Planet Hell

Planet Hell is a song by the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, recorded for their fifth studio album Once. The song begins with a male choir, (in an introduction reminiscent of Dark Chest of Wonders), with orchestral background music for a full minute before the band starts playing. Planet Hell also heavily features the vocals of the band's bass player Marco Hietala.

"Planet Hell"
Song by Nightwish
from the album Once
Released7 June 2004
Recorded2004
GenreSymphonic metal
Length4:36
LabelRoadrunner Records (USA)
Songwriter(s)Tuomas Holopainen
Producer(s)Tuomas Holopainen; TeeCee Kinnunen

Religious references

The song has a number of religious references:

  • "The ferryman" refers to Charon the ferryman in Greek mythology. ("Save yourself a penny for the ferryman": tradition dictated that a dead Greek would have a coin placed in his mouth to pay for passage over the River Styx, as Charon demanded payment to ferry souls across the Styx, and without payment, souls would be forever trapped upon the shores, unable to cross.)
  • "The Ark" could possibly refer to one of two things: The Ark of the Covenant, or Noah's Ark. The latter seems the most plausible, as in Biblical story the Ark saved Noah and the animals from the flood brought about by God for their sins. "This world ain't ready for the Ark" could indeed be a dark message from the band stating that the Earth is in midst of destruction by humans and we are all to blame, and deserve punishment.
  • "Mother Gaia" refers to the Greek Titan Gaia or Mother Earth.
  • This song is well known amongst players of the fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game RuneScape. On June 6, 2006, a massive bug occurred in the game, known as the Falador Massacre, which allowed some players to attack others in areas that were meant to be safe zones. Players were attacked and lost their valuable items. One player recorded the bug being abused and it served as the main video of the event.[1] The video he made featured the song Planet Hell as the background music.[2] On June 6, 2016, makers of the game, Jagex, released a special event celebrating the ten year anniversary of the Falador Massacre.[3] They remastered their own version of Planet Hell which was featured in the game as a background song.[4]
  • This song was also used as intro music by the San Antonio Spurs in 2005.

References
  1. Realm Games (5 June 2016). "RuneScape Legendary Glitches - Falador Massacre & More". YouTube. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
  2. "Runescape - The Falador Massacre - Durial321 - Planet Hell - 1080P". YouTube. 6 June 2006. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
  3. Jagex (3 June 2016). "World 666: Please bank your items". Jagex. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  4. "Old School RuneScape OST: "Massacre" - Falador Massacre 10th Anniversary event". YouTube. 6 June 2016. Retrieved 2016-06-06.


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