Over the Hills and Far Away

Over the Hills and Far Away is the first EP by Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish, released in 2001 by both Spinefarm Records and Drakkar Records. The bassist Sami Vänskä would leave the band after the recording of this CD, due to musical differences between him and Tuomas, and was replaced by the current bassist and male vocalist, Marco Hietala.

The editions by Drakkar and Century Media bring different live tracks from the live album and DVD From Wishes to Eternity, recorded at Tampere, Finland, in December 29, 2000. The EP was #1 in the official finnish single charts for five weeks, and in 2003, was certified 2x platinum in Finland with more than 20,000 sold copies. It also entered the european charts, in the Top 100 of Germany, Belgium, Austria, Netherlands and Switzerland.

The EP has two new songs and a remake of Angels Fall First’s “Astral Romance”, sung by Tony Kakko beside Tarja Turunen. The title song is a cover from the Northern Irish singer and guitarist Gary Moore, and has backing vocals by Tuomas Holopainen, Tapio Wilska and Kakko; Wilska also sings on “10th Man Down”.