Drakkar Records will release NIGHTWISH’s From Wishes To Eternity live album on Super-Audio CD (SACD) on March 1st. It will be a hybrid disc which can also be played on regular CD-players but of course you need an SACD-player to get the full quality.

The instrumental songs ‘Crimson Tide/Deep Blue Sea’ and ‘FantasMic’ had to be removed from the tracklist to fit the concert on the disc.

The final tracklisting includes: ‘The Kinslayer’, ‘She Is My Sin’, ‘Deep Silent Complete’, ‘The Pharaoh Sails To Orion’, ‘Come Cover Me’, ‘Wanderlust’, ‘Swanheart’, ‘Elvenpath’, ‘Dead Boy's Poem’, ‘Sacrament Of Wilderness’, ‘Walking In The Ai’,r ‘Beauty & The Beast’ and ‘Wishmaster’.

For more information on the SACD format go to this location.

In other Nightwish news, vocalist Tarja Turunen and recording engineer TeeCee Kinnunen have issued the following studio reports.

Says TeeCee, “Morjens! Last recording session in Kitee were over at midnight 23.1. Then it was legendary GME choir´s turn to put some sweet and actually very melodic voices to the forthcoming album. Check how sweet and melodic their voice was from this video-clip. (Go here). (Thanks again to Tohmajärvi!!!) Three songs have now that kind of sweet icing :) After a very successful session we had a "after-recording" party in Kitee´s Karhu bar. The hit of that night was absolutely whisky-banana-cola!!! TeeCee"

Tarja comments, “In a very relaxed atmosphere I started practicing vocals with Tero and Tuomas. In a very beginning we took a brand new song to work with and I was very surprised in a positive way. Even though everything was a quite chaotic... this should get everyones attention! =) Totally we went through eight songs during two days and the basic idea for this session was to get some kind of idea of how melodies, harmony and lyrics work together. This was a good thing to do before entering Finnvox studios. (It's not a very good idea to go there without knowing what to do!). Anyway, I believe that what I've heard/learned during these days Mikko Karmila will have many shocks during the recordings. There's still some unprepared material and some very "risky" choices so we'll definitely will have a lot of fun in a studio.

I almost laughed myself to death yesterday. Well, as a summary of all this I could say that as long as singing rock music is this much fun we might even succeed it. At least sometimes... not very often... not often enough at all... hardly never well enough... forget it. Tarja."

In other news, the band has posted details regarding the first single, from their as-yet-untitled forthcoming album due this spring: “The new Nightwish music video will be directed by Antti Jokinen. Jokinen has directed music videos for such huge artists like example CELINE DION, EMINEM and SHANIA TWAIN. Music video from the first single ‘Nemo’ is supposed be ready in April when single is released. At this moment Jokinen is in Rome working as an assistant director in Renny Harlin´s new film Exorcist: The Beginning. The budget of the video will be biggest so far in Nightwish history. The story board of the video made by Tuomas Holopainen (keyboards) and Tero Kinnunen (engineer) is ready but Jokinen has a permission to change the story if necessary.

"This is a very sad and heavy, ballad-like song. Video has a thin story line which tells not so much of love but more like despair and hope," says Nightwish manager Ewo Rytkönen

In live news, Nightwish have the following upcoming dates scheduled:

May

22 - Icehall - Kitee, Finland

June

11 - Sauna Open Air - Tampere, Finland
12 - Sweden Rock Festival - Sölvesborg, Sweden

August

16 - Opera House - Toronto, ON
17 - Metropolis - Montreal, QC
19 - Trocadero - Philadelphia, PA
20 - Palladium - Worcester, MA
22 - B.B. King's - Manhattan, NY
23 - Phantasy Theater - Cleveland, OH
25 - House of Blues - Chicago, IL
26 - Quest Club - Minneapolis, MN
28 - Cervantes - Denver, CO
30 - Cajun House - Phoenix, AZ
31 - House of Blues - Anaheim, CA

September

2 - House of Blues - Hollywood, CA
5 - Graceland - Seattle, WA