Marko Hietala was born in
Tervo, and is the youngest child of the Hietala family. Hietala lived in
Tervo until the age of 15, after which he moved to
Kuopio to study classical guitar, vocals and musical theory in high school. In 1984, he and his brother
Zachary formed the heavy metal band
Tarot under the name
Purgatory. In 1986, Tarot received a deal for
their first album and went on tour. Before becoming a full-time musician, he worked as a live and studio sound engineer. While on tour with Tarot in 1998, Marko had met the members of the band
Nightwish in Siilinjärvi as they were an opening act for his band. Marko recalled having watched their performance: "I watched their show and thought their music was actually quite good at times. They had all this force and drama, so maybe some day they would successfully combine the two. But goddamn, they looked absolutely horrible on stage. Shorthaired guys just standing there – Tarja was a pretty girl but just as petrified, shrieking in the middle of the stage in her leather pants. Honestly, I assumed them to be just a momentary fad and thought they will fade away after six months or so. Luckily, of course, I was so wrong."
2001–2020: Nightwish Hietala joined Nightwish in 2001 when Tuomas Holopainen and the band's manager called him and said that there would be a place in the band for a vocalist and a bass player.
Century Child was his first Nightwish album, following the departure of previous bassist
Sami Vänskä. He was a prominent guest musician in
Delain, a project involving many members of the
gothic and
symphonic metal community. He also participated in the recording of
Invitation, by
Altaria, providing backing vocals. Hietala has also been part of the bands
Sinergy and
Northern Kings. Upon his arrival in Nightwish, several songs were written to feature duets with then
Nightwish vocalist
Tarja Turunen, allowing songwriter and band leader
Tuomas Holopainen to take advantage of Hietala's distinctive raucous voice to add a new dimension to the band. A famous example is Nightwish's cover of "The Phantom of the Opera", from the album "Century Child". During Nightwish's shows, Turunen would take a break halfway through the set. Before Hietala joined the band, the band would perform an instrumental song during this time. After Hietala joined the band, they performed covers of well-known songs, with Hietala singing the lead vocal part in this break. The band has performed
Ozzy Osbourne's "
Crazy Train",
W.A.S.P.'s "Wild Child",
Dio's "Don't Talk to Strangers",
Megadeth's "
Symphony of Destruction" and
Pink Floyd's "
High Hopes". Some of these songs have been put up for sale as well on various Nightwish album releases. Following Turunen's departure from Nightwish, Hietala was much more involved with the production of
Dark Passion Play, which was released in September 2007. He sang some songs, completely, and wrote the music for the song "
The Islander", on which he also plays acoustic guitar instead of bass. Hietala is also credited alongside
Holopainen for co-writing the song "
The Crow, the Owl and the Dove" from Nightwish's 2011 album,
Imaginaerum. In
Delain, Hietala played bass for the album
Lucidity and was also the main male vocalist on the album with featured vocals on the song
The Gathering. He is also featured as vocalist in two of the songs on Delain's second album
April Rain and two songs from Delain's fourth album
The Human Contradiction. In March 2009, Hietala joined the band
Sapattivuosi. They cover
Black Sabbath songs in Finnish. In this band, however, Hietala does not play bass; he only performs vocals. On 1 April 2010 it was said that Hietala would leave the band to concentrate on a
choir career. This was identified as an April Fool's joke, but was also a reference to his participation in
Kuorosota (the localized Finnish version of
Clash of the Choirs) in 2010. Hietala was the master of the
Kuopio choir in the program's second season. He came second in the contest, losing in the finals to the
Joensuu choir, headed by pop rock singer
Ilkka Alanko. Tarot's single "I Walk Forever", from the
Gravity of Light album, was performed for the first time by Hietala, Tommi Salmela and the Kuopio choir during Kuorosota 2010; other songs performed included "
The Phantom of the Opera", which Hietala has covered with Nightwish as well. In June 2010, Hietala joined the heavy metal supergroup HAIL! on two occasions, performing
Black Sabbath's
Neon Knights with
Ripper Owens,
Andreas Kisser,
James LoMenzo and
Paul Bostaph at two of their shows in Finland. On 14 August 2013, Hietala was the first singer to be confirmed by
Arjen Lucassen to guest on
Ayreon's new album
The Theory of Everything. In 2017 he joined Ayreon on stage for three shows at 013 Poppodium in
Tilburg, the recording of these shows was later released as Ayreon's live album
Ayreon Universe – The Best of Ayreon Live. Hietala released his first solo album
Mustan sydämen rovio in May 2019. He released the album under his birthname Marko Hietala and will be using the name also in his other projects in the future. Hietala has described his solo material as "hard
prog". An English version of the album, titled
Pyre of the Black Heart (
Nuclear Blast), followed in January 2020. Joining him on the albums are drummer Anssi Nykänen, keyboardist Vili Ollila and guitarist Tuomas Wäinölä with whom he also toured in Finland in the summer and autumn of 2019.
2021–present: Departure from Nightwish, solo career In December 2020, Hietala told
Nightwish he had decided to leave to focus on other projects. He had been suffering from several mental disorders, including depression, for a decade. Despite medication, he had kept on getting worse. After the recording of
Human. :II: Nature. and in part due to the respite brought by
COVID-19 pandemic, Hietala finally reached the conclusion that leaving the band would prevent his illnesses from worsening. On 12 January 2021, Hietala made his departure public and announced his withdrawal from the public eye. Ten days later, Swedish symphonic metal band
Therion released a music video for the song "Tuonela" that featured Hietala. On 18 June 2022, Northern Kings made a comeback that ended their 12-year hiatus and Hietala's 17-month break from the public. The band played at the 'Tuhdimmat Tahdit festival' in Nokia, Finland. Hietala later in an interview, stated that he has not made contact with the members of Nightwish since his departure from the band in January 2021, and expressed uncertainty that he will be returning to Nightwish. In an interview in October 2023, Hietala expressed doubt that he would ever return to Nightwish. Hietala performed with his solo band at
Z7 Summer Nights Open Air in Pratteln, Switzerland on 8 July 2023, later joining former Nightwish bandmate
Tarja Turunen at her solo show later in the evening to sing "The Phantom of the Opera" with her. It was the first time they had sung the song together, after Tarja was fired from Nightwish in 2005. They also performed the song at Olavinlinna in Finland. They toured together in 2024 in both Latin America and Europe on Tarja's "Living The Dream – The Hits Tour". While both Hietala and Turunen released a collaborative single titled "Left on Mars" on 13 March 2024, Hietala stated that he has not ruled out the possibility of him and Turunen starting a new band together. Hietala released the single, "Frankenstein's Wife", on 4 September 2024. On 26 November 2024, the third single, "Impatient Zero" was released, simultaneously with the announcement of Hietala's second solo album
Roses from the Deep which was released on 7 February 2025. Hietala participated in Season 15 of the Finnish TV show "
Vain elämää" in 2024. ==Influences==