NIGHTWISH Mainman Issues New Album Update

Keyboardist/songwriter Tuomas Holopainen of Finnish/Swedish symphonic metallers NIGHTWISH has issued the following update:

"In the excitement of Yuletide magic I wrote there would be secrets revealed at the end of January.

"There are big things happening within and around the NIGHTWISH camp but the Big Boys and Bosses just sent me an ultimatum to keep my mouth shut for a couple more months, or I would wake up with a horse's head in my bed.

"I truly am very sorry about needing to keep future plans and sights still in secrecy. The purpose is not to annoy anybody or cause a carefully planned hype over the matter. Due to the changes in the schedule, things will be revealed later during the spring.

"The recordings [for the new NIGHTWISH album] continue.

"I'm off to E-Major Studios next weekend to put together all the files for the orchestral and choir sessions in London. I'm in daily contact with Mr. Pip Williams, going over the arrangements and new ideas for the songs. The demos he has sent me sound simply otherworldly! Beautiful, twisted, tribal and cinematic stuff. And with a theme album coming up, the mood changes seem to be more present than ever before.

"Yup, it still is the Burton-Gaiman-Dali — amusement park we are about to enter.

"More coming up once the mobsters grant me permission."

Holopainen recently gave the German edition of Metal Hammer magazine a video tour of the facility where he worked on the material for the band's follow-up to 2007's "Dark Passion Play". You can now watch the footage in two parts by following these links:

* Part 1
* Part 2

NIGHTWISH entered the studio in October 2010 to begin recording its new CD for a late 2011 release.

Regarding the musical direction of the forthcoming album, NIGHTWISH singer Anette Olzon recently wrote on her official blog, "I think it's a great and varied CD. The feelings in it are great and there are a lot of elements in it, so I am sure it will have many different favorite songs for the listeners since the songs are so different in styles and sound. 'Dark Passion Play' is a great album and this one, too, so I don't know yet which one I like more, but, of course, for me personally, this one feels better to do since the songs are more adjusted to my voice and my style."

The pre-production sessions for the new NIGHTWISH CD took place in "the deepest countryside of Finland," where most of the band spent several weeks finalizing the song arrangements and recording their instrumental parts.

NIGHTWISH played a special homecoming show in September 2009 at the sold-out, 11,000-capacity Hartwall Arena in Helsinki to mark the end of the band's colossal "Dark Passion Play" two-year world tour.

NIGHTWISH is not expected to play any more concerts until the release of the band's next studio album.