“When I heard Dark Passion Play, I couldn’t believe it. I thought, ‘Now, this is a proper fucking album.’ It’s got everything bar the kitchen sink in there. It was controversial because of the new singer [Anette Olzon], but she was brilliant. No disrespect to [original Nightwish singer] Tarja, but Anette’s voice suited them a lot better. There’s heavy stuff, classical, even a bit of Disney – all kinds of shit in there. I think it’s one of the best-sounding albums I’ve ever heard in my life.
“Then I got the next one, [2011’s] Imaginaerum. Storytime is a fantastic, instant song. The rest of the album took me a while to get into. Dark Passion Play was so good, I thought there was no way they could ever come up with an album that’s anywhere near that, but the more I got into Imaginaerum, the more I loved it.”
Published in Metal Hammer #279
- “His vocals were often trammelled in Nightwish… but here he lets loose throughout”: Marko Hietala blends love and instinct on Roses From The Deep
- “Want to scare people these days? Forget about Satan and drugs. Bring on the evolutionary biologist”: Nightwish were accused of seeking to shock by working with Richard Dawkins. Instead they explored the poetry of science
