NIGHTWISH's Next Album Will Be Third Part Of A Trilogy

NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen spoke to Rauta about what fans can expect from the band's upcoming follow-up to 2020's "Human. :II: Nature." album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I feel it's gonna be the third part of a trilogy started by 'Endless Forms Most Beautiful' [2015] followed by 'Human. :II: Nature.' and then finished by this upcoming album."

According to Tuomas, NIGHTWISH's next LP will cover previously uncharted ground while continuing in the more cinematic style that has characterized some of the band's recent efforts.

"There's always something new," he explained. "It's important for my own mental health, when it comes to writing music, that you need to search for some new territories and try not to repeat yourself. And that can be heard on the upcoming album, for sure, already on the demo that we've done."

Asked if NIGHTWISH's upcoming LP will once again be an exploration of evolutionary science, as was the case with the previous two releases, Tuomas said: "Yes and no. It sails on the same waters, but there's some new surprises there as well."

Holopainen went on to say that NIGHTWISH fans will have to wait a while before hearing new music from the band. "We'll enter the studio next year and the album is gonna come out maybe early 2024," he said.

Last month, Holopainen told Knotfest that he and his bandmates had spent "the past few weeks" listening to a demo of the next NIGHTWISH album. "Because of COVID, lots of free time, I decided to use that well, so I wrote all the songs for the next album, demoed it, wrote the lyrics, and now we have been brainstorming over it with these guys," he said, referring to drummer Kai Hahto and the rest of NIGHTWISH.

Added Kai: "Yeah, it's been great. The six of us, in the same room, listening to fresh demos for the upcoming album, checking the lyrics and the vocal parts and stuff like that. So it's been wonderful. This man [Tuomas] has been really productive."

Earlier in the month, Tuomas told Rock Sverige that he spent "about a year" working on the music and lyrics for the next NIGHTWISH album, "and then we finished the demos about two months ago. We're hitting the studio next summer, so in about a year from now," he revealed. "Like I said, might as well use the time for something."

Asked if he got any kind of inspiration from the pandemic, Tuomas said: "Yeah, lyrically there's a couple of things that reflects the pandemic, but not in the way you would expect."

"Human. :II: Nature." was released in April 2020. The follow-up to 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" was a double album containing nine tracks on the main CD and one long track, divided into eight chapters, on CD 2.

In August, NIGHTWISH announced the addition of bassist Jukka Koskinen (WINTERSUN) as an official member of the band. Koskinen, who made his live debut with NIGHTWISH in May 2021 at the band's two interactive experiences, had spent the last year touring with NIGHTWISH as a session musician.