Metal Hammer

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SECRET OF THE SUMARIO

It’d be no mistake to state that the latest NW record is the most anticipated of the next release season. New singer, new tour, and, most of all, new songs that should prove their worth to an audience that still doesn’t understand why Tarja is no longer in the band. But Anette Olzon is the answer to any doubt. What the swedish singer has achieved in the new record is nothing short of spectacular. Sergi Ramos doesn’t want to be told about it and prefers to go to London and verify it for himself.

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The time has come. NW have summoned all the press from the european continent in a London hotel to a listening session of the new record of the band, “Dark Passion Play”. The speculation behind the songs of the new record is huge. The expectations behind Anette’s voice are exaggeratedly high. The anxiety of the fans reaches feverish extremes. Nonetheless, some 100 invitees had only one question in mind: can we take a photo in the mythical Abbey Road pedestrian crossing where the Beatles made history? As could be seen after the listening session, more than one fulfilled their most yearned for dream.

Meanwhile, in studio 2 of the mythical Abbey Road studios, those invitees tried to pretend like they weren’t thinking of that touristic photo de turno, but on the new album by the Finnish band that has climbed the most milestones in the past three years. And when Pip Williams (usual co-producer/collaborator in the releases of Status Quo and Barclay James Harvesti) took the stand and introduced the album to the audience, the attention level was certainly low. It wasn’t until the first track of the band’s new album exploded in all its splendor that the beers returned to the table, people got their papers and pens and everyone payed attention to the thirteen songs on the album during almost an hour and fifteen minutes. If only for the magnitude of the orchestration.

Nightwish themselves were in the room, talking amongst themselves and trying not to unveil any secrets before the record started to play. Funnily enough, Anette Olzon appeared to be the most confident of all the band members. The others seemed nervous. And for a good reason: after selling over a million records with Once, Nightwish decide to replace their frontwoman and give their symphonic metal an extra twist, carrying out one of the most expensive productions ever by a Finnish band: exactly 800.00 Euros was the price of the new Nightwish album and of the videos that accompany the release. The must be biting their nails to the quick(1) at Nuclear Blast.

First, an appology regarding the audio system, which didn’t properly reflect the details of the album. Pip Williams jokingly said, among (2) the invitees’ laughter, that “the sound is perfect” in his car. There was only a ten minute break, after “Eva”. The album is long and no one wanted the press to lose it’s attention level, so it was best to recovered strenght before facing the second and densest part of the new record.

What’s in “Dark Passion Play”? Musically speaking, it’s a huge record. It includes an obvious novelty, the new singer Anette Olzon. Anette has a much more acute (3) voice and that is reflected in the new songs: she doesn’t try to be Tarja, with operatical interludes every verse and a half. Anette is who she is and sings the way she sings, and for that we’re thankful. At the first listen (4), the feeling is just hard to explain. It doesn’t seem to be Nightwish, although it’s obvious by the sound of it. You miss Tarja’s voice, not because Anette is a bad singer but because you’re used to it. But after the initial thirteen minutes of “The Poet And The Pendulum” there is no doubt: Anette is the woman Nightwish needed. Just a detail: if the record had three less songs (5), it would have been round.

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RELIEVED!

After a supper consisting of a free buffet taken advantage of by the never full enough european reporters, Anette and Tuomas started a marathon of interviews that would end the night with the following conversation between Metal Hammer and the members of the Finnish band. They’d been talking for 3 hours non-stop. And still, they wanted more. Nightwish had probably not been this happy since the “Oceanborn” days!

How do you feel now that the album has been shown to the press and now that everybody knows you are the new nightwish singer?

A: Relieved. And happy of course...

Are you scared?

A: Not at all. Maybe I should be. (laughs)

T: Maybe soon you will find a mysterious open letter... (laughs)

A: That’s what I fear the most (laughs)

And you Tuomas, how do you feel after having revealed her name and now that you have revealed the details about the new album? You had to do lots of interviews and fight all kinds of rumors... I can only imagine that this is like a new start for you?

T: Relief. That is the right feeling. Though people still ask me about what happened a year and a half ago. Moreover, the first question I was asked today was: Why did you kick Tarja out of the band? (laughs) People are starting to get used to it, but they don’t forget. Still I don’t think much has changed. Four years ago we changed our bass player, now have changed the vocalist, it shouldn’t be a problem.

For some reason, I’d say that Tarja’s image as the front woman completely destroyed the image of ‘the band’, of being a band with several musicians. It wasn’t just an operatic singer with a band supporting her. There were other four member and there still are.

T: The best example of that is what a huge Finnish magazine published. In 2004, we saw an add that read “Tarja Turunen and her band are playing in Nosturi”.

A: It’s a very common problem in all bands. People tend to give all their attention to the vocalist only, I doesn’t matter if it is a girl or a boy, though it is more common with girls. People just forget it is a band, not just one person.

Tarja’s case was specially curious. In a short time Tarja became the image and soul of nightwish, and people seemed to forget that the creative force of the band was Tuomas. I remember interviewing you in 2004 and your expression was of complete depression. Did you feel like you were put in the background in you own band? (Like he was not given enough recognition)

T: The truth is I’ve never felt like that. I’ve never wanted all that “glory”, I’ve always liked to be a little more anonymous. I preferred seeing her face in the covers of magazines than seeing mine, that’s for sure. So that was never the problem. But there were a lot of people who forgot what her place in the band was, between the fans and the members of the band.

Ok, let’s leave it at that.

T: Yeah, let’s. (laughs)

When you started looking for a new vocalist, I suppose you wanted someone who could be in front of the band but not make it ‘her’ band.

T: That was THE most important aspect we were looking for when doing the auditions. The person who walked in had to be at the same level as the band. Nevertheless, the voice was the second most important aspect.

Anette is a very experienced vocalist, by herself and with Alyson Avenue. Did you ever doubt that you were at the level of a band like Nightwish?

A: Of course, but I never though I would be chosen. Even in the last day I thought they would say ‘thank you, but we don’t need you’. I’ve never liked taking things fro granted because I’ve always had to work a lot to get everything. I’ve always been a member of a band, or a chorus or even by myself – even if I like having some protagonism, obviously. But when doing interviews, for example, I prefer that we all answer the same amount of question.

If you're used to working as a team, I can imagine the band is halfway there. I suppose it was hard for you to be recording while there were still rumors about Simone (Epica), Liv (Leaves’ Eyes) and Vibeke (Tristania) flying around. Did it affect you or on the contrary, made you proud, that nobody thought you were the chosen one?

A: Do you mean when I already had the job? Well yeah, I liked to see how people made rumors and believed those were going to be the new vocalist. Nobody expected it to be me.

T: It was fun because we wanted to keep it as a secret until may. When the media started to post all this names, images and possibilities, week after week, they themselves damaged their credibility, so they did us a favor really.

A: And my name was mentioned, once or twice...

T: And the name of that girl from a Spanish band... Forever Slave or something like that.

And she did a lot of fuss about it, when she was contacted, as if she had been already chosen (laughs). I’d like to think that those rumors weren’t fabricated. Was there any rumor made up between Nightwish and Simone, Liv, Vibeke or someone similar?

T: We didn’t do anything to feed the rumors. We wanted to maintain it as secret as possible. We know that what happened with Tristania was a kind of publicity stunt for the band the label made up and I think Vibeke was not happy with it.

Anette, until now, is pretty unknown as a vocalist. Did you want somebody who was unknown to the public?

T: We really didn’t care if she was famous or not, or were she was from. Though, deep inside I though that if I had to make a choice I’d go for the most unknown person. We did not wanted someone who was already famous, with a big ego.

The auditioning process seems to be fun when you see shows like ‘Idol’ and ‘The X factor’ or something similar. You find people that already now that they won’t make it to the show, that they are terrible vocalist, but that they still give it a try…Did you receive stuff that made you laugh or cry at some point?

T: There were lots of things like that. I think it has to do with what those shows like ‘idol’ tend to show. There’s people that just hope to be lucky. But there were lots of candidates who thought they would make it. They believed they were ‘better than Tarja’ and stuff like that, and when you listen to them they are absolutely horrible. I don’t think we gave enough emphasis to the fact that we did not wanted a clone of that style. If you want some figures I can tell that we receive 2 thousand demos and only 50 were a little worth while.

Apart from Anette, was there any other candidate that could have been chosen?

T: I won’t give you names but from the ten we chose in the end, some were good and others not so much. There was one who was really good but who got scared at the audition.

Anette is not a girl anymore, she’s a woman with a life already fulfilled, even with children. I guess that when you entered Nighwish you set your priorities in life, especially for you family life.

A: Not really. I’ve already done stuff like this. For some reason, people tend to think that when you have a son and a husband you life is already complete and that everything is perfect. Well my life is not really perfect. Throughout my life, I haven’t really found my place. I’ve always had different kinds of jobs, but none that would fulfil me. That only thing that fulfilled me was singing, and I always thought, why can’t I do this for a living?
Of course I think my son might hate me for not being there for him as a mother, for not developing that roll completely. Maybe he’ll wonder why I am not there making cookies or stuff like that. I felt like that at some point, but everything was normal for me. Now that I’m older, I can identify better with how my mum felt about me.

It is normal to see that the father travels to bring the bread back home while the mother stays at the house watching the kids. I don’t know how it is in Sweden but it is quite normal here in Spain.

A: It is also very common in Sweden as well. My husband has worked very hard for many years and now he doesn’t want to do that anymore. So we have switched roles.

Will it be hard for you to go on tour? Will you take your family? Or do you prefer not to mix those worlds?

A: No, because I lived in a tour bus for many years with my mum, sleeping in changing rooms with loud music in the background. That is not the way a child should grow up. If he has the chance to live in a normal, home atmosphere, it’s better that way.

What is the best thing that you can give to Nightwish?

A: I hope I can give them positivity, Swedish positivity.

After having to deal with their Finnish shyness and their lack of ability to talk about stuff, I think it is a great advance!

A:I’m a very communicative woman, I guess you’ve noticed. (laughs) I say what I feel, and if I feel bad, I express it.

Don’t take it the wrong way, but I see in you a more “masculine” attitude than in the previous singer. Do you think you’ll mix well with the guys in the tour buses and dressing rooms or will you want to be apart?

A: I’m a woman with a very masculine touch. I’m very feminine too, at the right moment.

Tuomas is definitely the sensitive one. The one who writes the songs. The one who has that more artistic side. The one who, in fact, always seems constantly depressed.

T: But it is not an image created by me. This is who I am. No don’t think I have to make up an image as the ultimate NW writer, like ‘oooh I’m so mystical, and very artistic, and all that’ (laughs)

Let’s talk about DDP, the band’s new album. It’s much more full of orchestra. At times it feels like it’s an orchestra album with a metal band playing in the background. Tuomas, did you plan this so that in this album the orchestra would be more present?

T: I wanted to take the orchestra to the maximum in this album. That’s how I felt after finishing “Once”, but a couple of months later I felt like we could have done more with it. We’ve added twenty people in the orchestra and we’ve made bigger arrangements. And for the moment, we’re very happy with the result.

Do you think this could be a conflict for the fans? Obviously, Nightwish is a symphonic band, but if the “symphonic” part beats the “metal” part of it, maybe some fans will get confused.

T: I know what you’re saying. Maybe I’ve been too enthusiastic with the fact that the orchestra is very present, but it depends a lot on the song. Besides, the orchestra is not there so that we can say that we have an orchestra in our albums, it’s there because it magnifies the songs. The way I feel about this is that the orchestra covers my keyboard parts but with much more quality. They are a part of the band.

The album has a very cinematographic feeling. It is almost like hearing a movie without watching it.

T: You’ve taken the words out of my mouth, because this is how I think when I begin writing a song. Let’s say that this album has 13 little movies in it. I have the story of each song in my mind when I start writing the lyrics.

And what should we see when we listen to the lyrics?

T: Big emotions. Stories. As long as you see something, that’s good. You shouldn’t just listen.

The album was already recorded when you were told you were the new vocalist of the band. I can imagine you’d have some ideas of how your voice should sound in each song, did you feel a bit restricted by this?

A: No, because I am very used to working like this. In Alyson Avenue the composer does everything and then I come in and I do the vocals. We have talked about how we could improve this, but we haven’t given it a lot of tought.

But the vocal lines and its melodies had already been defined.

A: Yes but there were very few things that had to be changed.

T: There hasn’t been a single thing of this album that we had to change because she couldn’t do it. Our motto has always been ‘we have to do it with more emotion, we have to do it with more emotion’ (laughs).

Has there been this emotion in the studio?

A: Oh, I’ve ended up crying three times! Not in the studio, but at home, while practicing the songs. Today, when everyone from the press were listening to the album, I almost ended up crying again in Abbey Road.

Have you practiced the old songs of the band already?

A: Yes, well, I haven’t practiced all the songs. I’ve practiced the ones from “Once” and some of the older ones that I found particularly interesting. I’ve also practiced some from the very first albums because they were very operistic. I pull them off but I think “oh, oh, let’s see how I do”.

T: When she came to the audition, we did six classic themes from the band. We played “WIHAA”, “Sleeping Sun”, “Higher than hope”, “Ever dream”, “The Siren” and “Nemo”, and that has been the only time I listened to Anette singing the old songs. She sounded really good singing those songs. I’ll even say “Nemo”’s ending never sounded as good.

Anette’s voice is much more higher than Tarja’s.

A: It may not sound like it, but I am a “high” soprano. No one believes I am a soprano, because I don’t have an opera voice, a mezzosoprano. But I am a natural soprano, and, in that way I feel that the way I sing the songs is lighter than the other way.

T: I don’t understand a word, but I agree (laughs).

I’ll write soprano and I hope the metalheads will understand (laughs). You’re now 35, almost 36, Do you think you’ll be able to preserve the high quality of your voice in the future? Will you be able to sing this way in 10, 12 years?

A: It is always a problem when you use your voice to the maximum in every moment. But my voice gets higher as the years go by, so the problem is to not lose the deeper tones. Because if you don’t, you’ll sing like this (imitates a very childish voice, very high). My mother is an opera singer and she used to sing very high and she lost all the deep tones and now she speaks like that (laughs).

As if she had swallowed helium (laughs). Trying to make a comparison, like us journalists tend to do, “Eva” is the “Nemo” version of the album, “Bye bye beautiful” is the “IWIHAA”, with monster-like vocals by Marco and a smooth vocal by Anette… were you trying to make similar things to the ones of the last album?

T: Many people have talked about it, but it won’t be a single. Although it does have that WIHAA feeling to it.

Which songs are going straight to the live setlist?

T: The first four songs of the album, for sure. Then “Eva”. A very experimental one would be “Highlander” the one that Marco sings. A good one to play live would be “Sahara”. If it was up to us, we’d play them all live, but the ones I’m sure we won’t be doing live are “Master Passion Greed” and “Meadows of Heaven”.

Why don’t you make a special show with an orchestra, seeing how the album has a lot of symphonic elements in it?

T: We’ve all promised that this tour will end up in 2009, with three special shows with a live orchestra.

In the Hartwell Arena in Helsinki?

T: In England, probably, because I’d like to use the same orchestra. We’d like to play in the Royal Albert Hall and do as best we can. I imagine we’d later release it on a DVD.

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Over the photo: “It’s the way I am. I don’t think I have to fabricate an image as the main writer of Nightwish!”
Tuomas Holopainen

DARK PASSION PLAY Listening Session

THE POET AND THE PENDULUM

A beautiful intro with a mystical feel ends in a truly bombastic song start, heightened by a great big orchestration. It’s a grandiloquent song, that takes the movie quality of “Once” and elevates it to its maximum potential. The song has two very well differentiated parts: the ones where the orchestra is the main character and the parts where Anette takes the lead. For some reason, one gets the feeling that, in between the orchestra euphoria, someone should’ve better stressed the “rocker” section – voice, bass, guitar and drums.
Anette’s voice is much more acute (3) that Tarja’s. Or rather, Anette explores the acute (3) side of her voice more than Mrs. Turunen did.
The song is almost a mini-movie, only it doesn’t use images to create atmosphere, but violins, cellos, woodwind instruments and other orchestral complements. Luckily, the structure of the song faithfully reflects that Nightwish are still a Heavy Metal band, only more and more symphonic – there’s no doubt about that.
Like an antithesis to such sweetness and tasteful instrumentation, Marco Hietala plays one of his rawest interpretations to date, only to receive as response a perfect refrain by Anette Olzon.
It’s a mid-tempo, an infinitely explosive song that starts off the record. The treatment of Olzon’s voice, situated in very acute (3) tesituras, is a good way to put ground between [Anette and] Tarja Turunen. As expected, the music is the still the same, as Tuomas Holopainen is still the brains when it’s time to compose.
The song contains an intriguing interlude carried out by a mysterious piano melody that sticks to the hear like a needle.

BYE BYE BEAUTIFUL

The more commercial Nightwish are back in action with the powerful “Bye Bye Beautiful”, the bastard son of “I wish I had an angel”, to give you an idea. The rhythm is heavy and military in its focus, the guitars are like unbreakable walls, the keyboards are semi-disco from the 80’s, and an Anette who lowers her voice and places herself in tesituras that sound more human than in the first two tracks of the album. It should be the [first] single of the album. How could it not be any other way, the teared-up voice of Marco Hietala is the cherry of the pie, the “uummmph” that a record like this needs in its insides.

AMARANTH

A sweet beginning thanks to Holopainen’s keyboards, gives way to a song that –again- looks like it was taken out of a dramatic movie. You can tell that the last year and a half hasn’t been the happiest in the history of Mr. Tuomas and his friends from Kitee. The pressure and the anxiety are perfectly reflected in the music and this is inevitable. Luckily, the melodic and almost childish voice of the 30-year old Olzon makes you believe that this is just an illusion for your ears.

CADENCE OF HER LAST BREATH.

Another song that is typically Nightwish, although maybe one of the weakest ones of the first half of the album. It pops out when you listen to it first, but that is not always a sign that it will remain in your memory.

MASTER PASSION GREED

The song begins with skillful game of cymbals from Jukka Nevalainen, something that later turns into a fast track, with an extreme sound, almost thrash. Without it being a big surprise, Marco Hietala is in charge of the leads, and with the screams of Hietala, it is very likely that more than just a fan will end up remembering the old times. There is symphony, of course, but this track is probably one of the heaviest in the whole album.

EVA

Relatively known by everyone, because it was the song the band used to introduce their new singer on the Internet. Sensitive and sweet, but with enough charm to make it the first single. It is a song that serves to show Anette’s most innocent side, who, for moments, makes the song as hers as if she had been with the band all her life.

SAHARA

An epic track, with some orchestra arrangements that are not as baroque as in the beginning of the album. It has a certain ethnic touch to it, almost mystical, and it has a rhythmic cadence that brings out the hard and heavy work of Emppu Vuorinen’s signature sound. Anyway, I still think Anette is singing in higher tones than what’s necessary.

WHOEVER BRINGS THE NIGHT

Little orchestra, a bass and a battery, all sounding like they’re one instrument. Anette sounds threatful, playful, and, even, the typical rebellious little cat who is willing to scratch you. Fast, cool (I guess? It’s a Spanish expression tongue2.gif) with a final crescendo that ends up delivering a dry ending and leaves the fan wanting more.

FOR THE HEART I ONCE HAD

This is a track that seems to have been influenced by the sort of thing the new vocalist’s band did, Alyson Avenue. It’s a mixture between “Nemo” and some mid-temp done by any other hard rock Scandinavian band, with very little ambition for the future. If they went to Eurovision with this track, they’d win like a certain carbonated water (?).
If this was the third single, someone who’s never heard it before would be surprised.

THE ISLANDER

A track with a base that is slightly folk, in which the acoustic and Marco Hietala’s clean voice lead its development. Looking for a comparison, as usual, it could be similar to “Creek Mary’s Blood” from “Once”
The typical song you would imagine the band playing while they rest in the middle of a concert. As the song’s seconds go by, the lead of Hietala turns into a duet with Anette who seems to be more useful than what some people would have thought and with a lot more capabilities. The track has a certain celtic touch to it, melancholic and even, definitely, epic. But we’ll have to wait to hear it live.

THE LAST OF THE WILDS

Another track with folk/celtic roots, only this song is lead by the whole band, not just Marco, Anette and a few acoustic guitar strings. This song is completely instrumental, with special attention to the celtic sound of it. Even for the most “purist” ones who criticize the band with no reason, Nightwish has managed to have enough guts to do a beautiful song without any need to force a lyric over such inspired melodies.

SEVEN DAYS TO THE WOLVES

Jukka Nevalainen’s drums come in ready to kill. For a nanosecond, it feels like John Bonham’s spirit possessed him. The track has no waste and I’d be willing to bet it’ll be the fourth single.
The “refrain” (but I really wonder if it’s the bridge tongue2.gif) is simply genius, only improved by the second part of the song, where Emppu’s skill and the great orchestra work make us forget any doubts we had about this “new” Nightwish.

MEADOWS OF HEAVEN

The track that finishes the album. Elaborate and well done, but probably not destined to remain among the favorites live.