In the genre of symphonic metal, there's Nightwish, and then there's everyone else. Since their inception in the mid-90s, the band has commanded the symphonic and power metal scenes with their expansive use of orchestral elements that transcend the usual "let's just put synthesizer orchestral hits on everything" approach of most bands of the genre, as well as their mix of operatic vocals with powerful rock singing. It's an approach that has worked beautifully for them going on a quarter of a century now, but to say that the band's style has never progressed would also be a lie, as a few lineup changes, particularly in the vocal department, have ushered in changes to their style as well. On the band's last album, 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", the band debuted vocalist Floor Jansen (ex-After Forever, Ayreon, Star One) and took on a slightly more "progressive" persona, culminating in the album's 24-minute closing saga "The Greatest Show on Earth", a rousing epic about the majesty and mystery of life itself. "Human Nature" (or the more stylized "Human. :II: Nature.") can almost be thought of as an album-long expansion on that idea, both in terms of its music and its lyrical themes."Music" kicks off the record in an extraordinarily epic fashion, with a three-minute symphonic intro before the vocals kick in, the track cinematically swelling up in volume and intensity, with melodies that are both captivating and infectious, as well as a rather short but sweet guitar solo (a rarity in Nightwish songs, in contrast to other bands in the genre). "Noise" is classic Nightwish through and through, with a fast-paced, riffy arrangement that lays a bed for orchestral and choral elements, but in a bit more of a straightforward metal-oriented setting that shows Floor singing with all the power we expect from her. There are some great details that come up in the track, as well, such as an orchestral interlude section that has the band shift time signatures, and even a bit of "lead bass" playing, as well as one of the album's heaviest riffs. "Shoemaker" plays with the idea of typical rock song structures, with a meter-shifting verse section and additional bridges, before a spoken-word section leading into an outro featuring Floor singing in more of a traditional operatic soprano style, something which she does a lot more sparingly than Nightwish singers of the past. Perhaps the album's biggest diversion is "Harvest", a folky number that's sung by multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley, which is certain to catch many long-time Nightwish fans off-guard, but is a track that, on repeated listens, gets more and more under your skin with its absolutely gorgeous chorus, and its mix of Celtic folk instruments and metal elements in its instrumental mid-section. "Pan" brings us back into a more "classic Nightwish" mood a la "Wishmaster" or a more recent hit like "Bye Bye Beautiful" with its shuffled rhythm, orchestral stabs and soft verse/loud chorus dynamic. "How's the Heart" is a more straightforward rocker of a track that showcases Troy's uilleann pipe skills well in the context of a hard rock tune. "Procession" is a more dynamic track that builds up over time, showcasing the band's more progressive tendencies with sections in 7/8 time and Mike Oldfield-esque piano and bagpipes. "Tribal", on the other hand, is the album's heaviest tune, with some very impressive tom work from drummer Kai Hahto, and a tribal chanting section unlike anything Nightwish has done before, save for maybe their work on "Creek Mary's Blood" which also featured a very strong Native American theme. "Endlessness" is the second song on the album to feature predominantly male vocals, this time from bassist Marco Heitala, and carries with it a feel more akin to old-school progressive metal like early Pain of Salvation or Scenes From a Memory-era Dream Theater, but without all the instrumental noodling. The second disc of the album is "All the Works of Nature Which Adorn the World", and it's a bit of an odd diversion from the rest of the record. While Nightwish is often known for including bonus discs with orchestral versions of their songs, this time, the band has opted to include a disc of completely original orchestral material unrelated to the rest of the songs, though there are melodic motifs throughout the piece that are reminiscent of songs from the first disc. It's one continuous piece split into various sections, and its cinematic orchestral sound will absolutely please fans of groups like Two Steps from Hell, but fans who expected more "Nightwish" on it might be disappointed to hear a complete lack of guitars, drums, bass, and anything more than wordless chanting from Floor, though the final section, "Ad Astra", does include a reading of Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" speech by actress Geraldine James, and brings the piece to a stunningly rousing conclusion, though it's a bit of a slog to get to that point if you're not accustomed to the style of music.The mixing job on the record is nice and clean, considering how grandiose Nightwish's music tends to be, and the way some of the elements of this record actually stand out despite the huge number of layers is refreshing, like how you can clearly hear Marco Heitala's bass playing through most of the record (and his tone on the album is insanely good throughout). Guitarist Emppu Vuorinen's riffs cut through the mix well, too, and while he plays far fewer guitar solos than his power metal contemporaries, when he does, they're very good. Tuomas Holopainen's keyboard work is surprisingly varied on the record, as well, showing his use of traditional piano sounds as well as more modern synth sounds. The real star of the show is Troy Donockley, though, whose work with various Celtic folk instruments has really transformed Nightwish's sound over their past several records, and his permanent membership in the band has given him a lot more room to play around with his bagpipes, flutes, and even stringed instruments like the bouzouki, which gets a workout on "Harvest". With this being Kai Hahto's first album as a full-time member, he also gets several standout drum moments, like his work on "Harvest" and "Tribal", and his effortless shifting through various time signatures adds a lot of prog credibility to the band.Lyrics — 9On "Human Nature", the band tackles what it means to be human, as well as more "meaning of life" topics, with its lyrics. Of course, "Music" speaks of humanity's exploration of artistic expression, particularly the form in the title, and how it has been central to countless generations of humanity ("Then you came/I joined you beyond the aeons/As you blew your cave bear bone/And began to hum/Eradicate the torment of a heavy heart/Emancipate the deaf/Sing the graceful third part/Then orchestrate an air for only you to sing/Caress it deep/It`s always there to unlock the stars/To enter"). While some may see "Noise" as a rant against technology, it deals more with the addiction element of it, and seeks to remind us that we are still human beings with a connection to nature ("By a carrion/Sad hologram/Lost in the maze/The real and human feel/Sunset is free/From this deity/The Earth has a real voice/Go out and get in"). While one may picture a tale of a cobbler with "Shoemaker", the track is actually a tribute to geologist and planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker (the astronomy nerds in the crowd might recognize his name as being related to the discovery of the Levy-Shoemaker comet, whose impact on Jupiter that was one of the biggest astronomy stories of the 1990s), and features a reading of a section of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" by Johanna Kurkela, wife of keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen. In "Harvest", multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley takes the lead vocal reins and sings perhaps the album's biggest thematic tie-together moment, about humanity's place in the universe, and the chorus brings a real "meaning of life" sentiment to it ("Join the harvest of hundred fields/Hearty and tame/All going back to one single grain/Offer light to the coming day/Inspire a child/Water the field, surrender to the earth"). "Endlessness" is very much a "circle of life" type of message, telling us that death is as necessary as life ("Soon, beyond the fields you've come to know/You will join the silent flow/Follow me, I am the spark/At the end of everything/Tip the Reaper to ensure/The blade is sharp/As soon we'll go/Follow me into the dark/To the birth of everything").While the album was not intended to be a concept album, per se, the lyrics tying together the human experience with that of its place in the natural world provide a very strong thematic link between the songs, and like so many pieces by Nightwish, the combination of the strong thematic link and cinematic music makes "Human Nature" feel like one grand story arc. Helping along with this is the delivery of the lyrics, and they are predominantly done by Floor Jansen, on her second album with the band. While she is known more for her powerful voice, she does have some very varied performances on here, from incredibly tender vocal moments to more traditional operatic soprano singing, and the amount of variety in her vocal performances are sure to impress. There are always at least one or two male vocal performances on each Nightwish album, and they are almost always done by bassist Marco Hietala, and he does sing on the track "Endlessness", though this album also introduces multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley as a lead vocalist for the band on the track "Harvest", whose softer vocal style is perfect for the more pastoral folk moments, though he can still hold his own in the heavier choruses toward the end of the song, with Floor and Marco backing him. His performance might shock some Nightwish fans, but after repeated listens, it's very easy to come to love it.Overall Impression — 9With its greater emphasis on musical complexity, folk instrumentation, high-concept lyricism, and variety, "Human Nature" may very well be Nightwish's most experimental and "progressive" record to date. This may incense some long-time fans who simply want them to repeat the successes of albums like "Wishmaster" or "Once", but the essence of what Nightwish is can still be found throughout this entire record, and the more experimental vibe really suits the band well. While the second disc's purely orchestral work might not be to everyone's taste, it also stands as a very interesting experiment for the band, and their ambition in doing so is admirable.If you enjoy more experimental and progressive symphonic metal but have often passed on Nightwish's music, you might not want to sleep on this album, because it's definitely ambitious in all the places that count, and unless you're a Nightwish fan that's completely averse to change, this album is a highly recommended listen, and a testament to why Nightwish remain at the top of the heap in the symphonic metal genre.
The beetle, discovered in 2018 is called the Tmesisternus floorjansenae. Originally growing up wanting to become a biologist, this is a long-held dream fulfilled. Abandoning the books, she fell into rock ‘n’ roll stardom at the tender age of sixteen; with a booming, powerful voice such as hers, it was more like destiny. If you’re into European metal even at the slightest, you’ve likely heard her: probably as a guest on an Ayreon rock opera; or on the harsher side with ReVamp, or her original band After Forever. She is true Euro metal royalty with unparalleled pedigree.enter shikari hysteriaBecoming Nightwish’s permanent frontwoman over a half-decade ago, she’s made the role her very own. Tackling evolution and science on 2015’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful and now humanity and nature with HUMAN .II. NATURE, it really is like she’s taken part in the greatest show on Earth. Her Earth, anyway. Taking a call in her countryside home in Sweden as her young child plays nearby, we ask Floor about her latest opus with Nightwish. In return, she gives us her innermost thoughts on life, nature, and what’s happening to the world right now. Something we should all take heed of.Hysteria: It’s been a long time between Finlandia for Nightwish. What have you been doing? What was the feeling finding out Tuomas had new songs?Floor: I made a record as a project that I released, made a child, did two world tours. Of course, it was super, super nice to work on new material with Nightwish again. I knew that we needed this time to get these battery loaded for new albums of Nightwish. Tuomas did his own project, then you immediately get curious like, “what is he writing? What is he coming up with?”Tuomas is the composer and arranger, but how do you lend your ideas to the project?Well, yeah, he’s one that’s writes all the songs, so he has an idea of how things are supposed to become and sound like. But my input really comes in the interpretation of the songs, how to sing and what kind of emotion is going to come into this and that isn’t my way of doing things, which in that sense is unique. So that’s my contribution.When we get to the rehearsal studio, nothing is fundamentally changed, it’s in the details really. Change a minor to a major chord. And all of a sudden something really changes. Massive inputs from Troy, Marko with me for the backing vocals or I’m more the one singing then the guys are really good in coming up with harmony. Seeing if there’s a possibility of actually doing that live instead having a lot of back and forth running along on tape. So that is something that we really worked on together and every song has a different vibe. So it comes with a different backing, vocal approach as well. Give a drummer something that’s drummed by machine. Of course when he starts to play it, he’ll play it his way and that immediately becomes different and a unique sound that you leave but no one else can do. And that’s where we come in.trivium hysteriaThis album is about humanity and how it fits into nature. Is it a different experience to get into the mindset for these songs, as opposed to what you’ve done before?Yeah, obviously it’s different to play songs with a new album. And this surely is an album where I’ve been singing all from the get go. The difference there is way bigger than the difference in subject. It’s a bit easier to get into lyrics where you feel, where you know more about it, or you’re personally attached to the subject. For this album, for me, it’s is easier to tap into than singing about swords and dragons. Then again there are not too many of those lyrics in Nightwish anyway. Tuomas has a beautiful poetic way of telling a story and I’ve always found it very easy to tap into the right emotion of those songs.The second part of the album is an instrumental. Well not quite instrumental; it has vocals, but no lyrics. What was your reaction when Tuomas unveiled that?Well, we were curious forom the get go. If somebody would’ve told me 15 years ago, you’re going to be sitting in a band where the band composer is going to write a song, where the band’s not going to play everything? I would probably say that that’s a weird thing to do, but this is Nightwish and this Tuomas, his style of writing. For some reason, it made sense. In the end of course we know what he could do. So when he says something like that, we get excited. It’s not an instrumental, it’s a classical suites so there’s voices on it. I’m singing on it. There’s choir on it, but it’s not a Nightwish track as in a band track. You can call it a classical suite. I really think this from this misery will come something good, because I think this is a global wake-up call. [ Floor Jansen ]You’ve been involved in bands since you were sixteen, as part of After Forever. You’ve done heaps of guest spots, been in so many bands-how have you evolved as an artist and a person?Yeah, I guess we all evolve as a person to start with though. So you have more to tell. I’ve learned the biggest difference between myself and the younger age and now is that if I find it easier to let the emotions through, I felt them before. But to really communicate them as well, that’s a different thing to really make somebody else feel what you’re singing. It’s tricky, a fine line to cross. If there’s anything that really changed or improved in that sense, it’s that.Now that tours are being cancelled left, right, and centre, is there any plans for Nightwish to get out on the road? Or is it all up to fate now? I can’t imagine Nightwish half-assing…well, anything.[laughs] The band which doesn’t really do things on the spot, no. We were supposed to start a world tour last week, right after the release. We were supposed to fly to funny enough, China. First time to start a world tour where there and the timing could not have been worse, but of course, so I’m not in China. Then we were supposed to go to South America, Russia and then the summer festivals here in Europe and North America in September and Europe and North in October, November, sorry, and December. I have no idea what’s going to happen. Obviously China’s not happening, South America’s not happening. Russia’s not happening. The Netherlands at least just announced that every festival for rest of the summer will be cancelled, and I expect the rest of Europe to do the same. Obviously the U.S. is a total nightmare and I don’t think things will be peachy by the time it’s September. I just hope that we can do our European tour.As for coming back to Australia, it was in the pipeline. For the second half of the tour. But I have no idea because everything is constantly shifting.Have you explored doing the whole “gig from home” thing that’s becoming rather popular?Well, no. The way I look at it, I think, “A for effort”, but I don’t think it’s that cool. So I don’t really see us doing that, but I can imagine us doing something. It all depends on how things evolve because we already live in three different countries, so as long as we can fly, we can’t really do anything as a band together. Something like play an empty venue. So we need to really wait for a bit and I’m very happy that at least we released a new album. So we’re providing people with the best of material possible. We can’t travel to see each other, so we have to take it as it comes.I can hear birds chirping all over the place. You must live somewhere quite nice.Absolutely. In the countryside. Not a neighbour in sight. It’s a sunny day. We don’t get much sunshine so we have to make the most of it!Can we swap?[laughs] What time is it there?It’s about six in the evening. You?Nine thirty in the morning. You’ve already had your Wednesday.I have. The future…is pretty boring. But, what can you to do?[pauses] Well, I really think this from this misery will come something good, because I think this is a global wake-up call. And I don’t mean that in a doomy, apocalyptic way, but I mean in a wake-up call that we’ve must realise that it’s a fact that we overpopulate countries, and a virus will come because that’s nature. And that it’s an amazing fact that we don’t realise, and this is way more shocking than the fact that we were not prepared for it. It’s way more shocking than the realisation of this simple fact. How can it be that we didn’t prepare ourselves for this? How could it be that not a single government on the planet has an organised protocol for these kinds of situations.I think things will really change. We have to think a little bit harder in how we continue from this point forward because we’re part of nature. It’s what I really like with this album because it really taps into this theme, but from a loving perspective. We are part of nature, so we better start acting a bit more accordingly. Because we’re fine as long as we do that, we still are. We haven’t screwed up entirely. There’s still a chance, but the time is now, and this virus I think shows us this fact more. I don’t like the doom talking of Greta Thunberg, saying we shouldn’t have any more child births. But I do really think that for us all it’s time to look again in how we do things. Because the only way for a proper survival is that, and then there’s beauty.That’s interesting you say that. I think a lot of people are shocked because we’ve tried so hard to conquer nature and then nature shows us that no, we really haven’t. Perhaps more people will realise that.Yeah, I really hope so. The governments and the bigger companies really move forward with this knowledge; this was a wake-up call, nothing more. It doesn’t account for all the people that has already lost their lives from this virus. However, there is still plenty of time left to rethink our ways.
Tracey Moyle: Hi Floor, thank you for taking the time out to talk to Silver Tiger Media.Floor Jansen: Sure, glad to do so. It’s wonderful to speak to Australia again.TM: Congratulations on the success of Human :||: Nature for Nightwish.FJ: Thank you.TM: I’m looking forward to talking about the new album but firstly, and I guess this time is a pretty strange topical moment in our lives. I hope you and everyone you know is well. And that you are all coping with the current state the world is in.FJ: Yes we are all healthy at least. We’re coping well. It’s a shitty situation to be in but we’re trying to see the positive of it and just very grateful to have the most important thing there is to have at the moment and that is our good health. The rest is shit but its just time. If we can survive all this then the world will go on as it does.TM: Not taking away from all of the terrible things that are happening I am hoping there will be a lot of positive changes and things that come out of this with human nature itself as well as the environment.FJ: I hope so, I really hope so. I think this was a wake up call that needed to come unfortunately. Hopefully it inspires the world leaders and bigger companies to change their ways fundamentally. TM: I agree. Just to see that things can be better, but that is a whole other environmental conversation.FJ: I agree. I agree. (laughs)TM: At the beginning of the year you went on a sold out solo tour. Did you manage to complete the tour before the virus closed venues?FJ: No, unfortunately no. All the big stuff that I still had lined up is all postponed.I booked a few smaller shows because I didn’t know what I could do with it. I sold them out, the few smaller ones, I sold them out. Then I added that one big show that I sold out also in a day, and that big show I haven’t done. It doesn’t seem possible it will happen this year so hopefully I can move them to the next. But of course, all the Nightwish stuff is also moving, so it was already a miracle that these things could coexist but I have no idea for the future how I’m going to do that because I can’t really tell Nightwish to not book a show on a date that I have, it doesn’t work like that for a band of our size so lets see what happens. I’m grateful for the things that I have been doing and the ball has started to roll in my home country its still rolling so it’s wonderful to see. We’ll take it as it comes from there.TM: It’s great that you have your own solo work. There was a big gap between Nightwish albums. FJ: Well, it’s not because I had solo work, it’s because the band wanted a break. It’s because we went on a world tour without making a record. So it has nothing to do with my solo aspirations. I didn’t really have the ambition to start with to do anything solo but I got asked to do this TV show (“Beste Zangers” (“Best Singers”)), which is a huge thing in the Netherlands to do. It’s all about music where I can show off who I am and what I do and I did that only with the desire to bring awareness to the Dutch audience that Metal is not only what they think it is. It has a very bad reputation, people think its noise and it’s not for them. They had no idea that Nightwish can bring so much more nuance to the content. And that was openly welcomed and from that, my solo career started to occur which was not something I ambitioned or seemingly had time for. So I manage to squeeze in a few shows and from there it just rolled on you know, kind of out of control. Now something has really happened it would be stupid to not do anything with it and the funny thing is with this pandemic though, is I can not tour but I can write. And had I not been in this situation where I came into last year I probably wouldn’t write. I wouldn’t see the need of it and now it feels like I have a purpose for the ideas I’ve been building up in my head for the last few years. Because I have not been writing for years and that is just a lovely thing I think. Once again I can’t really play anything at the moment but its nice to be creative for something like this.TM: Do you find that by doing solo work and tapping in and keeping in touch with your own creativity, going out on your own maybe you bring back your truest version of yourself to the band?FJ: Well I don’t need to bring anything back because its always been there, but it taps into a different type of my creativity because I’ve always been writing and I don’t do that in Nightwish but there I allure to use my song writing skills or my creative skills in a different way because when you have a band with such a master songwriter I don’t really feel any need to come in and say ‘ Hey I had this melody in my head’, so I come in differently there and I feel very satisfied with what I can do. Like I said, it’s never been an ambition to get the solo thing moving like this, it just happened and I now can use the creative thing but it doesn’t feel like I built up the desire to do that really like, ‘Oh man I don’t like what I’m doing in Nightwish I really miss that’, that’s the different perspective.TM: The master songwriter you are talking about is of course Tuomas Holopainen. The new album Human :||: Nature is absolutely epic. It deserves all the success it has had so far in such a short time from its release. It’s a beautiful album, it’s grounding and uplifting at the same time.FJ: Nice, that’s nice to hear.TM: I’ve been listening too the album a lot over the last week and from the second I heard it, it resonated with me perfectly. Musically it’s broad and incredibly complex in the most wonderful way. You should be very proud of it.FJ: Wow, Thank you. We are. It’s lovely to hear these compliments about it that it moved you so much. It’s wonderful. Thank you.TM: I love the way you have such control over your vocals, almost in a theatrical way, it’s something that I find such a skill. Do you have a continual practise that keeps you vocally fit or in control or is this an amazing natural ability?FJ: I sing every day but not train every day. But I think it’s a combination of being born with just a really fine set of vocal chords and extensive training that I’ve done in my early years. I have studied for many years and have been extremely careful with my vocal chords and so the whole apparatus seems pretty well conditioned. But it’s still a growing thing you know. Its like you don’t stop working ever so I’m ready to find out new sounds, I’m ageing so your body’s changing and along comes more things in the voice somehow, I find that its just getting richer.TM: In the opening track Music, your vocals are so precisely varied I imagine you would need to submerse yourself into the song itself to perfect that?FJ: Oh god, surely with the fist track, because the melody is so insanely difficult it has to be sung so meticulous or else it just starts to float and it becomes chaotic and it misses the beautiful flow of it. It’s a find line there if you sing it too perfect it becomes emotionless. So exactly in that song I had to really dissect it. First I had to learn the melody, then I had to learn to sing the melody, then I had to sing it so much that it became muscle memory so I don’t need to think about everything all the time. From there you can start to add – ‘what am I singing’, ‘what is it about’, ‘what is the emotion behind the song’, ‘what is the story in this part and in that part’ and ‘what is the meaning of all the words’. Yeah, that was some work, for sure. But it was a lovely challenge because I can’t remember being that challenged as I have been in that album, in a long time; to really, really, really practise, to get it right. “TM: Well you stood up to the challenge, you sing that song like a master storyteller tells a tale. It’s absolutely beautiful.FJ: Oh wow, thank you.
Sadly no Nevski & The Prospects in Oulu yet, but we are happy to announce that we'll play @Qstock (Oulu, Finland) in 2021!
