New NIGHTWISH studio album 'HUMAN. :II: NATURE.' to be released on April, 10th! Pre-orders start February 7th!Tuomas once said that whenever he creates a new record he has the intention of capturing something rare and unique, a monument and a true album experience. In 2020 he’s certain to achieve his objective once again. We have completed the recordings for their 9th studio album and are proud to announce the title, artwork and tracklisting. ‘HUMAN. :II: NATURE.’ will be released on 10th April 2020.The long-awaited record, following 2015’s critically-acclaimed ‘Endless Forms Most Beautiful’, will be a double album containing 9 tracks on the main CD and one long track, divided into eight chapters on CD 2.The tracklisting will read as follows:Disc 1:01. Music02. Noise03. Shoemaker04. Harvest05. Pan06. How's The Heart?07. Procession08. Tribal09. EndlessnessDisc 2:01. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Vista02. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - The Blue03. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - The Green04. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Moors05. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Aurorae06. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Quiet As The Snow07. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Anthropocene (incl. "Hurrian Hymn To Nikkal")08. All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Ad Astra"HUMAN. :II: NATURE. was recorded from August to October 2019 at Röskö campsite, Petrax Studios and Troykington castle, as well as Finnvox Studios, by Tero Kinnunen, Mikko Karmila and Troy Donockley. The mixing was done by Mikko Karmila at Finnvox, with Tuomas Holopainen and Tero Kinnunen. Mastering was done by Mika Jussila at Finnvox."
need to tell you something about Nightwish’s popularity in 2020. In Finland, there seems to be some sort of a media aberration when magazines cover Nightwish. We’re so used to them doing little miracles all the time that e.g. selling out the biggest venue in The Netherlands, Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome (capacity: 15000) twice within a couple of hours is not as newsworthy as some pop princess (in our very much a fledgling and introverted pop industry) releasing a song about consumerism or another being a minuscule part of a writing team for one potential hit by a bigger international pop star. The truth, though, is that Nightwish has passed the point where the success of their next album is of any consequence to their status as a headliner of the biggest metal festivals on this planet.Concisely put, Nightwish is every bit as big as, say, Judas Priest.The last year and a half or so has seen a new phenomenon grow that yields Nightwish new fans every single day. Apparently, reaction videos to Nightwish songs have become the national sport of YouTube, the number of reaction videos has surpassed 3300 videos that now rack up north of 40 million views. Every day some new YouTube influencer and his army of followers will hear Nightwish for the first time. Most often, it’s the seminal Wacken Open Air 2013 performance of Ghost Love Score that serves as the gateway drug and from there, few return unscathed. Most move on to the next song and then the next until several of them have already waddled through band’s entire catalog, thoroughly analyzing every nuance of every song, having their mind blown song after another and then veering towards the band members’ solo works. For some people, nothing is enough. Of all known 119 Nightwish songs 115 have been reacted to.I’m willing to bet that in the US alone, this YouTube epidemic has made the band thousands of new fans that haven’t got the opportunity yet to see them live. This fad – if it can be called that anymore – is fed by a 2000-strong group of bat-shit crazy Nightwish diehards that reside in a Discord group called Nightdreamers’ Reacticide deep in the internet’s underground. Whenever they spot an influencer reacting to any music, they pester the target until he/she takes his obligatory dose of Nightwish. Afterward, the Discorders drown him/her to such an outpour of positive feedback and love – or constructive criticism – that, more used to the cut-throat commentary, the influencer is sure to come back for more. Several of them, in turn, join the Discord group and the cycle of positivity keeps on feeding itself.But that’s just a side note. I’m not here to lecture about Nightwish popularity or their unfair treatment in the media. I’m here to spill the beans about the pre-listening of the new album as Nightwish is gearing up to its release and beyond.Elves' Hideaway, Levi, Finland Elves' Hideaway, Levi, FinlandElves' Hideaway, Levi, Finland Elves' Hideaway, Levi, Finland WINTER MAGIC IN LEVI, LAPLANDThe pre-listening of Nightwish’s 9th studio album HVMAN. :||: NATVRE. took place in Tonttula (Elves’ Hideaway) in Kittilä, Finland, where there is 70+ centimeters of snow unlike in southern Finland where we don’t have enough ice to chill a drink. Tuomas Holopainen, the master of inter-contextuality that he is, must have thought this through. In his mind, all things Nightwish are in one way or the other interwoven, and this, if anything ever, is Taikatalvi – a magical winter, that should be able to impress even the most seen-it-all, done-it-all foreign journos. For some additional wow factor, some selected journos stay overnight in glass pyramids under the starry Lapland sky.By the way - sorry for the lack of photos and the quality of the ones that are here. I'm the shittiest photographer you'll ever know. Ok, on with the show...Most of the international press have flown in the day before and joined the band for dinner, serving Lappish treats like reindeer paté and salmon chowder. Later, the journalists dispersed to their lodgings or the sauna and a dip in a hole in the ice or to stroll the grounds of the village, to marvel the sights.On Saturday, January 18th the main event takes place in Taivaanvalkeat, a building that has a dining room capable of rooming all the four dozen people that are here for this occasion. People from Genelec, makers of state-of-the-art Finnish amplification and loudspeaker systems have set up their gear already the day before. I enter the hall half an hour early. The front of the room is occupied by a huge sound system. Just the subwoofer, I’m told, costs around 8000€, the two gigantic speakers are in the 15000€ ballpark apiece. High-end stuff, even on Genelec standards.The band is present as well, at the far end of the hall. I try to interpret their faces and body language, hoping to find excitement or concern but can’t. Tuomas looks contemplative but then again, he usually does. No hints there. It could also be the fact that he’s a tad nervous about the interviews today, to paraphrase him, “I need to try to make sense in the interviews for hours on end.”Emppu is his usual care-free, bubbly self, engaged in conversation with his family and seemingly not focusing on the event ahead. Marko and Troy discuss something else altogether, ditto Floor with the band’s publicist, Liina. Kai, the most sociable of the gang, is smiling like a horse as he always does, with a beer bottle in his hand, much more interested in the journalists’ reactions than the rest seem to be. Why, of course – this is the first album he gets to put his personal stamp on. Having talked about it the day before with Kai, he told me Tuomas had encouraged him to shed Jukka’s shadow and go apeshit with his drumming. So, these are the songs where Kai’s 30+ years of drumming experience, his more than impressive chops will be on display for a bigger audience than ever.Briefly put, there is a silent kind of confidence in the band. They know what they’ve done and they know minds are going to be blown. The reason for Tuomas’s pensiveness becomes clear as well, they’re going to play the album to the audience from his laptop.Half an hour later all the journos, some more hungover from last night’s post-dinner carousing at their lodgings or the sauna than the rest, have taken their seats. A representative of the record company politely asks us to shut down our mobile phones, recording devices and such. Some take a late selfie or a snap of the room, most don’t. We take a look at the leaflets we’re handed. Floor and Troy say a few words to set the mood, amusingly pretending they’re flight attendants wishing us an interesting ride. Here we go… ROUND 1From the get-go, it is evident that this music can’t be taken in on one listen. It’s not that it’s ‘bigger’ than your average Nightwish song, the band isn’t accompanied by an orchestra but just the strings and choir do the trick. It’s grand. The vocal gymnastics in the verse melodies are hard to get a hold of. My first sensible mental note is the singing in the first track, MUSIC, surpasses everything previously heard on Nightwish albums. Floor’s lead vocals seem to be all over the place and my addled mind can discern just the prominent chorus. It’s not the most catchy NW tune ever, far from it. But the one thing that it does, it once and for all puts to rest all the concerns voiced after Endless Forms, that Floor’s vocals weren’t utilized to the max. Now they truly are.NOISE is a different story though. An energetic romp, it’s one of the three or four catchiest songs on the album and therefore a great single cut. The subject matter deals with our slavery to technology, addiction to social media and egotism.SHOEMAKER is another grand piece. The finale is a prime example of what Floor’s voice can do to a man. Starting from the tips of my toes, chills run up my body the same way they did when I first heard her take on the Ghost Love Score. There’s a term for this dedicated just for her singing. Floorgasm. There’s the first one.HARVEST is one of those Celtic-influenced Nightwish songs where Troy’s pipes and tin whistles of various sizes come to play. Not quite My Walden nor Last Of The Wilds, but in the same ballpark. A catchy celebration of life and humanity and nature, in symbiosis, back when the connection was still there. Something from the Old World. Another reminder of the world outside the digital bubble we live in. Lead-sung by Troy it’s probably the catchiest song on the album. It is in this song where the harmony singing of the three vocalists reaches heights not heard before. Forged on campfires and tours during the last couple of years, that actually might be the trademark sound of Nightwish in 2020 and beyond.PAN. Ever heard a blast-beat in a Nightwish song? Now you will, at the end of the song.HOW’S THE HEART. Another tune in the more accessible end of the scope, reminding us about our unique ability to humane empathy towards each other, and towards every endless form most beautiful. We are here to care for the garden.PROCESSION. A heart-rending funeral march of mankind to its own grave. A simple, emotional melody with Floor’s staggering vocals in the front and center. More moving, more poignant than most things Nightwish has ever done. The last two lines of lyrics reveal the lyrical hook of the song and I break down in tears that have welled up during the song. My heart feels heavy. Once again, the music of Nightwish has managed to insert a stent straight into the vein of my core feelings and now I’m bleeding out. The world needs a song like this. I already know my future favourite song on the album. It’s a message of hope and transhumanism if you believe in the infinite inventiveness of mankind, and it’s not if you don’t have high hopes on what we can be sometime in the future. The message, though, is that time is running out. The pessimistic side of me that is not the greatest fan of mankind feels spent.I’m still so shaken by the previous song that TRIBAL goes by in a thunderous, rhythmic breeze. The name says so much of it already, it’s a real banger, an atavistic drumming clinic with a melody to it. The only thing I can compare it to from the top of my head is the beginning of Weak Fantasy, just more complex.Marko finally gets his turn on the lead vocals on ENDLESSNESS, a slow dirge bordering on doom metal. His booming vocals and the song tempo remind me of later Tarot, but at 53 years of age, the man probably sounds better than ever. A dark, heavy song, a fitting closer to a thought-provoking album.After 44 minutes, when the music dies out, the silence in the room is deafening. Mere seconds feel like a minute before the first rounds of confused applause split the silence. Journos look tentatively around – is that it? What just happened? Looks like nobody has been able to take it all in. This was a journey, a world unto itself. Again, as Nightwish albums tend to be. The subject matter, though, is heavier than before. We’re worlds apart from the Peter Pans of Storytime and even further from Mielikki and Tapio of Elvenpath. Already on Endless Forms Most Beautiful Nightwish bid fairylands their farewell and showed us the reality is more fantastic than fantasy. Now they’ve shown us it’s grimmer as well. We’re going to hell in a handbasket, why can’t we wake the fuck up from our digital dreams, consumerism, and egocentricity?ROUND 2It’s hard to depict HVMAN. :||: NATVRE. as a heavy metal album. It’s way beyond that. In 2020, Nightwish runs on a lane of their own. They are, now, even more than before the Vehicle Of Spirit that can do anything they please and yet always sound like Nightwish. Even for a fan, this is all new but at the same time, like coming home. After chucking the orchestral pomposity, the band still sounds as big as life. The voices of the three singers fill the gaps and the result is, well, more HVMAN. More organic, and due to Emppu’s guitars, at times also more metal.This is a journey to all four corners of the world, a celebration of life we still have and, as Tuomas says, an optimistic message to us all that we may not be quite as neck-deep in the hoopla as we think. I, still emotionally raw after PROCESSION, think it’s a gloomy premonition of the end of mankind and the final red flag to take heed on.We take a 10-minute breather, 34 minutes more of music still to come.ALL THE WORKS OF NATURE WHICH ADORN THE WORLD is an orchestral piece in eight movements with worldless singing. Tuomas delves fully into the realm of modern classical music. I predicted someone would lay the Sibelius card on the table afterward when describing it but no, that’s not the correct comparison. If I told you I have the prowess to analyze classical music, I’d be lying.“I love not man less but nature more”. The opening lyric line, spoken by actress Geraldine James, pretty much tells the gist of it. This is Tuomas’s love letter to the wonders of nature, each movement of the piece musically so self-explanatory that nobody needs to tell the listener which movement we’re in. We travel from the spacious soundscapes on VISTA to the deep rumblings of THE BLUE to the lively rollicking of THE GREEN to the Celtic sound of MOORS and so on to QUIET AS THE SNOW, which is the first part where I can tell any influences – direct or indirect – on Tuomas’s music. It might be just me but I hear Ludovico Einaudi’s wintry pensiveness of Seven Days Walking in here, or Ólafur Arnalds’ enthralling simplicity. ANTHROPOCENE refers to the 6th wave of mass extinction. Towards the end of the composition, I hear Geraldine James again: “Every creator, every destroyer…”, there’s a message there, but the rest is indiscernible to me as the thunderous music takes over. The time for deeper analysis is later. The last bit, AD ASTRA – towards the stars – is majestic and ends in a boom… which can be either the end of mankind or, more likely, a lift-off on our journey to the stars, to a better place somewhere else.Another silence falls in the room, just not as oppressing as after disc 1.
We round up the session watching the promo video of NOISE that its director Stobe Harju managed to complete just in time for this event. The final video came in at 8:15 this morning. There must’ve been a bit of pressure there. And what a video it is. People are depicted as a cult of hooded figures, focusing on nothing else but their cellphones while the world around goes to hell. A blonde Instagram model prances about in a photoshoot, almost showing some good old T&A in the process, while hollow-headed followers drool over her and tap their likes. A child wearing a gas mask is sacrificed to the altar of pollution and multiplied Floor takes selfies with a girl who looks like she’s from a children’s beauty pageant, while Tuomas goes around hugging trees and nurturing sprouts of green. Someone gets beaten to pulp while the onlookers just snap away with their cellphones. This is a rude awakening, a vicious backlash to every superficial modern phenomenon, starting from our slavery to social media to prescription drug abusers to consumerism, pollution to egotist personal branding. Nightwish has never been so mean before. This will ruffle a lot of feathers. The end of the video sees the viewpoint rise above the noise that all this is, and shows a vista of a sunrise on a lake in the distance, showing that everything that ever mattered is elsewhere, not on the screen of our phones and computers.Some journos remain on their seats, hoping for a replay, others leave the room to prepare their interviews. The band’s got a long day ahead of them, my turn to interrogate them is in four hours. ALL OVER THE PLACEA few hours later I still can’t get over the singing on the album. It is clearly the area where this album sees Nightwish advancing the most. So that’s what I choose to chat about with Marko and Floor in my interview session. Here’s the chat.The singing in the first song (MUSIC) of the album is all over the place. The range of it sounds like it must be two octaves or something?Floor: – I don’t know…Marko: – Could be more.Floor: – Not the music… yeah, well, maybe. I don’t know. That sounds very arrogant, but I never think like that. For me, in music, the challenge is not really in high or low, it’s the incredible vocal gymnastics of the melody. *hums the vocal melody of MUSIC*Marko: – Yeah, well… you know the guy. He writes the way he wants to write and this time he sort of went over the top with the melody movements. They go from down and up and back and they go out of the scales into weird directions and everything. I’m happy I’ve got only got one lead to do (Endlessness). But then, there are some nice little changes in the harmonies as well where you have to stay really sharp or you’re out of key. But Floor had the most of the songs to do, I don’t envy her, but she seems to do just fine!Floor: *giggles* – I did, eventually. I had to practice, for sure. REALLY practice. And I really do like the result. It was a challenge. It was so complex that it’s not like “I’ve listened to it and yeah, I’ve got it” and then go from there. I really had to study it. I have to study the melody, I have to study where the words come in, and by the time when we got to the point when the first demos came in and we rehearsed together, I could sing it. As in it sounds okay. But I knew what the lyrics were about but I had no chance to put in the emotion yet. Now I could recite it, basically. When the drum recordings started and I was back home I went through everything for few weeks more. It was daily rehearsals of combining what I knew and felt the song was about to reciting the technical element of the singing of the words and the melodies to get them into singing and storytelling and feeling and transmitting the feeling, emotion and the story – if that makes sense. That was definitely THE challenge. Not that I didn’t understand what I was singing, but to combine everything into something that made it sound 1) easy and 2) comfortable and 3) with the right feeling behind it.Marko: – So, the usual things for the vocalists, how can you get so high or how to get that sound wasn’t it, the complexity was the challenge.Floor: – And diversity from screaming to opera and so on.Marko: – And me doing the Endlessness – it’s by no means high for me, the whole song is in a pretty easy range but the melody of the verse is also pretty much all over the place. There’s already over an octave gap there.Well – it’s not a sport after all.Floor. – Yeah, that’s it. It’s about the sound. It’s not about “look at me going high” or making those jumps. It needs to sound easy. But it really isn’t.It’s not the catchiest Nightwish album ever.Floor: – No, but there are elements. At least I HOPE for some people it sounds like, “oh wow, it’s a great album and I want to sing along with it”. And as soon you start trying it’s like “damn, that’s harder than I thought it was”.Marko: – Or then they hear it immediately like it is and they spontaneously sing it like it’s done right. That’s what happens often times too. So basically we’re the ones who get it hard, we need to nail it so the people can sing along. But hey – that’s why we’re professionals! *laughs*Floor: *giggles* – Look at us! Yeah… but isn’t it fantastic though that we are challenged! I was personally so challenged and I’m not the kind of person that I’d think I know everything already. I think it’s an on-going learning curve. I’m confident, though, about what I can or can’t do. I’m quite sure I can sing basically anything if I put my mind to it – as in I like the challenge, give it to me! So when this album came in I was like [makes face] oo-kay… he gave it to me! IN PERFECT HARMONYWhat about the harmonies, Nightwish has never before sounded quite like this. You three really lay it out there. The singing, overall, is audibly the most advanced thing on this album in comparison to all previous Nightwish records.Marko: – It actually came as a bit of natural continuation when we started doing the Decades Tour rehearsals, that’s when we figured out that with this line-up we can definitely add something that will be heard, something different to the original songs when we do live harmonies. Well, it was so fun that here we are, all over the new album.Floor: – It inspired us to continue that, not just live, but also on the album, it set the foundation to do this.Marko: – Yeah, it’s the arsenal of our three different voices, when we put them together – their tones and their combinations, no one else is going to have that.Floor: – No, it’s unique colors. It was lovely to play with that. It was an honor for me to work more in-depth now with Troy and again, with Marko as we did on the previous album Endless Forms where I… um, I’m a good lead vocalist but I’m not a very good backing vocalist. Let’s put it that way. I find it difficult to find a good backing vocalist. It’s something I’ve never done much and Troy is just brilliant in it. Troy is a fantastic addition of ideas and colours. And when the three of us sit down, all of a sudden new things come and new possibilities occur and they challenge me to say all kinds of weird shit. *chuckles * What was it again, now?Marko: – I just love the campfire sessions we had, when you’ve got people sitting with natural voices and then you start to nail the harmonies and start to sound fresh. Like close-up human singing. It’s a process that feeds itself, like wow, let’s do more!Floor: – What I meant when I said “good lead vocalist” is not that I want to praise how I sing. I meant that a lead vocalist takes the lead and a backing vocalist colours accordingly to. When three people form a choir, you can’t sing like a lead vocalist. You need to listen to everybody and you color together to become a pack vocals. Marko is also a lead vocalist, but when you sing in harmonies, you need to switch off the “lead button” go into sync together in form, in order, for to everything to come together. I’ve heard it before, sometimes when two lead vocalists do harmonies, they’re way too soloistic in their approach. And even when they sing the same note or they sing the right harmony – if one is a tiny bit more focusing on the higher end of that note and the other one leans a tiny bit more towards the lower end of that note, it’s already off. And it’s horrible!It will sound like a pissing contest.Floor: – Yes! And clashing vibratos – the same thing. But if you know how to tap into each other, you don’t sing in the same key, you simply sing it differently. That’s a fact and that’s a technique but it’s also at its best when it comes naturally, as it has with us. It is so nice to feel when you sit at the campfire and there is nothing else but those voices. And to tap into those voices. Our voices have always naturally found the right vibrato and energy and so on.Marko: – Yes! The timing of vibrato is a thing that is REALLY hard when a lot of vocalists gather, but that was something that settled down pretty much almost immediately.Floor: – Always! And with Troy – Troy has his own timing which is a bit different so we had to get that. But he has that natural element – low, soft warmth in his voice that we two don’t have. We sing in a whole different range. He doesn’t necessarily sing softer than us, but it’s in his voice.And he’s got less attack in his voice than you two.Floor: – Yes, that too.Marko: – Well, we’ve been doing that “metal lead” that’s the attack. [Exaggerates] We’ve-Been-Spitting-Out-The-Words-More-Sharply! That comes more naturally to us, I guess.Floor: – But it’s really great to see him sing, for instance [his lead song] HARVEST. And his phrasing – if I would have sung the same song it would simply sound different just because I would phrase it a tiny bit different. I would just naturally approach it differently. It’s fantastic to see how he gives it his twist.Marko: – And then there’s the fact that he’s British. We’re not. I do listen to his pronunciation as a bit of a handbook as well. But I have to remember that he comes from an area where they have a thick dialect, so not everything is pronounced quite like that. But these are things that I constantly pay attention to.Floor: – We generally think through the album what kind of English we’re going to pick. Because we have one native speaker and then I, as a lead vocalist, am not. Neither is Marko.But you’re both language nerds.Floor: – That helps. But where are you going to go because when I came to the band my accent was way more American than it is today. And I’m a chameleon: after a year in Finland I had a Finnish accent in my English, I now have Swedish accent in my Finnish and how my English sounds like, I don’t even know anymore! I pick things up. But when I went through the singing now, I don’t want to sound too American and I went for British, Troy went like “Yeah… but you’re not the Queen.” *bursts in laughter* “You don’t need to go all London super-British fine English. No way.” So, ok… I THOUGHT I was doing well. So I toned it down a bit towards the Cumbrian [Troy’s dialect] style. I’m not even going to pretend I’m a Cumbrian but somewhere in the middle it needs to fit together so that we won’t have three completely different styles of pronunciation. That would sound weird for everyone except maybe the Finns or the Dutchies. Every native speaker whether they’re Australian or American or whatever would think it sounds weird. PER ASPERA AD ASTRA?Ok, let’s move on to the songs. What are your personal favourites of the songs?Floor: – Oh, boy… I can’t say. I don’t have… well. My personal favourite is Endlessness. And then there is PAN, the music is really good. Not to mention NOISE. Really nice.Marko is not allowed to answer Endlessness!Marko: – What can I say? SHOEMAKER, Harvest… and yep, all of the songs Floor just listed. So, there you go.Floor: – TRIBAL!So… all of it?Marko: – Shoemaker and Harvest, they’re two completely different songs in succession and I really like them both. Harvest especially, because of the heaps of harmonies, they were so nice to make.Floor: – If I have to think of a situation where I would have to pick just one song out of this album which we would have to play, it would still depend on how I feel at that moment. If I feel [makes face] blegghh… I would definitely go for Endlessness and if I’m bit happy, I’d go for Harvest. If I’m in the mood for the whole nine yards, I’ll play MUSIC. So, yes. It’s too hard to pick. But! I’m very happy with NOISE as the first single because once again it’s impossible to pick one song that would represent the album. There’s no such thing with Nightwish, you will never cover all the ingredients of our album just with one song. But Noise is a really nice kick in the face and the video – ok, I think we’ve got some attention there… in a very nasty, cruel way. – WE WERE HERE AND WE REMEMBER MANKIND. OUR KIN. AGES AGO. – Funny thing that neither of you mentioned PROCESSION which was the song that turned me into a basket case.Floor: – I can imagine! And do you know what’s it about? The ones talking are POST-HUMAN. We talk – we – talk to humans as we would go back in time. We talk about the beginning of time before humans and humans come in and humans don’t really understand. Yet. Until we do. And then, when everything’s destroyed we go up and we look back on it all from there and that’s what goes on towards the end of the song.Trans-human, is it?Floor: – Yeah, maybe. But the song also got me really bad, because I was pelted as soon as I realized what I was singing about. [chokes a bit]Marko: – But is it something post-human that found us? Or is it something that came from us?Floor: – I think it came from us. And the message was sent from the post-human lifeform in a different planet but to Earth. Because “We write this in a tongue you will understand”. It’s a communication tool.Marko: – Yeah, that’s the one thing that made think that is this thing totally alien? There are still some things unsolved.Floor: – Yeah. “We Were There And We Will Remember Mankind.” [choking back tears] “Our kin. Ages ago.” So, it’s a long time into the future. It’s very horrible.Marko: – We have the imagination, the reasoning, the logic and all the possible tools…To sever ourselves from the NATVRE?Marko: – Yes.Floor: – In the most weird way. And why?Marko: – But also to connect in ways that were unperceivable before. We have tools for everything. The biggest thing for us is to understand the scope of the Universe. And then on to the Multiverse to start realizing there are depths you cannot realize, but still you can imagine. And that’s weird because our heads are this size and what’s inside it is smaller than the head we see. And yet, we can scope billions of lightyears, imagine billions of years of history and write them into scientific facts.Floor: – And just imagine if we could use a hundred percent of our capacity, because we use, what, ten percent? Nine? Eight?Marko: – I think that thing is a little bit overhyped. It’s an old theory. I think we use everything but we’ve got, like, spare parts in there. If we lose, for instance, language skills or ability to walk, you might get them back via some replacement processes. We have areas in our brain that are not used, I don’t know how much processing power you could pack to them. Then again, there are science-fictional stories about some POST-HUMANS that have done some pretty incredible things… [winces in that Marko way]I know Marko can go on preeetty lengthy tangents on these subjects…Marko: – We always end up theorizing…Floor: – Oh, yeah! How much time do we have again? But isn’t it so that Einstein was supposed to be able to tap into a larger part of his brain than the rest of us and that gave him a possibility to open more locks and all that.Marko: – Could be. And then there is the ‘directed intelligence’. That is to say that everything we think, everything we reason, changes our brain and ‘streamline’ them more towards those things. If you’re a physicist, your physicist’s capabilities will improve. We’re musicians, so we’re heavy bullshitters and so, we laugh a lot and sing and play a lot.Floor: – It is so even with senses. I would say that the senses are still very important. Like, a pregnant woman, naturally, has a stronger sense of smell because it will protect her and the baby from whatever is harmful. It’s not that you all of a sudden have a better nose. There’s nothing physically changing, it’s the part of the brain that focusses more on the sense of smell. In my case, it barely went away. It’s a primal instinct. And we’re so remote, so far away from it. While I know that musicians like we are, are highly sensitive people that use our senses in a sharper way. We’re wired slightly differently and I find that endlessly fascinating. We’re also more likely to tap into the natural world and feel comfort – find comfort – in that.Marko: – The combination that they have been talking lately – the emotional intelligence – is where musicians and actually a lot of artists of whatever ilk, work.Floor: – It makes it so that we can communicate those emotions. On the album HOW’S THE HEART is about human empathy, for instance. A beautiful concept to not be forgotten. But the more we talk about these things the more we go into theories, where it takes half an hour to explain even the basic concepts… Yeah, they’re still not your average “Friday night’s all right for fighting” kind of band.This album is here to make us think. To remind that for all the good we’ve achieved; eradicated diseases and connected via technology in ways previously unimaginable, we’ve also lost our way and laid waste on all that is precious. We’ve lost our connection to THE NATVRE. Our only home is engulfed in HVMAN pollution, greenhouse gases, fracking, famine, wars, extreme weather events, and climate change because we choose to close our eyes. The powers that be, in turn, refuse to believe that it is not possible to have limitless economic growth on a finite planet.But we’re a resilient breed. Starting from our earliest bipedal ancestors HVMAN has adapted and evolved for four million years already and we still evolve. For better or for worse, we can’t either save or destroy the planet. But the Anthropocene extinction, the disappearance of several species as a consequence of HVMAN activity is happening as we speak. Australia is burning. Kiribati is sinking. But NATVRE doesn’t care. It will prevail. It doesn’t need us here. We made ourselves The God, The Chosen, The One above all living things and this is the illusion we live in, lest every once in a while NATVRE slaps us with an earthquake, a tsunami or a pandemic to show us our true place. Like in the cover art of this album NATVRE is above HVMAN. There’s an unbroken line, a severance, a rift between them that is the HVMAN NATURE.In order to survive, we must find a way to change it. But can we find the empathy to right the ship before it’s too late? Will we evolve enough, soon enough, to be able to mend what we’ve done? Or will we find a new home somewhere beyond the stars? Can we buy the time for ourselves to evolve to that point?
At the onset of 2020, symphonic/melodic metal fans had something to look forward to: the release of Nightwish‘s ninth studio album, Human. :||: Nature. We were invited to Finnvox Studios on January 28th, to meet with Tuomas Holopainen, Marko Hietala, and Kai Hahto, have a seat, relax, and listen to the new album, as well as its first music video for “Noise”! Human. :||: Nature. was extremely interesting to say the least. There weren’t as many immediately catchy, radio-friendly songs, but rather, the album took a more progressive turn than they are used to, while still maintaining the movie score soundscape. Here is a song-by-song breakdown:1. Music: when this song starts, it feels very primitive with tribal-like sounds, which are exciting and new for Nightwish; there’s an almost shamanistic feel to it. There was a good dynamic build-up as the song progresses and some really unusual instruments. The orchestrations are full-bodied but surprisingly harsher than traditional Nightwish music thanks to the primal sound. The song officially kicks off after a minute or two into a more familiar melodic sound, with Floor Jansen coming in, almost as if in a musical. There is a melancholic sound to this track that felt almost reminiscent, which which was evident more or less throughout the whole album.2. Noise: the first upcoming single, with a much punchier lift-off. Compositionally, it feels a bit like it could be from Imaginaerum, with a darker and gloomier feel. There is a heavy wall of sound from the guitar with strong distortion and more ups and downs. These songs already seem more complicated and less purely catchy than you might expect from Nightwish.3. Shoemaker: glimmering keyboards start this track and once again there is a yearning to the song. There is a soft vocal duet in this track with male vocals that I think were done by Marko Hietala (but may have been Troy Donockley). The melodies are strong with more heavy guitar riffs. There is a spoken part eventually and it includes a church choir in some parts, during which Jansen reaches her higher register.4. Harvest: this was a personal favorite, starting as a slow song with a really interesting vocal part done presumably by Donockley, with accompanying tribal drums. The song then rapidly kicks out of ballad territory into a rock song with keyboard solos and Uilleann pipes, which play a very central role this time. “Harvest” is a much more cheerful, positive song than many of the others, having a feeling as though it is paying tribute or is in honor of something.5. Pan: this song cranks the power, emotion, and overall epicness up to full blast. As fast as it starts, it mellows out with soothing vocals from Jansen. It then returns to the grand epicness and then drops back down, riding a rollercoaster of energy and feels very progressive for a Nightwish song. There is also a sinister-sounding choir towards the end. “Pan” feels more like a classical composition with metal influences, as opposed to the other way around.6. How’s the Heart?: I liked it! “How’s the Heart?” has cheerful piping in the beginning (and throughout) and a surprisingly catchy chorus. It is compositionally more simple, a likely candidate for a single, and so catchy it hurts. It will be a great singalong for live shows. The ever-present yearning is here, but it also has a feeling of freedom and contentment.7. Procession: bright-sounding with beautiful piano and flutes, and a clear and distinct piano delivery which guides the direction of the song. This song definitely requires further impressions made by more listens.8. Tribal: my personal favorite! This was a strange and badass song, with deep and heavy drums by Kai Hahto. Hietala gets to sing with his lower, grittier range, sometimes sounding like a caveman – you have to hear it to appreciate it’s primitive, raw power. Unlike the intro to “Music,” this is much more heavy metal, more ominous. There is also an almost “wall of noise” effect as well. It was a surprising change of pace thus far.9. Endlessness: the song begins with a melodic, deep, and wistful tune, almost like doom metal. The song is deep, glistening, and hearty, like a thick soup, with the background melody keeping it beautiful. One or more of the gents get to sing as well. It’s certainly a different song.Disc II: All the Works of Nature Which Adorn the WorldCan we all agree that this name maybe took things too far? Just getting it out there. Okay, moving on.The song is, of course, a full disc long at 30:58 minutes, with parts named after different natural wonders. The song is like a piece of classical music without any metal elements, though there are drums and pipes, etc. It starts with a familiar-sounding spoken-word text about nature. The music was very visual, painting the scenes wonderfully. It feels like nature waking up from sleep all around the listener. There is a general grand and imposing sound, with Egyptian vibes at one point, giving the feel of an ancient civilization. There is a beautiful cello that carries on throughout a lot of the song, guiding a lot of the progression. Grandeur is balanced with soft, mellow parts in a nice dynamic ebb and flow. Many parts are repeated, with some consistency throughout the song’s composition, helping familiar parts to be heard and appreciated more than they may have been earlier on in the song. Then the seagull screeches appear! In the stead of the whale sounds of “The Greatest Show on Earth,” there are seagulls, but it was fortunately only once. The song reaches a ballad point, which was strangely reminiscent of “My Immortal” by Evanescence… though maybe I was imagining things. There are ominous horns, mystical harp melodies, and plenty of tense moments that make the listener apprehensive for what comes next. Towards the end, the narrator appears to talk about a life philosophy, or something of the sort. The song ends with an epic, emotional, atmospheric bombardment from the orchestra, finishing on a great note!“All the Works of Nature…” wasn’t too complicated or hard to understand, neither was it overly wrapped in mystique, nor too compositionally complex for the average person. It could even work as a nice gateway into classical music. The song does a great job exploring the vividness of nature through a lot of beautiful, glimmering sounds that capture the subject nicely. While it didn’t quite blow us out of the water, we have only heard it the once and it likely needs a few listens to reveal itself to us properly.“Noise” (music video):The last thing we got to see was the music video for the first single, “Noise.” The version we saw wasn’t quite the final edit, but was not notably different to us first-time viewers from what the finished product looks like. The video is great – vivid and intense, no holds barred, no expense spared to make it look as best it could. There is a lot of activity, never letting up, very in your face. It seems to be a critique on our obsession with our screens, numbing us and obstructing our view of the things both beautiful and tragic in the world around us. It’s not remotely subtle, but is executed in a fun way. There are a lot of actors alongside the band and it seems as though they had a lot of fun making it, with all the costumes and whatnot. Donockley’s character, some sort of social media king taking selfies, was definitely a lot of fun and gave him a surprisingly big role.This is definitely an album that you can’t fully grasp on the first listen. It’s certainly something different for Nightwish, more demanding and interesting, and even the dreaded 30+ minute classical piece did not disappoint. The vocals are treated more like another instrument this time around, as opposed to a “focal point” of the songs. The orchestrations are rougher and more tribal than on other Nightwish albums, which was interesting and unusual. It is impossible to say after only one listen, but it felt like something that will definitely grow on us with familiarity and has the potential to dethrone its predecessor on our list of favorites!
September 8 - CA - Toronto - Meridian HallSeptember 11 - US - Los Angeles - The Hollywood PalladiumSeptember 12 - US - Los Angeles - The Hollywood PalladiumSeptember 15 - US - New York - Terminal Five
Hoy, 21 de febrero, cumple 39 años Floor Jansen, vocalista de Nightwish desde 2012.¡Atención! Nightwish estará el próximo lunes, 24 de febrero, en nuestra radio presentándonos su nuevo disco, 'Human :II: Nature', en carne y hueso. ¡No te lo pierdas! A partir de las 13:00 (hora peninsular española), escúchalo en directo aquí >> https://mariskalrock.com/live_radio/
Con ocasión de la próxima salida de su nuevo álbum, 'Human :II: Nature', Tuomas Holopainen, teclista y principal compositor de Nightwish, se ha pasado por los estudios de RockFM para ser entrevistado por nuestro compañero Javier Hualde. ¿Qué es lo que le ha contado? Te dejamos el vídeo y la trasncripción de la entrevista. Vais a publicar un disco el 10 de abril, 'Human Nature', ¿estás emocionado por ello?“¡Totalmente! Lo terminamos hace cosa de un mes, y es siempre una mezcla de alegría y melancolía; porque trabajas en un disco de forma muy intensa cerca de un año, año y medio, y el proceso que te da mucho, y resulta una gran aventura. Entonces lo tienes listo y se lo presentas al mundo. Has de dejarlo ir, por decirlo así. Es un sentimiento algo triste. Así que es un mezcla de emoción y melancolía”. Una de las noticias de sobre este disco es que es doble. ¿Cuál es el concepto que hay tras él?“No pretendíamos que lo fuera. La cuestión era más bien que no se pueden encajar 83 minutos de música en un solo cd; por eso tuvimos que coger la última canción y ponerla en un segundo disco. Esa fue la única razón por la que es un disco doble. Aunque en realidad ha funcionado muy bien, porque la última canción del disco es muy distinta al resto. Las primeras nueve canciones son la parte humana, y la última hace referencia a la naturaleza. De ahí que el título del disco sea 'Human Nature'”. Has comentado que la música de este disco te vino de forma muy rápida. Pero, ¿cómo de difícil fue el proceso de ensayarlo con la banda y grabarlo?“Todo funcionó de forma muy suave, aunque es difícil responder. Sí, llevó bastante tiempo, pero cuando todo empezó a rodar, ocurrió muy rápido. Las canciones salieron por sí solas, y los ensayos fueron intensos y nos llevaron unas cinco semanas. Después, un par de meses de grabación y dos de mezclas”. La parte de 'naturaleza' de este disco es instrumental, ¿incluso orquestal?“Sí, es casi instrumental. Flor canta un par de líneas. Pero, básicamente, es una sinfonía”. ¿Cómo te vino esta parte del disco?“Fue una de esas cosas que pedían ser hechas. No sabría explicarlo de otra manera. Nunca habíamos hecho una canción como esta. Cuando se la presenté al resto de la banda, a todo el mundo le gustó. Es algo completamente distinto. Y es, también, la única canción de todo el disco con una orquesta completa. Escuchar la primera parte del disco, que son nueve canciones más de típicas de una banda, orientadas a la humanidad, y después relajarte con la parte de naturaleza, le da al disco un contraste muy dramático, de hora y media”. ¿Cuál dirías que es la forma más acertada de escuchar este disco?“Puedes escucharlo de cualquier forma que quieras. Esa es la belleza de la música y el arte. Es siempre una experiencia personal, y tienes el permiso de incluir toda tu propia vivencia en las canciones. Pero, tal vez, una forma de hacerlo sea primero escucharlo con detenimiento de principio a fin, en el orden en que las canciones se presentan”. Hay una canción, en la segunda parte, que me ha llamado la atención, que se titula “Anthropocene (Hurrian Hymn To Nikkal)”, que hace referencia a la música más antigua jamás escrita.“Sí, “Hurrian Hymn To Nikkal” es la composición escrita que jamás haya encontrado un ser humano, y está datada alrededor del 1.400 A.C.; así que esa composición tiene unos 3.400 años de antigüedad. Fue escrita para una lira de nueve cuerdas. Teniendo en cuenta que en aquellos tiempos, en el Mediterráneo, lo que hoy sería Siria, había un compositor que escribió esta maravillosa pieza de música; y que hoy, en 2020, haya una banda de rock que versione su canción, muestra que hay una belleza atemporal en ello”. Hay muchas canciones nuevas en este disco, y una pregunta que tengo es ¿cómo planeáis llevar este nuevo repertorio al directo?“No tocaremos la última canción, la instrumental. Ensayaremos las nueve canciones, la parte 'humana' del disco, y mezclarla con el setlist y veremos cómo encajan”. Hay un nuevo videoclip, “Noise”, qe integra alguna crítica social con lo que parece una referencia al cuentos clásicos. “El vídeo es bastante ambiguo. Puedes interepretarlo de muchas maneras, pero el mensaje más evidente es que la aparente adicción de los seres humanos a sus teléfonos móviles. Y no solo eso, sino que ineternet es una herramienta maravillosa, pero el modo en que la utilizamos en ocasiones con fines narcisistas, difundiendo información falsa, es realmente triste; porque el potencial que nos brinda esta tecnología es impresionante. Sin emabrgo, decidimos usarlo para otra cosa. Eso fue una idea potente que teníamos y de la que queríamos grabar un vídeo”. ¿Cómo fue proceso de grabarlo? Imagino que, como mínimo, fue divertido“Sí, fue posiblemente el rodaje más divertido en el que he estado, porque soy el tipo que se baña en el aceite. De hecho, calentaron el aceite y se estaba muy a gusto. Creo que pasé como una hora y media metido en la bañera. Me tocó también hacer algo de headbanging con el pelo mojado en aceite... Fue muy divertido”. Os habéis convertido en la primera banda en grabar un vídeo en el Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Londres, ¿es cierto?“Bueno, en realidad, lo que hicimos fue una sesión de fotos, no rodamos un vídeo como tal. Lo que hicimos fue ua sesión de fotos para la promoción del disco. No sé si somos los primeros o no. Creo que hubo alguna otra, pero somos de los pocos afortunados que tuvimos el privilegio de hacerlo". ¿Cómo fue la experiencia de estar allí?“Fue realmente mágico. Imagínate estar en un sitio tan icónico. Es el Museo de Historia de Ciencias Naturales de Londres, cuando todo está vacío y solo queda peronsla de seguridad, la banda y el equipo de fotografía. Nunca lo olvidaré”. Tendremos la oportunidad de veros en el Rock Fest Barcelona el próximo mes de julio. ¿Qué podemos ver ese día?“Será una mashup entre las canciones nuevas y las antiguas. Lo pasaremos genial e intentaremos transmitírselo a la audiencia”. Han pasado casi 25 años en este precioso proyecto, y habrás conseguido un montón de logros. ¿Qué sientes cuando mirar atrás y ves todo lo que Nightwish ha conseguido?“Siento un orgullo y alegría por ver todo lo que hemos hecho. Siempre quedan las ganas de evolucionar de disco en disco. También tenemos las reacciones del público sobre cómo les impacta parte de nuestro trabajo. Es una sensación de felicidad el pensar que, de alguna manera, has contribuido a ello”. ¿Tienes algún momento favorito con Nightwish?“Es imposible mencionar solo uno. Los recuerdos más felices siempre tienen que ver con el proceso de componer canciones, cuando estoy solo en casa. Ahí sientes que todo empieza a fluir y las canciones van emergiendo. Encontrar la melodía perfecta para cierta letra. Ésos son los momentos más felices”. Me encanta hacer esta pregunta en cada entrevista. ¿Cuál es el momento más divertido que has vivido de gira?“El momento más divertido de gira... Hay muchos, porque nuestra banda y el equipo están llenos de cómicos”. ¿No hay uno que puedas compartir?“Normalmente se asocian a momentos en que todo el mundo está desnudo y borracho; así que no creo que deba decirlo, confía en mí”. ¿Hay algún sueño musical que aún no hayas cumplido?“Espero que la mejor canción esté por venir. Estoy realmente contento con lo que hemos hecho hasta ahora. Como dije, hay una clara evolución en la música del grupo, también como personas. Pero mi mayor sueño es saber que el mejor disco y la mejor canción está en algún lugar del futuro”. ¿Hay algún sitio en el querrías tocar, y en el que aún no has tocado?“Bueno, cuanto más exótico, mejor. Hemos tratado de actuar en Sudáfrica o Islandia, en la Antártida desde hace tiempo. Pero por alguna razón, aún no han tenido lugar. Pero sí, en algún sitio extraño. En el Gran Cañón o en la Gran Murralla China”. Para ir terminando, quería hacerte una última pregunta. Después de pensar en la naturaleza humana, ¿cuál crees que es la mejor parte de ser humano?“La consciencia. Somos la única especie en ser consciente de su propia mortalidad. Tenemos arte e imaginación, así que es un privilegio haber nacido en este cuerpo, en esta especie, y en esta época; y poder experimentar toda esta maravilla”.
