'Rise Above' featuring Marko Hietala-formerly with Nightwish

One of the interesting things about Bearwood is that it is a totally independent group. No label is involved. This is a group of seasoned musicians who decided to go off on their own. They originally asked Marko if he would do the vocals for one song and he liked the material so much that he agreed to do all of the vocals. I think that they have released five songs so far. Marko has always been a bit of a musical rebel who has been vocal about his feelings towards the music industry, so it's not really a surprise that he was willing to join in the project. It's funny you mentioned that the song has a retro 80's sound because in the late 80's, when Marko was just starting out, he was metal all the way. Part of the reason that he is so beloved in Finland is because he was one of the pioneers of metal in that country. And, Finland today has more metal bands per capita than any other country in the world. His vocals in his band Tarot back in those times, were very different from what he does today. His vocal injury happened very early in his career, somewhere in the early 1990's. (Marko is 59, by the way, and has been singing in groups since the late 1980's). He had botched surgery on a nodule. I saw an interview a while back where he said that he had partial paralysis of one vocal cord and it has affected his falsetto. If you remember, Tim, in the Phantom of the Opera video you did, you mentioned that Marko used the flageolet tone at one point, and I wondered at the time if he developed that tone because of his faulty falsetto. I don't believe that Marko has ever done any musicals. He's been metal all the way for most of his career. His sound in Nightwish is usually a lot heavier as his forte was to act as the dark against the light of whichever of the three lead singers he was with. I wonder. Is the reason his voice is so healthy partly because he wasn't lead singer in his main job, Nightwish? So, his voice wasn't overused. Though, at the same time, he was still singing lead with Tarot and has always been a featured singer with many other bands, and also one of the supergroup, Northern Kings. You asked how I found this group. You were on the right track. The algorithm has picked up that Marko is a favorite. Everything Marko tends to show up on my YouTube feed. You were also right in that you will probably see him here again. Not every time, though. I have my next two month's choices picked out already, and he isn't one of them. I'm going to message you with a very little known song he did that gives an indication of why he might have, at one time, been considered as a replacement singer for a very well known band.

Gaye McCullough