Marco Hietala
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Bio
Marco Tapani Hietala was born January 14, 1966 in Tervo, Finland. He has been playing guitar and bass since he was 13. He attended Kuopio Seniorhigh of Music and Dance, and become the schools "Musician of the Year" in 2007.
He is the vocalist and bassist in the band Tarot, which he founded with his brother Zachary in the early 80's, when they were called Purgatory. They changed their name to Tarot after request from their first record company.
He joined Nightwish in 2002 after their previous bassist quit, after which Tarot has gotten a huge boost in fame.
Hietala has been a guest musician for the bands Delain and Altaria, where he provided vocals and bass in some occations. He has also been part of metal projects such as Sinergy and Northern Kings. On the latter, he sings metalcovers of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", Jethro Tull's "Fallen On Hard Times" and Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight".
Before Hietala joined Nightwish, the band used to have a instrumental song during concerts where singer Tarja Turunen took a break. After he joined, he usually sings a coversong of bands like Ozzy Osbourne or Megadeth.
He has also written some songs for Nightwish, such as "The Islander".
Hietala's trademark is his vikingstyle beard. He himself says he hates it, but he feels it has become too iconic to remove it. Also, his wife has forbidden him to shave it.
To kill time on tour, he reads books, watch movies, play videogames and has an occasional drink, which he also claims to be his secret way to prepare for a show.
His musical idols are: on bass: Geezer Butler and Bob Daisley. With vocals: Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford and Kate Bush.
Hietala's says he's a typical metalhead, but he has respect for all kind of music. He thinks writing music would become stale after a while if he didn't draw influences from other styles of music.
Equipment
Hietala only uses Warwick equipment. He says he used to buy just any random equipment he found when he was walking in shops, before he got a call from some friends of his that imports Warwick instruments. They asked him to come over to check out some of their new stuff. He loved the Infinity bass they had, and got to borrow it for the weekend. The next week he called them from a studio in Sweden and said that he'll be there for two weeks, and there's no way they're getting their bass back!
Discography
Tarot
- The Spell of Iron (1986)
- Follow Me into Madness (1988)
- To Live Forever (1993)
- To Live Again Live CD (1994)
- Stigmata (1995)
- For the Glory of Nothing (1998)
- Shining Black Best of (2003)
- Suffer Our Pleasures (2003)
- Crows Fly Black (2006)
- Undead Indeed Live DVD (2008)
Nightwish
- Century Child (2002)
- Once (2004)
- End of an Era Live DVD (2005)
- Dark Passion Play (2007)
- Un-announced (2009)
Northern Kings
- Reborn (2007)
- Rethroned (2008)
Other appearances
- Conquest - Worlds Apart (1999)
- Gandalf - Rock Hell (2001)
- To/Die/For - Epilogue (2001)
- Virtuocity - Secret Visions (2001)
- Dreamtale - Beyond Reality (2002)
- Charon - The Dying Daylights (2003)
- Aina - Days of Rising Doom (2003)
- Altaria - Invitation (2003)
- Raskasta Joulua - Raskasta Joulua (2004)
- After Forever - Being Everyone (2005)
- Turmion Kätilöt - Niuva 20 (2005)
- Turmion Kätilöt - Pirun Nyrkki (2006)
- Verjnuarmu - Muanpiällinen helevetti (2006)
- Eternal Tears of Sorrow - Before the Bleeding Sun (2006)
- Amorphis - Eclipse (2006)
- Defuse - Defuse (2006)
- Delain - Lucidity (2006)
- Raskasta Joulua - Raskaampaa Joulua (2006)
- Jalven Veljet: Aamut Joella - Valoisa Päivä (2007)
- Nuclear Blast All-Stars - Into the Light (2007)
- Ben Arzi-Karusella- single (2008)
