TUOMAS HOLOPAINEN On Next NIGHTWISH Album: 'All The Songs Are Now Done Musically'

NIGHTWISH keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen is putting the finishing touches on the songwriting process for the band's follow-up to 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" album. "All the songs are now done musically," he told Grasser Production in a new interview (see video below). "I'm still working on some lyrics. And, of course, the arrangement process, the rehearsals are gonna take months — it's gonna take all of next year, actually. But all the songs that are gonna be included on the album, with the titles, with the album title, everything's now there. So from now on, it's just the arranging and the polishing the corners."

This past July, Holopainen revealed that he had "about 80 or 90 percent of the material" already written for the next NIGHTWISH album. "It's gonna be 10, 11 songs, most likely," he said. "And we're gonna start recording next summer, in July, so if everything goes as planned, we're looking at a spring 2020 release."

Tuomas also said that there is a lyrical theme tying together all the songs he has written for NIGHTWISH's next record, but he declined to elaborate, saying: "No other bandmembers have heard anything. We've had some discussions over the things and some of the songs, but it's in such an early stage, and I'm still working at home on my own, so… let's keep it a mystery a while longer."

NIGHTWISH's next album will mark the band's second full-length release with singer Floor Jansen, who has been touring with the group since 2012.

NIGHTWISH has spent the last few months on the road in support of its recently released "Decades" compilation.