NIGHTWISH Has Completed Recording New Album: 'I'm Very, Very Happy With It,' Says FLOOR JANSEN

Floor Jansen has confirmed that NIGHTWISH has completed recording its new album for a spring 2020 release via Nuclear Blast. The disc will mark the band's second full-length effort with the Dutch singer, who has been touring with the group since 2012.

Speaking to FaceCulture, Jansen said about NIGHTWISH's follow-up to 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful": "I think we've made a very cool new album. I'm very, very happy with it. Already with the first notes, I [was, like], 'Oh, yeah. There we go.' It's as much NIGHTWISH thing you might expect from us as, 'Wow! What's this now? What's happening?' I can't really say too much about it, because there are a couple of things that are the same, a coupe of things that are different. But all I can say is I'm very happy with it and I'm very excited about it. And I think people that already knew NIGHTWISH will really enjoy this. And maybe the new people in the Netherlands [who discovered me through the Dutch reality TV show 'Beste Zangers'] will say, 'Hey, now that we know who Floor Jansen is, okay, now she's coming with a new album. [I'm] very excited to give it a shot.'"

According to Jansen, the new NIGHTWISH album sees her and her bandmates being challenged musically without compromising the essence of the group's sound.

"I do things that I didn't think I could do," she said. "When the first ideas came in, I was, like, 'Eh, okay, I need to study this.' [Laughs] [I was] really challenged. And it's not just that I need to challenge my bandmembers — it's just whatever comes out comes out. And then we're gonna see if we can do it or not and how we can make it sound good. That's also where the band really comes in and where I come in, where my creativity comes in. That's a very enjoyable process. [We go into] rehearsals [for] weeks and weeks and we go through everything — really try to set everything — and then we go and record it. And that's a really great way of working. It worked great for 'Endless Forms Most Beautiful', and we did the same now."

Jansen went on to say that "everybody" in NIGHTWISH was "very hungry" to begin work on the new LP. "Also, because after the last album, first we took time off," she said. "Then we did the 'Decades' tour. Instead of focusing on new [material], we went back in time, which was very, very, very cool to do. But now it's time for something new. So that was very nice. And to get back into the summer camp where we were years ago. It's such an enjoyable area to be — in the middle of nowhere in the Finnish nature. Really focused on just that. What a luxury. How special to do that."

NIGHTWISH will release "Decades: Live In Buenos Aires" on December 6 as a Blu-ray digibook, 2CD digipak, Blu-ray+2CD earbook and 3LP via Nuclear Blast. The set was recorded on September 30, 2018 at Estadio Malvinas in Buenos Aires, Argentina during the "Decades" tour in support of the band's compilation album of the same name.

The "Decades" tour ran from March 9, 2018 to December 15, 2018 and consisted of stops in 82 cities across Europe, North America and South America.