch, 1979)
“It was similar with Jethro Tull. Me and my dad watched this hour-long video compilation that they were showing on Finnish TV. There was this clip of them performing Dun Ringill on a beach in camouflage suits with binoculars, and of course, that acoustic guitar! I loved the song – that acoustic sound meant a lot to me, because my dad used to listen Irish folk when I was a kid. I also loved Ian Anderson’s nasty, sarcastic, nasal vocals pushing through. I was 13 at the time I think, and me and my dad just got hooked to the sound! We bought Stormwatch shortly after."
7. Metallica - The Thing That Should Not Be (Master Of Puppets, 1986)
“Metallica felt like a turning point for me. One day, this Finnish festival got in touch with me and the boys in [Marko’s 80s metal band] Tarot, because we had a shitload of Marshall cabinets that they wanted to rent. They were gonna have Metallica play, and of course the band wanted a wall of Marshalls! Anyways, we went over to the festival, but the sound guy wasn’t up to his job at all… it sounded messy and shit.
But I did sense this guitar harmony that I thought could be nice, and people were going absolutely crazy. I thought, ‘There has to be something here, but I just can’t tell what with that sound!’ So, the next week, I went to a nearby record store and listened to the vinyl sample – you could do that back then! I then went to the bank, drew out the last of my money, and bought Master Of Puppets. I listened to it seven times in a row. I thought, ‘Fuck! This shit is heavy! But especially The Thing That Should Not Be. That one stuck with me. It was heavy as, well… you know!"
8. Audioslave - Shadow On The Sun (Audioslave, 2002)
“On a more personal note, I love Audioslave’s Shadow On The Sun. The song is dark and alienating. When I first heard it, I could really relate to the anxiety and depression in the lyrics. I’d been feeling that way for a while. Obviously, Chris Cornell had problems with his voice after his exceptional range in Soundgarden, but with this particular song you can really hear how brilliant he was, even with the burnt-out voice. He really gave the story its blood and sweat. It moves me, in a sort of holistic way."
9. Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK (Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols, 1977)
“Drawing the line a bit away from rock and metal, there was this one very special evening I had at home in Finland. It was sometime at the end of the 70s, and I was watching this ‘new music video’ TV programme on a Saturday evening. Suddenly, on come the Sex Pistols with Anarchy In The UK. I thought, ‘Goddamnit, this is brilliant, it rocks like hell!’ There’s just no hesitation in that whole album – and even though I’m a metal vocalist, I absolutely love the attitude of Johnny Rotten!"
10. Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights (The Kick Inside, 1978)
“Funnily enough, in the same evening, I heard Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights. I was totally blown away. She got me into developing the softer side of my voice, which really widened my output. It gave me more short-distance weapons, shall we say! That was a huge part of my musical awakening – it’s just pretty weird that it was during the same hour of the same evening.”
