Nightwish is Taking “Two or Three Years” Off from Touring
Last year was a bit of a rollercoaster for Nightwish and their vocalist Floor Jansen. They’d played a buncha shows, but Jansen was diagnosed with and battled breast cancer before welcoming her second child with Saboton drummer Hannes Van Dahl. Then it all culminated with the band announcing they were “retiring” from touring.
Well, it turns out that their “retirement” or “hiatus” from touring has an end date, as drummer Kai Hahto revealed during an interview with Chaoszine. The band’s planned absence came up during the interview and Hahto said he was looking forward to doing some of his own shit for a bit, but that Nightwish fans shouldn’t despair too hard.
“I have been thinking about [playing more solo shows], but let’s play this upcoming show first and then see if there is demand for me to play more.
“We will most likely be filming the show to check it out ourselves afterward to see how it went. If it [goes] well, I could play a couple more during this year. It would be nice, as the next Nightwish album comes out later this year, to play maybe a couple of new songs from that album live as well because, at the moment, it looks like there won’t be any new Nightwish shows in the next two or three years.”
Oh, so apparently there’s a new Nightwish album coming this year too. That hasn’t officially been announced by the band just yet, but once it releases, it’ll be their follow-up to 2020’s Human. :||: Nature.
When the band’s hiatus was announced this past April, the band said their decision was a personal one in their official statement.
“After the planned shows for June 2023 we will be ‘hanging up our spurs’ for an indeterminate time, as far as live concert performances go, and won’t be touring the next album.
“The reasons for this decision are personal, but, we all agree, vital to the wellbeing and future of the band. Be assured that we still love working together, and this decision has nothing to do with Floor’s [Jansen, Nightwish frontwoman] pregnancy or our other individual projects.
“However, an album of 12 new songs will see bright daylight in 2024, as will 3 music videos! The band is positively hyped beyond words over this new upcoming musical adventure.
“Stay tuned for updates from our legendary Nightwish band camp & studio this summer!”
So if you want, you can check out Hahto’s upcoming solo show, but you gotta head to Helsinki, Finland on February 3 for that. But if you do, you’ll see him playing various Nightwish, Wintersun, Swallow The Sun, and Auri tracks, so maybe that matters a lot to you.
