Human. :II: Nature.

Human. :II: Nature. (stylized as HVMAN. :||: NATVRE.) is the ninth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released internationally on April 10, 2020 through Nuclear Blast. It is the band's first double album, with the second CD complete with orchestral symphonic music rather than metal.[2][5]

Human. :II: Nature.
Studio album by
Nightwish
ReleasedApril 10, 2020 (2020-04-10)
RecordedAugust – October 2019
Studio
  • Röskö Campsite, Eno, Finland
  • Petrax Studios, Hollola, Finland
  • Troykington Castle, North Yorkshire, England
  • Finnvox Studios, Helsinki, Finland
Genre
Length81:40
LabelNuclear Blast
Producer
Nightwish chronology
Endless Forms Most Beautiful
(2015)		 Human. :II: Nature.
(2020)
Singles from Human. :II: Nature.
  1. "Noise"
    Released: February 7, 2020 (2020-02-07)
  2. "Harvest"
    Released: March 6, 2020 (2020-03-06)

Following the departure of original drummer Jukka Nevalainen the previous year, this is the first album to feature Kai Hahto as official band member, although he had already acted as Nevalainen's replacement on the band's previous album, Endless Forms Most Beautiful.[6]

Background and recording

Production

Following a tour in support of the band's previous album, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, the band took a year-long break in which Jansen was focusing on her first child. Holopainen said in a 2016 interview that the band would continue between the years of 2018 and 2020, with another album that will continue the themes explored in Endless Forms Most Beautiful.[7]

According to Tuomas Holopainen, after the creation of the previous album, which he described as "the band's best so far", he could not write new material for the next album because of his lack of inspiration, which was "emptied". In 2017, Holopainen, along with the singer and his wife Johanna Kurkela and the band's member Troy Donockley, formed the trio-band Auri to create a self-titled album. After the release of the album, Tuomas said that "all the flood gates opened" and he started to write new material for Nightwish.[8][9]

In July 2018 while the band was out on tour, Holopainen stated that he had written "80 or 90%" of the material for Nightwish's next album, which would consist of ten or eleven songs. Recording would start in July 2019, for a planned Spring 2020 release. The band would "use the [orchestral] instrumentation in a different way than before", with Holopainen stating, "You want to search for some new ways of using it so that it doesn't end up sounding the same as before."[10]

Jansen stated in November that she believed the recording process would be similar to Endless Forms Most Beautiful's, for which the band went through lengthy rehearsals before starting to record.[11]

On October 31, 2019, Floor Jansen confirmed that recording for the new album had been completed, stating that she was "very, very happy" with it.[12] Tuomas Holopainen was confirmed on December 18, 2019, to be at Finnvox Studios mixing Nightwish's upcoming studio album, set for release in the first quarter of 2020.[13]

The mixing was done by Holopainen, Tero Kinnunen and Mikko Karmila, and mastering by Mika Jussila, at Finnvox Studios. On January 10, 2020, it was confirmed by Holopainen that the production was finished, and the album was ready for release. The album title, cover and other details were released on January 16, 2020, including the release date of April 10, 2020.[14][15][16][17][18]

Composition

Influences, style and themes

The album features a wide vocal collaboration between Jansen, Marco Hietala and Troy Donockley, which "brings a whole new sound in the band", according to Jansen. It can be reflected for example in first song in the album, "Music", which describes the history of music, "from the first rudimentary sounds to the music as we know today". This song starts with a long intro and described as very harmonic and melodic.[19]

"Shoemaker" is about Eugene Shoemaker, whose biography inspired Holopainen to write a song on. According to Jansen, the song lacks of a typical structure. Consisting operatic voices, the song was a challenge to Jansen to sing, and it took several times to record until the desired result.[20] Johanna Kurkela, Holopainen's wife, took part in this song, performing a spoken part before Jansen's ending operatic part.

According to Donockley, the lyrics of "Harvest" consist of the meaning of the whole theme of the album and even of life.[21]

About "How's the Heart?", Holopainen has said:

"Human empathy, altruism, true love. They truly are the better angels of our nature. The nature of the human kind. We have the potential to be such a great species. And in many ways we already are. It is really important to remember to ask your family, your friends, strangers and yourself the important question: How's the Heart?"[22]

"Tribal" is described by Hahto as heavy and very percussive. This song along with other tracks in the album demanded Hahto to upgrade his drum kit. According to Hahto, this song is an example to the variety of the different musical styles presented in the whole album.[23]

Release and promotion

The first single of the album, "Noise", with an accompanying music video, was released on February 7, 2020.[24] The second single off of the album, "Harvest", was released on March 6, 2020, with a lyric video to accompany its release.[25] On March 11, 2020, "Ad Astra", the last track of the album's second disc, was released in a video that revealed Nightwish's new partnership with World Land Trust.[26]

Nightwish stated on January 22, 2020, that they became the "first band ever to be given permission" to do a photo shoot in the "legendary Cathedral that is the Natural History Museum, London," where they had four hours to themselves during the shoot.[27]

On the day the album was released, Nightwish released lyric videos for all of the songs on the album.[28]

In an interview with Floor Jansen, she had revealed the band had originally asked natural historian David Attenborough to speak on the album. She commented:

We tried to get him to speak on the album. We wrote him a letter and he wrote one back, declining, but it was very impressive that a man of his stature would write personally to us and explain that he just didn't have the time right now.[29]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
The Arts Desk[1]
Blabbermouth.net8.5/10[2]
Distorted Sound8/10[30]
Folk N' Rock9.2/10[31]
Kerrang![5]
Louder Sound[32]
Metal Storm5.7/10[3]

The album received positive reviews from music critics upon the album's release.

AllMusic gave the album a positive review, saying, "Though the work seems part and parcel of the Nightwish aesthetic, on its own it may not appeal to all fans. That said, it does add depth and dimension to Human. :II: Nature. which is, with one exception, a consistently and deeply satisfying outing that was worth waiting for."[4]

Distorted Sound scored the album 8 out of 10 and said: "That there is a connection between the album's two halves is by no means obvious, and if there is meant to be one, then it must be purely conceptual. NIGHTWISH have built their brand around the concoction of heavy metal and orchestral music, and straightforwardly divorcing those two elements might prove to be a step too far for all but the most ardent of fans. The risk, and it seems inevitable, is that the first half of the album is co-opted, and the second half is simply forgotten. No doubt NIGHTWISH are among the few heavy metal bands to have cultivated a fan-base willing to listen to a half-hour orchestral suite, but one has to imagine that they are very much in the minority. Just listening to Human would leave you with plenty of NIGHTWISH, fifty minutes in fact, but releasing a double album with the expectation that most people won't hear the second half more than once in spite of its quality is a brazen artistic statement, and questionable from a listener's point of view. Human is a fantastic NIGHTWISH album, and 'All The Works of Nature Which Adorn the World' is a superb orchestral suite, but Human. :||: Nature. as a whole feels somewhat disjointed."[30]

Kerrang! gave the album 3 out of 5 and stated: "At its best, Hvman:||:Natvre has the impressive magic that has made Nightwish one of Europe's biggest bands. But there's a feeling this time that for such a big concept, things haven't gone quite far enough."[5]

Louder Sound gave the album a positive review and stated: "You know a band feels pretty confident when they take liberties with the rules of the language of rock'n'roll. But however you pronounce the punctuation-incontinent title, Human. :II: Nature., Nightwish's first studio album for five years, doesn't try to confuse us any further."[32]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Tuomas Holopainen[33].

Human. :II: Nature. – Disc one
No.TitleLength
1."Music"7:23
2."Noise"5:40
3."Shoemaker"5:19
4."Harvest"5:13
5."Pan"5:18
6."How's the Heart?"5:02
7."Procession"5:31
8."Tribal"3:56
9."Endlessness"7:11
Total length:50:37
Human. :II: Nature. – Disc two
No.TitleLength
1."All the Works of Nature Which Adorn the World"
  • I. "Vista" (3:59)
  • II. "The Blue" (3:35)
  • III. "The Green" (4:42)
  • IV. "Moors" (4:44)
  • V. "Aurorae" (2:07)
  • VI. "Quiet as the Snow" (4:05)
  • VII. "Anthropocene" (includes "Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal") (3:05)
  • VIII. "Ad Astra" (4:41)
31:02
Total length:31:02
Human. :II: Nature. – Disc three (Earbook edition)
No.TitleLength
1."Music" (instrumental version)7:23
2."Noise" (instrumental version)5:40
3."Shoemaker" (instrumental version)5:19
4."Harvest" (instrumental version)5:13
5."Pan" (instrumental version)5:18
6."How's the Heart?" (instrumental version)4:44
7."Procession" (instrumental version)5:31
8."Tribal" (instrumental version)3:58
9."Endlessness" (instrumental version)7:12
Total length:50:18

Personnel

All information from the album booklet.[33]

Nightwish

Additional personnel

  • Tero Kinnunen, Mikko Karmila – production, recording, mixing
  • Mat Bartram – orchestra engineering
  • Laura Beck – orchestra engineering assistant
  • Mika Jussila – mastering
  • Geraldine James – spoken words on "All the Works of Nature Which Adorn the World" ("Vista", "Ad Astra")
  • Johanna Kurkela – spoken words on "Shoemaker"
  • Pip Williams – orchestral and choir arrangements and directing
  • Ilona Opulska – assistant to Williams
  • James Shearman – conductor
  • Martin Higgins – assistant to Shearman
  • Richard Ihnatowicz – music preparation

Metro Voices

  • Jenny O'Grady – choirmaster
  • Alexandra Gibson, Alice Fearn, Ann de Renais, Anne Marie Cullum, Caroline Fitzgerald, Claire Henry, Davina Moon, Eleanor Meynell, Heather Cairncross, Helen Brooks, Helen Parker, Jacqueline Barron, Joanna Forbes, Kate Bishop, Mary Carewe, Rachel Weston, Rosemary Forbes Butler, Sarah Ryan, Soophia Foroughi, Andrew Busher, Andrew Playfoot, David Porter Thomas, Gerard O'Beirne, Ian McLarnon, Lawrence Wallington, Lawrence White, Michael Dore, Peter Snipp, Robin Bailey, Sebastian Charlesworth, Tom Pearce

Pale Blue Orchestra

Charts
Chart performance for Human. :II: Nature.
Chart (2020) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[34] 7
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[35] 2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[36] 11
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[37] 14
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[38] 85
Croatian Foreign Albums (TOTS)[39] 1
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI)[40] 4
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[41] 2
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[42] 1
French Albums (SNEP)[43] 26
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[44] 1
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[45] 2
Italian Albums (FIMI)[46] 45
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[47] 39
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[48] 4
Polish Albums (ZPAV)[49] 3
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[50] 3
Scottish Albums (OCC)[51] 5
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[52] 11
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[53] 2
Swiss Albums (Romandy)[54] 1
UK Albums (OCC)[55] 28
US Billboard 200[56] 110
US Billboard (Top Album Sales)[57] 5

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  3. "Nightwish - Human. :II: Nature. review". Metal Storm. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  4. "AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek". AllMusic. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
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