Evolutionary Biologist Richard Dawkins To Guest On Nightwish Album

Band Photo: Nightwish (?)

Finland's symphonic metal storytellers in Nightwish are currently working on their upcoming new album.

The yet-untitled creation will be the first Nightwish studio record to feature Dutch vocalist Floor Jansen and is set for a release in spring 2015 via Nuclear Blast.

Longtime drummer Jukka Nevalainen will sit out on the recording sessions due to health issues; Kai Hahto (Wintersun) will replace him.

Now the band reveals famed evolutionary biologist and freethinker Richard Dawkins as a guest to appear on the coming eighth studio album.

Nightwish keyboard player and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen comments: “I already know now that since I have been so enthusiastic about this kind of literature for the past few months, and will be for the upcoming months, that it's going to come out somehow. I don't know how just yet, but it will come out. I know it from experience. Sometimes I come across interviews I did ten years ago and see that I am quite a different person. So something has happened say during the past five, six, seven years, and a lot of it has to do with the books that I've read, mainly Whitman, Hitchens and Dawkins."

You can also catch the band live on these dates:

09.04 USA New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom
10.04. USA Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
11.04. USA Worcester, MA - Palladium
13.04. CND Quebec City, QC - Capitole Theatre
14.04. CND Toronto - Phoenix Concert Theatre
16.04. USA Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom
17.04. USA Cleveland, OH - Agora Theatre
18.04. USA Chicago, IL - Concorde Music Hall
19.04. USA Des Moines, IA - Val Air Ballroom
21.04. USA Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
22.04. USA Salt Lake City, UT - In The Venue
24.04. USA Spokane, WA - Knitting Factory
25.04. CND Vancouver, BC - Orpheum Theatre
26.04. USA Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
18.04. USA San Francisco, CA - Warfield Theatre
30.04. USA Las Vegas, NV - House Of Blues
01.05. USA Los Angeles, CA - Greek theatre
02.05. USA Phoenix, AZ - Marquee Theatre
03.05. USA El Paso, TX - Tricky Falls
05.05. USA Dallas, TX - Bomb Factory
06.05. USA Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
08.05. USA Orlando, FL - House Of Blues
09.05. USA Fort Lauderdale, FL - Revolution
11.05. USA Nashville, TN - Marathon Music Work
12.05. USA Louisville, KY - Expo Five
13.05. USA Charlotte, NC - Filmore
14.05. USA Silver Springs, MD - Filmore