Endless Forms Most Beautiful is the upcoming eighth album by Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish. It is due to be released on March 27, 2015 in the EU and Argentina, on March 30 in the UK and on March 31 in the USA. It is the band's first album with new singer Floor Jansen, as well as the first to feature Troy Donockley, who played uillean pipes and various other instruments on Dark Passion Play and Imaginaerum, as a permanent member.

It is also their first album without drummer Jukka Nevalainen, who had to take a temporary break from the band due to suffering of strong insomnia, leading him to step away from both the album and its subsequent tour. All the drum parts on the album were consequently played by Kai Hahto from Wintersun and Swallow the Sun. Due to this, the album features only five Nightwish members, despite being their first album released with the band being a sextet.

The first single from the album, titled "?lan", was leaked on February 9, four days before its planned release date of February 13, 2015.

Contents

1 Production
1.1 Concept
2 Composition and lyrics
3 Track listing

Production
Concept

The album was primarily inspired by the work of naturalist Charles Darwin. According to Nightwish's main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen, the album found its main inspiration from a famous quote from Darwin's 1859 highly influential book On the Origin of Species. This quote included the words "endless forms most beautiful", used by Darwin to describe the evolution from one common ancestor to all living organisms, that were subsequently chosen as the title of the album.[

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.



New members Jansen and Donockley both discussed their roles in the new album; Jansen stated "[Holopainen's] style didn't change of course, but there are things that he hears me singing as well as for example Troy and Marco, and you can just feel that those parts really fit, and at the same time he's triggering me to do new things, so I'm gonna also find new, you know, sounds and borders within my sound, and 'Let's just try this !', and usually, you know, it just fits." She said Holopainen "challenged me using everything I have to offer. High, low, soft, whatever, but definitely lower stuff and very soft and intimate things. Something that more by coincidence was something that I kind of missed doing. Something I haven't explored much and Tuomas wrote parts where I have to use this completely, where I have to go into it entirely. I'm very happy with what came out there." Tuomas later confirmed he did challenge her for he thought her voice could fit both heavier and softer songs.

Despite the fact she was an active composer and lyricist in both her former band After Forever and her current other band ReVamp, Jansen was not a part of the songwriting process of her first Nightwish album. She commented "I don't feel the necessity of me being an active songwriting member, because the music is so good. It's about the songs and the music that goes first and not about my ego wanting to join like that. But if I can participate or add something with my creative input, of course I would love that. Of course, I have creative energy in me that needs to come out one way or another, but that's where ReVamp comes in." Holopainen commented that, however, "she will bring a lot of interpretations, some arrangements and positive energy for sure."


The style of the album has been described as "more band-focused". Guitarist Emppu Vuorinen stated shortly after the beginning of rehearsals "I don't know if it has something to do with age ? but the need to show off has diminished even more. It's more like you want to do justice to the song and not strut your stuff."
Recording

Holopainen, Hietala and audio engineer Tero "TeeCee" Kinnunen first recorded a demo of 12 songs from late April to May 14, 2014. The band subsequently begun rehearsals and recordings in the following months in Eno, Finland, in a "cabin" in the middle of a semi-deserted land of snow and trees that the band rented, and loosely referred by them as the "summer camp".

Talking about their work environment, Donockley said "It's hard to describe, the peace, the stillness, the geology, the biology of the place. [...] I've never seen anything like this. It's a wondrous place". Jansen stated "I am very sensitive about environment. Don't put me in the middle of a city and maybe super shiny, fantastic studio and keep me inspired for weeks. But a place like this does. I love nature and I love calm. We can work for hours and then you can relax." Discussing both the advantages and disavantages of the "summer camp" compared to an actual studio, Hietala said "It's nice, everything set up and we can record whenever we want. When we have something ready, we can just record it and listen to it. [...] Actual studios are safer in the way that they are soundproofed. You don't have to worry about outside noise. [Here], if there's a thunderclap, you can hear it on the vocal track, too.

During the last month, it has become evident for me that due to my insomnia, I can't fulfill my duties as a musician in the way that I'd want and with the precision that the music deserves. Thus I have decided to step aside from my duties as the drummer of Nightwish during the recording of the forthcoming album and the subsequent tour.

The mixing of the album was undertaken by Holopainen and long-time collaborators Mikko Karmila and Tero Kinnunen. On October 29, 2014, the band announced the beginning of mixing. On December 16, the band announced that mixing was finished.
Composition and lyrics

Tuomas said the album is heavier than its two predecessors, citing "Weak Fantasy", "Yours Is an Empty Hope" and the title song as examples.

The first single "?lan" is about "the meaning of life, which can be something different for all of us. It's important to surrender yourself to the occasional 'free fall' and not to fear the path less travelled by."

"The Eyes of Sharbat Gula" is an instrumental song originally planned to feature lyrics. Tuomas was inspired to write it a couple of years before when he bought an issue of National Geographic which featured a reproduction of the famous picture of Sharbat Gula. Tuomas explained that the photograph "just made a huge impact on me. Those eyes, those wild, untamed and at the same time fearless and fearful eyes. I want to capture the essence of that photo in one of the songs". The song was intended to be about children at war, but he was struggling with the lyrics due to the theme being too delicate. Following input by Troy, he decided not to add any lyrics at all apart from distant voices and a children choir.

"The Greatest Show on Earth" is the longest Nightwish song to date and refers to "life and evolution by natural selection". The title was taken from a book by Richard Dawkins. He also said that the band is unlikely to play the entire song live, but there is a "band section" in the middle of it that they are willing to perform.

Track listing

No. Title Length
1. "Shudder Before the Beautiful" 6:29
2. "Weak Fantasy" 5:23
3. "?lan" 4:45
4. "Yours Is an Empty Hope" 5:34
5. "Our Decades in the Sun" 6:37
6. "My Walden" 4:38
7. "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" 5:07
8. "Edema Ruh" 5:15
9. "Alpenglow" 4:45
10. "The Eyes of Sharbat Gula" (Instrumental) 6:03
11. "The Greatest Show on Earth"

I. "Four Point Six"
II. "Life"
III. "The Toolmaker"
IV. "The Understanding"
V. "Sea-Worn Driftwood"

24:00
Total length:
78:36 
MP3
320kbps