NIGHTWISH's 'Human. :II: Nature.' Debuts In Top 10 In More Than Dozen Countries

NIGHTWISH's new album, "Human. :II: Nature.", has debuted in the Top 10 in more than a dozen countries, including Finland, Germany, Canada, Austria, Hungary and Switzerland.

The LP has registered the following first-week chart positions:

Finland #1
Germany #1
Canada #2
Austria #2
Switzerland #2
Hungary #2
Poland #3
Portugal #3
Australia #4
Norway #4
Czech Republic # 4
Netherlands #4
Japan #8
Scotland #9
Belgium #11
Sweden #11
Slovakia #12
Italy #45
UK #53
France #53
USA #110

"Human. :II: Nature." was released on April 10 via Nuclear Blast. The long-awaited follow-up to 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" is a double album containing nine tracks on the main CD and one long track, divided into eight chapters, on CD 2.

"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 NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen and Tero Kinnunen. Mastering was done by Mika Jussila at Finnvox.

Speaking to Germany's Rock Bottom, Holopainen said about "Human. :II: Nature.": "The original idea was not to do a double album. We thought we can fit all the material on one album, but since a CD only takes about 78 minutes of material and the album is 83 minutes long, or something like that, we had to split it into two discs. Which ended up being a brilliant decision, because now it even makes more sense when you think about the dynamics of the album. It's 'Human. :II: Nature.'. And the first nine songs are all about humans telling stories about humanity, human nature, about other humans, with a human voice. Then, after that, you flip the disc and go into the nature for half an hour for some instrumental escapism. So that's the 'nature' part of the album."

Asked if "Human. :II: Nature." is a concept album, Tuomas said: "I wouldn't use the term 'concept album,' but there is a little theme that's running through all the songs, so in a way, it is a thematic album. At some point through the songwriting process, I realized that the word 'human' appears in all the songs, and these are all somehow connected. Then I kind of realized that, 'Okay, this song is about the power of human imagination,' 'This song is about the power of human empathy,' 'This song is all about music descending on mankind,' 'This song is about human versus technology.' So, 'Okay, let's call this album 'Human'.' But that doesn't sound quite right, so the last song, it's all about the beauty of planet Earth. The last song is kind of like NIGHTWISH's love letter to planet Earth. So that's nature — human nature. That's how we came up with the title of the album."

NIGHTWISH's new album marks the band's second full-length effort with Dutch singer Floor Jansen, who has been touring with the group since 2012.