NIGHTWISH Yesterwynde | The end of a trilogy about humanity

Making of… Yesterwynde

Yesterwynde began 3 years ago, in 2021, when Tuomas started writing songs for a new album, with one idea in mind: to finish the trilogy he had started with ‘Endless Forms Most Beautiful’ and ‘Human Nature’.

The album would follow the same main themes: time, memories, mortality and humanity.

Toumas said that for any of us to be here, our parents’ parents’ parents had to have loved each other thousands of years ago, and that magical combination should make us feel grateful.

Yesterwynde feels grander than its predecessors with songs that see Nightwish singer Floor Jansen exploring the limits of her voice, with really high notes and very low-pitched songs, all at a very fast pace. To make things more complicated, Floor was unable to be at the rehearsals, or the recording of the instruments and orchestra because she was recovering from her pregnancy. Floor would record all the songs at her home in Sweden.

To make things more interesting, this is Nightwish’s first album with their new bassist, Jukka Koskinen, after the departure of the great Marko Hietala. Jukka has fit into the band like a Lego piece that fits perfectly and everything he does feels very natural.

Although the album was rehearsed and partially recorded, as always, in the band’s nature studio in Röskö, in Kitee, their hometown in Finland, Nightwish decided to re-record the orchestral parts of the album at the famous Abbey Road studios, where 16 years ago they recorded what is probably their best album, ‘Dark Passion Play’. On this occasion they have used three different types of orchestras depending on the song. From a chamber orchestra, through a full-size orchestra to the large 50-piece orchestra that sounds in four of the songs on Yesterwynde.

It was also at Abbey Road where they met the British flutist and multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockly, who has been playing with Nightwish since 2007 and as an official member since 2013. Troy has taken a step forward on this album accompanying Floor Jansen as second vocalist. Donockly explained about Yesterwynde:

This album is another small step towards a bigger picture.

It feels like this album is yet another little step into a broader picture than even we have.

There is a clear common thread running through Yesterwynde and the entire trilogy, a love for the planet. While each song has a life of its own 🌍

Nighwish (Press Promotional Image)

Meaning of each song of Yesterwynde

1. Yesterwynde:A 3-minute acoustic intro that perfectly sets the stage for the album:

Out of the darkness
And into the bright light
We carry the ties
That we bind to you

2. An Ocean Of Strange Islands: A nearly 10-minute song that takes us on a musical adventure from island to island, reminding the adventurer that happiness is more joyful when shared.

With a progressive and powerful sound, the song is pure Nightwish: epic melodies, powerful riffs and more acoustic moments with the great Troy Donockley and his bagpipes.

The lyrics of the song are beautiful and Tuomas has paid more attention than ever to the lyrics in Yesterwynde. Especially beautiful is the chorus that says

Sail and seek the starbound quay. Calling you, calling me. To be a part of your story

3. The Antikythera Mechanism: A tune that highlights the incredible discovery of the first analog computer thousands of years ago, the Antikythera Mechanism.

Metal and deep, the song includes multiple sounds of mechanisms in the instrumental parts, including very dark sounds, especially when Floor sings:

From Lucy’s prints, to those on the moon and from the moon.

4. The Day Of…: Yesterwynde’s second single reaches its peak when the children’s choir sings, without neglecting the instrumental parts where Nightwish is in their element.

We are the ill-starred kids of your junkyard
The innocent islands unscarred
The moment of our nadir
So many times passed thе due date
Too late, gathеr up
It’s the day of..

5. Perfume Of The Timeless: What we consider to be the best song on Yesterwynde and the Emotion of the Week, has a very clear meaning that the founder, composer and leader of Nightwish, Tuomas Holopainen, explained thus:

For me, one of the key lines is ‘we are because of a million loves’ – taken from the song “Perfume of the Timeless”. Each of us is part of an unbroken chain that stretches back billions of years. If even one of your ancestors had died too young – mauled by a cave bear, for example – during this incredibly long period of time, you would never have been born. In other words: our existence is such an
unfathomable privilege!

Perfume of the Timeless is a song on par with Nightwish’s best, reminiscent of the great ‘The Poet and the Pendullum’. Epic, grandiose, dark, eternal, it reflects the best of gothic metal. I can only tell you one thing: enjoy it as much as we did!

6. Sway: The quietest track from Nightwish’s new album, featuring Floor Jansen singing a duet with Troy Donockley. Nightwish tells us that the big reveal is waiting for us all and will amaze us.
7. The Children Of ‘Ata: Toumas’ favorites include songs by native Tongan people.

Fonu oku mafu he mamahi ‘oka malu efiafi
Kuo hapax koe ‘e ‘oseni
Foki maiki “api hoku ngaahi foha

My breath is full of pain in the evening
The ocean has hapaxed you
Return “home my sons

The Tongans are the original inhabitants of the Tonga Islands in the South Pacific, descendants of people who left Fiji and other parts of Melanesia to settle in Western Polynesia, including Tonga, some 3,000 years ago or more.

The song is based on the story of the Tongan Castaways, a group of six Tongan teenagers who were shipwrecked on the island of ‘Ata in 1965 and lived there for 15 months until they were rescued.

8. Something Whispered Follow Me: Starting with a fantastic 1-minute guitar solo by Emppu Vuorinen, it stays low-key until Floor reaches a jaw-dropping crescendo at the end.

9. Spider Silk: This time we start with a piano solo by Tuomas that anticipates a dark and deep song. “Sucking him dry” Floor asserts in the first verse.

The whole tune is a metaphor for the power of the spider web that weaves something so beautiful and delicate, a web that is used to create silk, but which she uses to kill.

10. Hiraeth: With a very appropriate melody and again combining the voices of Floor and Troy, Hiraeth stands out for Troy’s flute and bagpipes. The song explores the theme of “what if…”, of all those things that did not happen due to truncated lives, due to moments of decision, because life is like that.
11. The Weave: A song for those who say that Nightwish is not metal, a double bass drum that accompanies one of the heaviest songs of Yesterwynde, with lyrics, as always, very poetic:

The unweaving has begun
To fall apart
Rips a withering heart
Cries its moment to the stars
Of a lifelong call
He of myriad songs

12. Lanternlight: This ending is surprising, as Floor Jansen, accompanied only by Tuomas’ piano, transmits peace and calm. The truth is that in these times we need a lot of this.

The last verse of Yesterwynde is, like the whole album, poetry:

I walk now toward the trees
I am the secret stream
The night falling at my feet
Into the forest of Yesterwynde

Yesterwynde sounds, tastes and feels strongly like the true essence of Nightwish, enriched with new moods and flavours.

By the way, Nightwish won’t be touring in support of the album, but their new deal with Nuclear Blast Records includes multiple albums, so we have plenty of gothic and epic metal left to enjoy.

Before we say goodbye, one for the band’s die-hard fans. Nightwish has left many visual and musical nods on Yesterwynde. Here’s one of the singles: The album begins and ends with the sound of an old analog projector, referencing Tuomas’ passion for film and soundtracks. The rest, I’ll leave to you 😊