TUOMAS HOLOPAINEN has written six songs for NIGHTWISH's next studio album: “I feel more inspired than ever”
26-08-2026
NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen has revealed to U.K.’s Metal Hammer magazine that he has penned six tracks for the band’s upcoming eleventh studio album.
“I feel more inspired than ever — proof of that is that I’ve already got six new NIGHTWISH songs done,” the 49-year-old Finnish-born musician said. “Every time I sit in front of my keyboard, I’m, like, ‘Ah, yeah, this is great! Just wait till everyone hears this.’ It’s exhilarating.”
Tuomas went on to say that NIGHTWISH has “reserved things” for 2027, possibly suggesting that studio time has been booked for the follow-up to “Yesterwynde”, which came out two years ago. As for a return to the live stage, Tuomas said: “Next year is too early to be going back on tour. The year after, possibly? I want to do another album before any live shows, and that’s definitely happening. We’ve already reserved things for that next year.”
Five months ago, Tuomas told Finnish newspaper that he was working on two new albums, but he did not indicate whether either of them was for NIGHTWISH.
Holopainen is also a member of AURI, along with his wife Johanna Kurkela (also of EYE OF MELIAN, alongside DELAIN mastermind Martijn Westerholt) and NIGHTWISH multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley, which released its third studio album, “III – Candles & Beginnings”, in August 2025.
Watch “Shieldmaiden” below.
Troy Donockley comments: “Our new album Auri lll is waiting to be released, and one of its songs, ‘Shieldmaiden’, has already escaped. It’s a mysterious song, obscured by its own slow rising power.
Auri thrives on mystery and ambiguity so all is well…”
The album comes in following formats:
CD Jewelcase, 20-page booklet
CD Earbook, 36-pages booklet – limited edition!
2 LP Gold, 16-page booklet
2 LP Green/White/Dark Green Splatter, 16-page booklet
AURI released its second album, “II – Those We Don’t Speak Of”, in September 2021 via Nuclear Blast. The effort was the follow-up to AURI‘s self-titled debut LP, which came out in March 2018 via Nuclear Blast.
AURI began its life with three people, united through their shared need to hear a kind of a music which can’t be described by words alone. The first song born of this mindset, “Aphrodite Rising”, appeared in 2011.
Kurkela lent her unique voice, while Holopainen and English composer and multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley (also of NIGHTWISH) cast their spells with various other instruments. Now complemented by the dynamic percussive talents of Kai Hahto (NIGHTWISH),the threesome carves fantastical worlds entirely their own.
In a 2018 interview with Dead Rhetoric, Donockley stated about AURI‘s formation: “It was always there for us, since 2010. We decided back then that the three of us wanted to do something together. Tuomas and I are huge fans of Johanna‘s voice. I had been involved in one of her albums as a guest musician, and Tuomas had written a song for her on a solo album. So the three of us realized pretty early on that we wanted to do something together, musically. It was obvious that it couldn’t be like NIGHTWISH. But it was something we felt really strongly about, that we had to release this atmosphere we all felt, and were tuned into. I know that sounds fairly vague, but that’s truly what it was. It was a kind of music that we wanted to get out of ourselves. We are close friends and have very similar tastes and attitudes towards life so we made our plans, but NIGHTWISH is a behemoth. We have our commitments there and we did ‘Imaginaerum’ and ‘Endless Forms Most Beautiful’ after our decision to work together on some music. As it turned out, fortune smiled on us with a sabbatical year. We decided to dive in and work on it.”
Asked how he would compare the spirit/essence of AURI with that of NIGHTWISH, Donockley said: “We don’t see it as very different from NIGHTWISH at all. Sonically it is, for sure. We were struggling to find a label for it, as it usually happens, so I just tossed out ‘celestial metal.’ So this Polish journalist said to me, ‘I know what you mean about celestial metal. It’s kind of heavenly music. It has the metal attitude, but without all of the electric guitars and bass.’ Metal is an attitude. The metal scene — the metal fans are open-minded, as I said before. The Italian [NIGHTWISH] fan club, I did an interview with them, and this was brought up and she told me that she was a fan of DIMMU BORGIR as well as Ed Sheeran. That’s it right there! So I think the NIGHTWISH connection is inevitable because of Tuomas and I are in it, so there are those elements. But I think the spirit is the same as NIGHTWISH. It does cover a lot of the same themes, it’s just not obviously NIGHTWISH. It’s down to the sonic side, honestly.”
AURI is:
Johanna Kurkela: Voices, viola
Tuomas Holopainen: Keys, backing voices
Troy Donockley: Acoustic and electric guitars, bouzouki, uilleann pipes, low whistles, aerophone, bodhran, keys, voices
Holopainen and Kurkela have been married since October 2015.
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