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Dark Passion Play

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Untitled

Dark Passion Play is the upcoming sixth studio album from Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish. It is scheduled for release on September 26, 2007 through Spinefarm and on September 28, 2007 through Nuclear Blast and Roadrunner Records. It is band's sixth studio album and the first album to feature the band's new lead vocalist, Anette Olzon, and the first without former vocalist Tarja Turunen, due to her departure in October 2005. Dark Passion Play will be the band's first studio album in three years, the longest non-album gap in their history.

It reportedly cost over 500,000€ to create — twice the cost of "Once" — making it the most expensive Finnish album ever recorded. Most of this money was spent at Abbey Road Studios with the London Session Orchestra, and an extra 270,000€ was spent recording the videos[3].

The first single from the album, "Eva," was released on May 25 2007[4] as a download-only single. The income of the single will be donated to children's charity (Finland: familyhomes "Viliina" and "Tiaisen Pesä"; the rest of the Europe: "Die Arche"). On August 22, about a month before the album's release, a second single entitled "Amaranth" will be released[5]. The third single of the album will be "Bye Bye Beautiful", but the date of the release is still unknown.

The band is cooperating with the London Session Orchestra and Metro Voices Choir, as they did for Once. They are also working with several guest musicians—band founder, keyboardist and main songwriter, Tuomas Holopainen, commented that people might be wondering what's going on with all the musicians running to and from the recording building in London[6].

The first information about the album and its singles was revealed on February 19 on the band's official website[7]. The title and artwork were revealed on June 13[8]. The album was leaked on July 23rd, 2007.

Recording

Music

Holopainen's written songs became recorded demo versions during 2006, and the band entered studios to record "Dark Passion Play" on autumn 2006. The recording were taking their time till spring 2007. 15 songs were recorded at first[9], and the final album holds 13 except the bonus tracks. The progress began with Jukka Nevalainen's drum recordings, then the recordings of guitars and bass, followed up by the keyboards. The orcestral recordings took place in Abbey Road Studios in London and was set in two parts, one in mid December and the next in February. After Anette Olzon had been chosen to be the lead singer in February, 2007, her and Hietala's vocal recordings started immediately.

In the producing of "Dark Passion Play", Nightwish worked together with the London Session Orchestra and Metro Voices Choir, as in the producing of "Once". About 80 % includes the same people as on "Once", and the orchestra is a bit larger since it[10]. Pretty much of the recording progress was the same as the production of "Once". For example they used the same studio, Abbey Road.

Music videos

At least two videos are so far produced for the album, the first one being the single "Amaranth" and the second one being "Bye Bye Beautiful", which also is the third single. They were shot in Los Angeles in spring 2007[11]. The cost of the videos so far is about 270.000€.

New vocalist

In October 2005, after the tourings of the last studio album "Once", the lead singer of the band since the foundation in 1996, Tarja Turunen was kicked out of the band through an open letter. To find a replacement for Turunen as the female vocalist of the band, on March 17, 2006 the band allowed vocalists interested for the position to send in demo tapes as an audition for the spot. The band stated that it was looking for a vocalist with the ability to sing with good dynamics and versatility. However, to the surprise of some fans, the band did not specifically ask for a classically trained singer, but were open to a variety of styles and backgrounds. By the time auditions were over on January 15, 2007, the band had received over 2000 demo tapes[12].

File:Nightwish2007.jpg
Nightwish's Dark Passion Play lineup. From left to right: Marco, Tuomas, Anette, Emppu and Jukka.

During this time, speculation began to emerge as to who would eventually succeed Turunen as the female vocalist for the band. The band stated on their website that fans should not believe any source other than the band itself for information regarding the new vocalist. On May 24, 2007 it was announced on the official Nightwish website that Anette Olzon is the new vocalist. Joking with the previous rumors, in the news regarding the new singer, it was written "So without further ado, click the following links to get to know Liv Sarah Marcela Vibeke Anette..." ("Liv" referring to Liv Kristine of Leaves' Eyes; "Sarah" to Sarah Brightman; "Marcela" to Marcela Bovio of Stream of Passion; and "Vibeke" to Vibeke Stene formerly of Tristania - all female leads in fellow metal bands). In an interview, Holopainen said that they decided that Olzon would be the new vocalist in the end of January, 2007. She had been among the first twenty vocalists to send in a demo, making a huge impression singing the old Nightwish song "Ever Dream" from the album "Century Child"[13].

Naturally we will focus on the new ones like we'd been doing before because when you put up a new album you wanna play the new songs. But we're absolutely not going to forget the old song neither. I'm sure that the future playing lists will include songs from the previous albums as well. I think we can never get rid of songs like "Nemo" or "Wishmaster" or "Sleeping Sun". But of course it's gonna be a huge task for the singer - she will be always compared to Tarja but I'm pretty confident that she'll do well.
-Tuomas Holopainen regarding Anette Olzon's ability to perform old Nightwish hit songs[14]

Leaks

The first leak from the album was obviously "Eva", the first single that was released six days before the actual release (on May 24, 2007) on a British downloading site, forcing Nightwish to release the single earlier to get better selling records. In June the same year, several songs were leaked in a poor quality on sites such as YouTube and torrent sites.

As of July 20, the songs which have been leaked in full are "Eva", "The Poet and the Pendulum", "Amaranth", "Cadence of Her Last Breath", and "Bye Bye Beautiful". Poor quality samples of all the other songs have also been leaked, excluding "Eva". "Eva", "Amaranth" and "Bye Bye Beautiful" are reportedly the first three singles.

Reception

Nightwish had risen to fame with the operatic vocals of Tarja Turunen whose departure in October 2005 led to a new vocalist, Anette Olzon. Before the revealing of the new vocalist, rumors were spread saying that Nightwish would be torn apart by the lack of Tarja's signature vocals. Earlier in the band's history Tuomas Holopainen had said that the eventual future departure of Turunen definitely would lead to the end of Nightwish. Ever since the release of "Once", though, Holopainen has said that Nightwish is the mirror of his soul and after Turunen was kicked out of the band in an open letter, he has stated that Nightwish would definitely survive no matter what. However, Holopainen had expected for "the barbecue (of Olzon) to be much worse" than it turned out to be in the end[15].

Many earlier fans had already started major discussions on the net after the release of "Eva" that this would be the end of Nightwish[16][17], something that the Nightwish crew had expected. This was a big reason of letting the revealing of Anette Olzon be close to the release of "Eva" so that she wouldn't get totally exhausted by the fans before even getting a chance to prove herself.

As of June 27 four songs are featured as samples on Nightwish's official website - "Eva", "7 Days to the Wolves", "Master Passion Greed" and "Amaranth" [18]. The samples are between thirty seconds and a minute long, with "7 Days to the Wolves" being the longest at fifty-six seconds. The samples are of different styles and feature the singing of both Hietala and Olzon. The samples and illegal leaks of "Dark Passion Play" have received much better reception than "Eva" leading to more fans looking forward to further releases.

The Pendulum

Through the album, a pendulum is in many ways involved. For example it is showed on the album cover and on several posters, band pictures and in the song "The Poet and the Pendulum", the first track.

Faster Harder Nightwish

Faster Harder Nightwish was announced as the title of the upcoming record on April 1, 2007 on the official website. The title is possibly a take on the Scooter album, Faster Harder Scooter. They also released a picture of new cover artwork, which led viewers to believe that they were changing their style completely, from symphonic power metal to something more like thrash metal. Only hours from this and it was possible to find a "promo sampler" of the album on several peer-to-peer networks. It was later stated on their official website that this was an April Fool's joke due to the date.[19][20]

Merchandise

Official Nightwish posters and the 2008 calendar started pre-selling in June, 2007[21], together with the Spinefarm releases of the second single, "Amaranth".

Live performances

Tour

Due to the upcoming album, a Nightwish tour has been planned. As of June 28, 2007, it is announced that the first concert will be in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 6. This will be followed of a North American tour beginning on October 15 in Springfield and ending in Atlanta on November 17. This will be followed up by a Scandinavian tour ending in Finland on January 1, 2008[22][23]. Presales for the North American tour are already available, as are the Scandinavian presales.

Tuomas has in an interview said that this will be the largest tour they've ever made, and that they probably will be touring for about two and a half years[24]. This was verified still to be sure by Anette Olzon in June, 2007[25].

On March 15, it was announced that Paradise Lost will be supporting Nightwish on the North American tour after the release of their eleventh studio album In Requiem.[26][27][28].

Song listing

Killing off the rumours saying that Olzon never will be capable of performing old Nightwish hit songs, Holopainen have said that the tours' song listing will be divided equally with songs of the album and older Nightwish song[29]. He is not afraid that Olzon will not be able to perform the songs that Turunen usually sang, as she even on her demo showed of her ability performing for example "Ever Dream"[30]. He has also said that they will play the band's greatest hits, such as "Nemo", "Sleeping Sun" and "Wishmaster", as they have earlier in their live performances.

Music

Music style

File:Nightwishonce.jpg
Nightwish's fifth album: Once.

Lead band member Tuomas Holopainen has in an interview said that the album will have a lot in common with the last album (Once). For example, the band will keep the new kind of harder songs (such as "Nemo", "Wish I Had an Angel" and "Planet Hell"), but there will as well be softer ballads. The new album includes lots of guest musicians and orchestral parts - in the same interview, Tuomas said that as they recorded Once they had 18 people in the choir, and still this wasn't enough.

There are also going to be "shockers" that Tuomas didn't want to reveal. The longest song is "The Poet and the Pendulum", a song that due to him is a very personal epic piece that is a lot like film music, and it lasts for about 14 minutes. Music engineer Mikko Karmila has as well stated that the style is much more progressive than earlier.

the extremes are there more then ever before. So it's not going to be like Century Child 2. There is more hope in some of the new songs.
-Tuomas Holopainen[31]

Tuomas has also stated that there are darker pieces reminiscent of Century Child, such as "The Poet and the Pendulum", and some others. Both musically and lyrically, there will be darkness. Though, this album will hold much more happiness and hope than "Century Child", in a way[32].

Growling will be featured on the album, by keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen[33]. And as several tracks are written and sung entirely by male vocalist Marco Hietala, it is expected that songs will be darker and heavier than before.

"While Your Lips Are Still Red", a bonus track on the Amaranth single, is the first song featuring Marco Hietala's softer vocals. Before, Hietala is known for the heavier screamings and sometimes even growlings in the songs. "While Your Lips Are Still Red" is written by Tuomas as the main theme track for the upcoming Finnish feature film "Lieksa!" Technically, it's not a Nightwish-track as it only features Marco on vocals, Tuomas on keys and Jukka on drums.

The track listing's median track length (Spinefarm Records' version with 13 songs) is 5.8 minutes, with most of the songs lasting for about four minutes. Two tracks are over seven minutes long, which is long for Nightwish, a band that earlier had most of the songs on about 4-5 minutes and one or two longer per album. One song, "The Poet and the Pendulum" is the longest in the band's history, 13:53, almost four minutes longer than the song that used to have that position, "Beauty of the Beast".

Lyrical themes

Song titles marked "*" are bonus tracks.

Credits

It seems like the writing credits will be more shared between the band members on this album than the earlier albums; several songs are written entirely by Marco Hietala, and at least one track has music written by Emppu Vuorinen, and lyrics by Tuomas Holopainen[34].

Anette Olzon said in a diary entry on Nightwish.com that she and Marco Hietala are co-singing on several songs, and on at least two tracks, Marco sings by himself[35]. Holopainen is also growling on one track. Before Century Child, former vocalist Tarja Turunen sang close to entirely by herself, but on Century Child, Hietala started to sing not only backing vocals but larger parts by himself. It seems like Hietala now will be given much more space.

Current band members

Guests:

Track listing

Spinefarm Records

# Title Composer Length Release Notes
1 "The Poet and the Pendulum" Holopainen 13:53 2007-09-28 Musical Score
2 "Bye Bye Beautiful" Holopainen 4:14 2007-09-28 The third single.
3 "Amaranth" - 3:51 2007-08-22 The second single.
4 "Cadence of Her Last Breath" - 4:14 2007-09-28
5 "Master Passion Greed" - 6:02 2007-09-28
6 "Eva" Holopainen 4:24 2007-05-25 The first single.
7 "Sahara" - 4:25 2007-09-28
8 "Whoever Brings the Night" Vuorinen 5:47 2007-09-28
9 "For the Heart I Once Had" - 3:55 2007-09-28
10 "The Islander" Hietala 5:05 2007-09-28
11 "Last of the Wilds" - 5:40 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
12 "7 Days to the Wolves" - 7:03 2007-09-28
13 "Meadows of Heaven" - 7:10 2007-09-28

Total Running Time: 1:15:43

Spinefarm Records 2CD Digi-Pak

CD 1

# Title Composer Length Release Notes
1 "The Poet and the Pendulum" Holopainen 13:53 2007-09-28
2 "Bye Bye Beautiful" - - 2007-09-28
3 "Amaranth" - - 2007-08-22 The second single.
4 "Cadence of Her Last Breath" - - 2007-09-28
5 "Master Passion Greed" - - 2007-09-28
6 "Eva" Holopainen 04:24 2007-05-25 The first single.
7 "Sahara" - - 2007-09-28
8 "Whoever Brings the Night" Vuorinen - 2007-09-28
9 "For the Heart I Once Had" - - 2007-09-28
10 "The Islander" Hietala - 2007-09-28
11 "Last of the Wilds" - - 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
12 "7 Days to the Wolves" - - 2007-09-28
13 "Meadows of Heaven" - - 2007-09-28

CD 2

# Title Composer Length Release Notes
1 "The Poet and the Pendulum" Holopainen 13:53 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
2 "Bye Bye Beautiful" - - 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
3 "Amaranth" - - 2007-08-22 Instrumental.
4 "Cadence of Her Last Breath" - - 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
5 "Master Passion Greed" - - 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
6 "Eva" Holopainen 04:24 2007-05-25 Instrumental.
7 "Sahara" - - 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
8 "Whoever Brings the Night" Vuorinen - 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
9 "For the Heart I Once Had" - - 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
10 "The Islander" Hietala - 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
11 "Last of the Wilds" - - 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
12 "7 Days to the Wolves" - - 2007-09-28 Instrumental.
13 "Meadows of Heaven" - - 2007-09-28 Instrumental.

Bonus tracks

# Title Composer Length Release Notes
"Reach" 2007-08-22 Bonus track on the Amaranth single. Demo version of Amaranth
"While Your Lips Are Still Red" Holopainen 04:30 2007-06-15 Bonus track on the Amaranth single.
"Eva (Orchestral Version)" 2007-08-22 Bonus track on the Amaranth single.
"Amaranth (Orchestral Version)" 2007-08-22 Bonus track on the Amaranth single.
"Eva (Demo Version)" 2007-08-22 Bonus track on the Amaranth single.

Singles

There will be at least three singles for the album. The first one was "Eva", which was a radio single only. The second one is entitled "Amaranth", and will be released in August 2007, succeded by the actual album about a month after. The second single will be a normal single. [36]. The Amaranth single will be released in two versions, and the first version's track listing was revealed on June 21, as the pre-sales began[37]. Third single will be "Bye Bye Beautiful".

"Eva" [I]

Released
May 25 2007

"Eva" was released as the first single from the album, a radio single available on major download sites from May 25. It was the first material to feature the new singer, Anette Olzon. Since it is a radio single only, it only features one track. Originally it was supposed to be released on May 30, but it was instead released earlier, due to a leak.

Main article: Eva (song)
Chart position
-
Track listing

Radio single

  1. "Eva"
"Amaranth" [III]
File:Cover amaranth.jpg

Released
August 22, 2007 (Spinefarm Records)
August 24, 2007 (Nuclear Blast Records)

"Amaranth" will be released on August 22 as the first real single, the second in total, from the album. It will also feature the song "While Your Lips Are Still Red", the main theme of a Finnish movie released in September 2007. "While Your Lips Are Still Red" doesn't feature all the band members, only Marco Hietala, Tuomas Holopainen and Jukka Nevalainen.

Main article: Amaranth (song)
Chart position
-
Track listing

Spinefarm Version[38]
CD 1

  1. "Amaranth"
  2. "Reach ("Amaranth" Demo Version)"
  3. "Eva (Orchestral Version)"
  4. "While Your Lips Are Still Red"

CD 2

  1. "Amaranth (Orchestral Version)"
  2. "Eva (Demo Version)"
"Bye Bye Beautiful"

Released
2007/2008

Main article: Bye Bye Beautiful
Chart position
-
Track listing
-

Notes

I. ^ The first single of the album, to be released on May 30 2007, as a preview of the album. This was the first known track of the album, revealed in February 2007.[39]
II. ^ An epic piece that is dear to Tuomas, including orchestral parts. It is much like for example Beauty of the Beast (from Century Child) and Ghost Love Score (Once).[40]
III. ^ The second single of the album, to be released in August 2007.
IV. ^ More info.

References

  1. ^ Nuclearblast
  2. ^ "TuomasHolopainen.net: Interview"
  3. ^ TuomasHolopainen.net - News
  4. ^ "Nightwish "EVA" aikaistuu" in Finnish
  5. ^ Nightwish.com - News
  6. ^ "TuomasHolopainen.net: Interview"
  7. ^ Nightwish.com - Eagerly awaited new Nightwish music announced!
  8. ^ Nightwish.com - News
  9. ^ TuomasHolopainen.net - Interview
  10. ^ TuomasHolopainen.net - Interview
  11. ^ Nightwish.com - Nightmail
  12. ^ "The auditions for the new vocalist have ended"
  13. ^ Roadrunner Records Official Website
  14. ^ TuomasHolopainen.net - Interview
  15. ^ Roadrunner Records Official Website
  16. ^ Last.fm - Nightwish
  17. ^ Nightwish.com
  18. ^ Nightwish.com Audio
  19. ^ "Nightwish.com - April fools!"
  20. ^ "Nightwish.com - New album's title and cover revealed"
  21. ^ TuomasHolopainen.net - News
  22. ^ Nightwish.com: Tour dates
  23. ^ Nightwish.com: News
  24. ^ "TuomasHolopainen.net: Interview"
  25. ^ Roadrunner Records - Interview with Anette and Tuomas
  26. ^ "Nightwish.com - Tour dates"
  27. ^ "Nightwish.com - North-American tour dates revealed"
  28. ^ "Nightwish.com - PARADISE LOST to support NW on the 2007 US tour"
  29. ^ Roadrunner Records - Interview with Anette and Tuomas
  30. ^ Roadrunner Records - Interview with Anette and Tuomas
  31. ^ TuomasHolopainen.net - Interview
  32. ^ "TuomasHolopainen.net: Interview"
  33. ^ Nightwish.com - Studio Diary
  34. ^ Nightwish.com - Studio Diary
  35. ^ Nightwish.com - Studio Diary
  36. ^ Nightwish.com - Eagerly awaited new Nightwish music announced!
  37. ^ Nightwish-Shop - Amaranth Single
  38. ^ Nightwish-Shop - Amaranth Single
  39. ^ "Nightwish.com - The auditions for the new vocalist have ended"
  40. ^ "TuomasHolopainen.net: Interview"
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