Endless Forms Most Beautiful is the eighth studio album by the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released on 25 March 2015 in Japan, 27 March in Argentina and most of Europe, 30 March in the UK and 31 March in the US. The album is the band's first featuring singer Floor Jansen and the first with Troy Donockley as a full-time member. It was also the first without drummer Jukka Nevalainen, who took a break from the band due to severe insomnia. Drumming was provided by Kai Hahto of Wintersun and Swallow the Sun. The album includes only five Nightwish members, despite its being their first album release as a sextet.
Unlike its predecessor Imaginaerum, which has themes of imagination and fantasy, Endless Forms Most Beautiful addresses science and reason. Focusing on the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins, the latter part of the album cites passages from their books. Both authors influenced album tracks; The Ancestor's Tale inspired "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", and The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution inspired "The Greatest Show on Earth". Some songs, such as "Edema Ruh" (inspired by Patrick Rothfuss' novel The Name of the Wind), still have fanciful themes.
The album's first single, "Élan", was introduced on 9 February 2015 (four days before its planned release date). "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", was announced as the second single on 17 April, and was later released with a lyric video on 8 May.
Background After releasing Imaginaerum in late 2011, the band began the Imaginaerum Tour in January 2012 with Anette Olzon as a vocalist and Troy Donockley as an unofficial member. On 28 September, before a show in Denver, Olzon became ill and was replaced by Elize Ryd and Alissa White-Gluz (vocalists for Amaranthe and The Agonist, respectively). The next day, Olzon gave her final performance with Nightwish in Salt Lake City.
A day later, Olzon posted on her blog that she disliked being replaced by Ryd and White-Gluz without being consulted: the following morning, she was fired. In the statement announcing Olzon's departure, Nightwish introduced Floor Jansen as her replacement for the rest of the tour.
In October 2013, after the tour, the band announced that Jansen and Donockley were official members. The album was introduced in May 2014, when Holopainen posted on his website that it would probably be ready at the end of January 2015 and demos would be circulated beginning in July 2015.
Production
Concept Endless Forms Most Beautiful was primarily inspired by the work of naturalist Charles Darwin. According to songwriter Tuomas Holopainen, the album's title is drawn from the last paragraph of Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species which included the words "endless forms most beautiful" to describe evolution from one common ancestor to all living organisms:
Titles such as Élan and The Greatest Show on Earth were considered for the album, but Holopainen considered the latter too "pompous" and the band eventually opted for Endless Forms Most Beautiful.
Tuomas said that he would like fans to listen to the album from beginning to the end (like watching a movie), rather than listening to random songs. According to Tuomas, Endless Forms Most Beautiful has a "very loose" concept: "It's all about beauty of life, the beauty of existence, nature, science". He likened it to Imaginaerum: "The previous album was a tribute to the power of imagination. Endless Forms Most Beautiful would be an equal tribute to science and the power of reason".
Songwriting Like every Nightwish album, Endless Forms Most Beautiful was primarily written by Tuomas Holopainen with (as since 2002) singer and bassist Marko Hietala secondary songwriter. Some of Hietala's lyrics appeared on the album. About the songs after recording a first demo, Holopainen said: "It's still too early to analyze the material more closely, but the album will once again explore all the ends of the spectrum, bringing the very best out of the newcomers Floor [Jansen] and Troy [Donockley]. And stealthily the album ended up having a theme running through it." Holopainen composed the new album while he was writing the songs for his first solo album, Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge. He worked mainly late at night and in the morning: "I think I haven't written a song after 6 pm for this album".
New members Jansen and Donockley discussed their roles in the new album; Jansen said, "[Holopainen's] style didn't change of course, but there are things that he hears me singing as well as for example Troy and Marko, 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." Holopainen "challenged me using everything I have to offer. High, low, soft, whatever, but definitely lower stuff and very soft and intimate things." Asked if the album would include operatic singing, Jansen replied: "Yes, but not so much"; the band experimented with many different styles, including occasional operatic backing vocals. Holopainen later confirmed challenging the singer, since he thought her voice could accommodate heavier and softer songs. In another interview, he said that the band tried operatic vocals in some of the songs but "it just didn't feel right. We felt that these stories, these songs, don't really require that style of singing. It felt like the right approach to all of us, including Floor, that we should get rid of it mostly. It's very important to be humble before the songs so that you don't do things just because you can – or just to show off when it comes to singing, solos or whatever."
Despite being a composer and lyricist in her former band After Forever and her other band at the time, ReVamp, Jansen was not a part of the songwriting process for her first Nightwish album: "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." According to Holopainen, "She will bring a lot of interpretations, some arrangements and positive energy for sure." Donockley said about his role, "[Holopainen] writes with challenging parts, you know, especially for the pipes, because the pipes are very much a part of a style and a tradition, so it's always nice for me to really push the boundaries of the instrument. But it's not to saturation point, you know, it's not pipes over every song."
The album's style has been described by Nightwish as "more band-focused". Guitarist Emppu Vuorinen said soon after rehearsals began, "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." Holopainen called it heavier than its two predecessors, citing "Weak Fantasy", "Yours Is an Empty Hope" and the title song, with more prominent bass and guitars. Jansen called it a "100-percent Nightwish" album.
Recording Holopainen, Hietala and audio engineer Tero (TeeCee) Kinnunen recorded a 12-song demo from late April to 14 May 2014. The band began rehearsing and recording over the following months in Eno, Finland, in a rented "cabin" in an isolated area of snow and trees they called "summer camp". According to the album booklet, the location was Röskö Campsite.(2015). "Endless Forms Most Beautiful liner notes." In Endless Forms Most Beautiful [CD booklet]. Nuclear Blast. Nightwish went straight from rehearsals to recording, according to Jansen, "so that whole band-vibe was also put into the recordings".
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". According to Jansen, "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." Hietala outlined the pros and cons of the "summer camp" compared with a recording studio: "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". Jansen said, "We all had our little cabin where we could sleep and have some privacy if we wanted to, which also allowed us to have our spouses, children, friends or whatever just coming around. In one of the main houses we built a rehearsal studio, and upstairs from that the recording studio. In the beginning of July we started rehearsing, and even though first they wanted to start with the instrumental base, I visited just out of curiosity. It was just so cool that I just stayed, which gave us even more time to go into details in regards to the vocals, something relatively new for Nightwish to do during the rehearsals."
On 6 August 2014, drummer Jukka Nevalainen announced that he would not be part of the upcoming album and tour due to severe insomnia. It would be the first Nightwish album without him: "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. I will still be involved in managing the day-to-day affairs of the band, but the dearest and the most important thing, playing, is, for the time being, not possible. Time will tell what the future holds. On a personal level, my decision obviously feels indescribably sad. Fortunately, looking at it with some distance, it is 'just' part of the constant, inevitable ebb and flow of life." Nevalainen said that his good friend Kai Hahto, drummer for melodic death metal bands Wintersun and Swallow the Sun and a longtime Nightwish drum technician, would be his replacement on the album.
On 24 August the band reported that the drum recording was done. They subsequently announced the finished recordings of other instruments: bass on 1 September, guitars on 6 September, and Jansen and Hietala's vocals on 26 September. Holopainen was surprised that the recording finished ahead of schedule: "I think it was because everything was so well-rehearsed this time. We've tried to work more like a band." On 28 September Nightwish reported that they were leaving the "summer camp" after three months of work for London to record the orchestra, choirs, and percussion.