Nightwish
Album title: "Dark Passion Play"
Release Date: September 28
What's the story? Nothing gets your inspiration juices flowing quite like turbulence. Just ask Nightwish. Shortly following the recording of live DVD "End Of An Era" in the winter of 2005, the Finnish metallers sacked frontwoman Tarja Turunen and began the lengthy hunt for a new vocalist. Since then, the band have hired Swedish singer Anette Olzon and got stuck into making the follow-up to 2004's "Once".
"It's ridiculousy huge, rich and ambitious," keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen reveals. "It's possibly the darkest album and the heaviest album that we've done. When an artist creates something, it always reflects what is going on in his or her own life at that moment. 2005 was the worst year of my life because of what was going on in the band and also what was going on with my personal life.
"As corny as it sounds, the music was my defence mechanism against the world and it really helped through all of that," he adds.
Considering Nightwish were the ones who galvanised the female-fronted gothic metal genre, it's a surprise to hear that male vocals pop up on this offering, and a whole song goes by featuring only them, those of bassist Marco Hietala.
"Some of the lyrics were things that we couldn't really put into the mouth of any vocalist." explains Holopainen. "So Marco ended up singing those and then there was Marco's own song, so he naturally wanted to sing it!"
That's not the onlt scuffing of the genre guidelines on Nightwish's sixth release- the last four songs, beginning with the crashing waves and instrumental of "The Islander" betray both a passion and skill for Irish folk music that a band from the dark heart of Scandinavia shouldn't be able to manage.
"I've always been a fan of Celtic folk and Irish music," laughs Holopainen. "We're not a prisoner of any format and it's a blessing that we can do almost anything and it still sounds like Nightwish!"
Sample track titles: "The Poet And The Pendulum", "Aramanth", "Eva", "The Islander", "Last Of The Wilds".