Nightwish Photo: Andy Laudano

Back in 2004, Finland’s Nightwish was on the verge of breaking out in the U.S. Their video, Wish I Had An Angel, was getting decent play on MTV, and an American tour was planned for 2005. Then it all fell apart. The U.S. tour was cancelled and, after an amazing show in front of their hometown fans in Helsinki, singer Tarja Turunen was fired. The show was captured on the aptly named End of an Era CD/DVD.

A search began for a new lead vocalist and, after receiving demos from around the world, former Alyson Avenue front woman, Annette Olzon was chosen. “We didn’t know what we were looking for,” bandleader/keyboardist/songwriter Tuomas Holopainen shares. “The only thing we knew was that we didn’t want another classically trained operatic singer. The idea was to find somebody with her own style. The last thing we wanted was a cheap copycat of Tarja, because she was so good at what she did.”

“We chose Annette for two reasons — the personality and the voice, in that order,” Tuomas explains. “She was actually one of the very first ones to send in her demo, just one song, “Ever Dream.” It was November 2005, about a month after Tarja’s departure. Of course, you know nothing about the person, but the voice was just there.

“Then when we met her, the chemistry was immediately there, plus the equally bad sense of humor that we share. You can talk about some really dirty stuff, and she laughs along. She has really good self-esteem, which she needs at the moment to fill such big boots. She’s 36; she’s not a kid anymore so she can look at things in the right perspective. She has seen all of life’s ups and downs. Since we were not in any hurry, we still took our time, about a year to check out all the other candidates, but in the end it was a matter of heart, and it was obvious all the time that she would be it.”

Overall, from top to bottom, Nightwish’s latest effort, Dark Passion Play, could be their best work to date. “It was actually the easiest album of them all to make,” Tuomas states. “Back in 2005 – 2006 (when the album was basically written, recorded and rehearsed) was such a chaotic time in my life. It really was a living Hell and making music was the only comfort I had. It was my escape. It also brought the band together even more.”

While Olzon’s vocals are very different from Turunen’s, it’s still the same musical direction for the band. “I think the style would have remained exactly the same,” Tuomas notes. “The songs would have been there, and Tarja would have sung them in her own way. The thing I want to emphasize here, is that there are a lot of people whining and complaining that Nightwish is nothing anymore because the opera has gone away. We left the operatic style of singing five years ago. Tarja wasn’t singing that dramatically and operatically on the Century Child or Once albums. She was much more pop oriented.”

Fans of bassist, Marco Hietala’s vocals will love Dark Passion Play, as he has a much larger role on this album. “This was not premeditated,” Tuomas reveals. “I was browsing through the lyrics and realized there’s a lot of stuff in “Bye Bye Beautiful,” “Master Passion Greed” and “The Poet and the Pendulum,” that Annette can’t sing because she wasn’t there when it happened.

“So we had to give the story to Marco to tell. It would’ve been unfair to have her make a statement about something she was never involved in. Then there’s “The Islander,” which reveals the softer, more romantic side of his voice. Marco really outdid himself with that one. I think he’s one of the best metal singers in the whole world.”

Replacing Turunen was a risky, controversial move, especially to fans in Finland where Tarja is considered a pop icon. “It’s very divided,” Tuomas relates. “There are still some die-hard Tarja fans who will never listen to the band again, and I totally understand that. However, there’s a surprising amount of people, who have come to us and said, ‘Now I can listen to your band. I’ve always liked the music, but the vocals were too much for me.’ I never really thought of it that way.”

After a few warm up gigs, Nightwish kicked off their world tour in the U.S. as a way of making up for previous cancellations. “We really think we owe it to the fans,” says Tuomas. It also allows Olzon the chance to shake off any nerves and build her confidence by performing without the added pressure of potentially hostile Tarja fans. Anyone who’s seen this lineup live knows how good Olzon sounds and how much she brings to the band with her stage presence.

This is the beginning of a new era for Nightwish!