NIGHTWISH leader Tuomas Holopainen has issued the following update (dated Wednesday, posted today):

"A fantastic day everyone! It's Wednesday, the 9th of November, and the first single from Imaginaerum, called 'Storytime' is finally out today. It's part 1 of a very long homecoming, 4 years in the making. Makes me feel a bit sad, fairly relieved and ultimately proud. Sad that a certain journey is finally coming to an end, relieved that everything worked out beautifully, and proud of the band members' and the fellow imagineers' effort in getting this colossal project together. Thank you.

I saw the first edits of Imaginaerum The Movie a week ago. Stobe and Mathieu have been working with the edits a few weeks now and the parts I saw were very convincing. The demo scores (by the tech wizard Petri Alanko) are working out wonderfully, even though we still need to toy around with them quite a bit. The special effects guys have also begun their work, so once we get all these layers together some truly mind blowing movie magic will be born. Basically now we just have to wait patiently and try not to breathe too much into their backs, and let them do their magic.

In the meanwhile, loads of promo and rehearsals still to be done. Such exciting times..."

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Nightwish will release Imaginaerum on the following dates:

Finland - November 30th

Europe - December 2nd

Australia - January 6th

Brazil - January 10th

North America - January 10th

Japan - January 11th

New Zealand - January 16th

Fans are now able to pre-order a very limited double CD edition of Imaginaerum from Amazon Germany, featuring a digibook and Nightwish calendar, exclusively at Amazon Germany.

Go to this location for details and to order.

The album is the band's first since 2007's Dark Passion Play, which was then-new singer Anette Olzon's debut.

The track listing for Imaginaerum is as follows (note that track 12 is broken down into four parts):

'Taikatalvi'

'Storytime'

'Ghost River'

'Slow, Love, Slow'

'I Want My Tears Back'

'Scaretale'

'Arabesque'

'Turn Loose The Mermaids'

'Rest Calm'

'The Crow, The Owl And The Dove'

'Last Ride Of The Day'

'Song Of Myself'

Song 1: 'From A Dusty Bookshelf'

Song 2: 'All That Great Heart Lying Still'

Song 3: 'Piano Black'

Song 4: 'Love'

'Imaginaerum'

The new Nightwish video for the song 'Storytime' has been released and is available below: