Nightwish bassist / vocalist Marko Hietala will release his new solo album, Pyre Of The Black Heart, today (January 24th) via Nuclear Blast. Alison Booth at Metal Shock Finland recently spoke to him about the record. 

Hietala: "I didn’t consciously go and do a mash up of different genres – when I was writing things, it seemed to fit. With a solo album I was pretty free to do whatever I want and at the time I didn’t know who was going to be playing on it. I did imagine a distorted fog with a symphony orchestra and if it sounds good, I could put it on – I didn’t do that though. But all of these things, like I did Mediterranean guitar with blues vocals and Black Sabbath riff with a Finnish traditional chord melody, all ended up happening in the song ‘Stones’. But there’s a lot of other stuff going on there as well and I guess the only thing, which I realised kind of on the way, was that I was doing a lot of traditional Finnish stuff in some melodies on purpose. But I would say the folk on this album is not as much Celtic as it is Finnish.”

Check out the audio interview here. 

Hietala recently released lyric video for the second single, "Voice Of My Father", which you can see below.

Order Pyre Of The Black Heartnow on CD (jewelcase) or clear vinyl, here.

About the goal behind his solo album, Marko Hietala comments, "Well, let's put it this way: Nightwish is without any doubt my main band, and thanks to income from that direction, I don't have to be that commercially aware... What I mean is that when I was coming up with the musical thoughts for this solo record, I was able to do simply anything without limits. So if I had a goal, it was to not have any kind of limits, but to prepare an unpredictable, spontaneous, adventurous, ferocious and intimate solo record. And now when I am listening to the final album by myself, I can say with my hand on my heart that I - or rather us - pulled it off... The record is a really diverse musical roller coaster ride that takes eager listeners into a world of strong emotions and deep feelings!"

Hietala's voice has barely faded away, and he is already honouring his skillful band mates. "Even if Pyre Of The Black Heartis definitely my solo album, I didn't compose everything on my own. When the song writing process was really in full swing, I kept sending all the ideas to my long-time collaborators Tuomas Wäinölä [guitar] and Vili Ollila [keyboards], and this ingenious two-some came up with great additions and arrangements, one after another. Drummer Anssi Nykänen - who is simply a wizard behind his set - completed the line-up like no other."

Tracklisting:

"Stones"
"The Voice Of My Father"
"Star, Sand And Shadow"
"Dead God's Son"
"For You"
"I Am The Way"
"Runner Of The Railways"
"Death March For Freedom"
"I Dream"
"Truth Shall Set You Free"

"The Voice Of My Father" lyric video:

"Stones" video:

Shortly after the album release there will also be a Marko Hietala solo tour. "Come February... We simply can't wait to get out on the road! It will be amazing to perform these solo songs for all those multinational friends of my music", Hietala says and continues: "I strongly recommend coming out to see my band during this run, entitled Tour Of The Black Heart, as this will be my first and last European solo tour in a long time - or ever!"

Tour dates, with support from Oceanhorse, are as follows:

February
2 - Hamburg, Germany - Markthalle
4 - Frankfurt, Germany - Batschkapp
6 - Munich, Germany - Backstage
7 - Leipzig, Germany - der ANKER
8 - Wroclaw, Poland - Centrum Koncertowe A2
9 - Prague, Czech Republic - Roxy
11 - Budapest, Hungary - Barba Negra
13 - Stuttgart, Germany - Im Wizemann
14 - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z7
16 - Oberhausen, Germany - Turbinenhalle
17 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
18 - Paris, France - La Machine du Moulin Rouge

(Photo - Andrea Beckers)