Nightwish have unveiled a new music video for “The Day of…” — the second single from the Finnish band’s forthcoming 10th studio album Yesterwynde, out September 20th.
The song’s apocalyptic themes contrast with a rather bouncy symphonic metal arrangement and an effervescent vocal performance from Floor Jansen, who rattles off a list of modern, real-world fears. Falling right in line with the lyrical concept is the 1984-esque video.
According to keyboardist and chief songwriter Tuomas Holopainen, Yesterwynde took longer to make than any previous Nightwish album and will arrive four years after 2020’s Hvman. :||: Natvre.
“The new album was intensively worked on for three and a half years,” Holopainen told Blabbermouth. “My ambition and piety really skyrocketed, and I just couldn’t let go of the creative process — and didn’t want to. Along the way, Yesterwynde became both an exhilarating obsession and a comforting haven for me. All aspects of the making — compositions, lyrics, arrangements, cover art, videos, mixing and so on — were given more attention than ever before.”
During the gap between albums, the group lost its longtime bassist, and Jansen would be diagnosed with breast cancer before undergoing a successful operation to remove the tumor. She also recently had her second child, creating a time crunch to record her vocals for the new LP.
“Floor’s second child was born just over a month ago, and we hadn’t rehearsed together at all…” said Holopainen. “So it was a little nerve-wracking to go to Floor’s home studio for vocal recordings. Well, what happened? We had booked 12 working days and after six days everything was completed in style. Floor’s preparedness for the sessions was something extreme.”
Unfortunately, Nightwish’s dedicated fanbase won’t be able to catch them live for the foreseeable future. Back in July, Holopainen announced that the band was taking an indefinite break from touring.
“The reasons are personal,” he told Metal Injection [via Nuclear Blast], “We’re not going to go into it, but it was something that had to be done for this band to continue. There’s no bad blood between the members, nothing like that. We just have to take a long breather.”
Yesterwynde is now available to pre-order on CD and vinyl. Stream the video for “The Day of…” below.
