TUOMAS HOLOPAINEN To Release New Album From his Black Metal Project

28 May 2021

NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen spoke to Kaaos TV about the upcoming comeback album from his long-running black metal project DARKWOODS MY BETHROTHED.

Tentatively due before the end of the year, "Angel Of Carnage Unleashed" will be DARKWOODS MY BETHROTHED's first collection of new songs since the release of "Witch-Hunts", which came out more than two decades ago.

Holopainen went on to emphasize that DARKWOODS MY BETHROTHED has never been his band. "Originally I was just a session musician back in the days," he explained. "And now, even though I'm a full-time member of the band, I still don't do any songs; it's the other guys who take care of that. I just play my parts with the keys… That's the dynamics of this particular band, and that's the way it works the best, because Jouni ['Hallgrim' Mikkonen, guitar], Teemu ['Hexenmeister' Kautonen, bass] and Pasi ['Emperor Nattasett' Kankkunen, vocals], the core of the band, they have such a strong vision of the songs and the lyrics and the overall atmosphere of what DARKWOODS is about. So they do the songwriting part, and then I just come in and spice up the whole thing with the keyboards, just the way it has worked in the past and on this album as well."

Asked what his relationship to black metal is nowadays and whether he still listens to the genre at all, Tuomas said: "I don't really listen to any kind of music anymore, for reasons I can't really explain. But back in the days, in the mid-'90s, black metal was a huge thing for me for a short period of time. Bands like EMPEROR, ENSLAVED, DIMMU BORGIR and CRADLE OF FILTH. I don't even know if these bands want to be called black metal, because that's such a puritanic thing, but for me, I was highly influenced by that genre of music. And I still enjoy them a lot. But I just don't listen to music at home that much. And also I don't think that DARKWOODS MY BETHROTHED can be categorized solely as a black metal band. Musically, yes, but the lyrics are about something completely else."

Source: blabbermouth.net

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