All of this negative energy was brought about by the sudden split with former frontwoman Tarja Turunen in 2005. With rumours flying left, right and centre about who would replace her, Tuomas and crew fled deep underground to begin brewing the new album and finding their new voice.

"The only thing we knew was that we did not want to have a Tarja clone," says Tuomas on the search for the replacement vocalist. "We did not want another classically trained, operatic singer. Other than that we kept all the options open." The band sifted through over two-thousand audition tapes before settling on the unknown Swede Anette Olzon.

The band resurfaced in 2007 with Anette at the helm and immediately unleashed the new album, Dark Passion Play. This album sees an angrier Nightwish, but also a more dynamic Nightwish. Soaring and spiraling, with beauty and balls, the album makes a strong statement. Nightwish will move ahead at full-pace, and those that can't handle the change will simply be left behind. But even with an unprecedented amount of media coverage and non-stop touring since the album's release, the band is in no danger of running out of steam.

"We have been doing this for ten years so we kinda know what to expect, but I think some things that are happening are like a sledgehammer into the face for her. She didn't really know what to expect, which is only natural. But we are there for her and she is doing a wonderful job." Tuomas says, with a touch of pride in his voice.

"When you're a singer you are always the most vulnerable. We can go and perform when we have forty-degrees of fever, but she can't. So she really needs to take care of herself, save her voice, so it's always a bit harder for her."

January 2008 saw Nightwish returning to Australian shores, with dates in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. This gave Aussie audiences their first chance to see exactly how well Anette has fit into Nightwish when she tackled some of the songs that Tarja made famous.

"Personally I think she can pull off every single song well," Tuomas assured me, mere hours before I saw the band for myself. "But there are some songs that she just does not feel comfortable singing. For example "The Siren" or "She Is My Sin". I think she does them beautifully but she disagrees... There are some songs that she can pull off perfectly, like they were made for her. I think "Nemo" is one of them, "Everdream", "Dark Chest Of Wonders", "Higher Than Hope"...

"I notice when we start to play the older songs it's usually like the crowd goes totally quiet and everybody's like this for one or two songs," he says with his hands cupped behind his ears in a listening gesture. "Which is totally understandable. [But] after that the crowd reaction has been really good. I mean we have done 48 shows now with Anette, and I have seen one middle finger, that was in Philadelphia, and I have heard one time in Finland people calling "Where is Tarja?" One time. So I think the percentage is in our advantage."

As the band move forward with Anette and Dark Passion Play, they're also leaving something behind. Nowhere on the new album is this more prominent than in the song "Bye Bye Beautiful".

"It's no secret, of course it's a song about Tarja. But it's not made in a bad spirit at all. I hope that people won't be offended by the song. As a songwriter of course I need to do songs about these matters, because it was a very big happening in my life. It's just like a farewell song to her. It's not apologising, it's not accusing. It's just like a bitter-sweet testament of 'Why did this have to happen?' In this thing, in the end, nobody was innocent."

Innocence and childhood have always been main themes for the band. With all of the turbulence of the split now behind them, is the search for innocence still the driving force behind the music? "It very much is," Tuomas explains "not only innocence, it's like the goodness of people and the goodness of the world we live in that gets me, and inspires me to do songs."

But once that childhood innocence is lost, can it ever be found again? "Damn, it's hard," he says. "I've been trying to... but I drink more and more all the time. I smoke more all the time. I'm a pain in the ass for some people, more than ever.

"I think that making music and sharing all this with the whole world, it has helped me to find this path towards home," Tuomas adds. "So maybe if we keep on doing this for another ten years I think I will find back home again...

"Home is finding balance within myself and being finally happy with who I am. I really hate myself in many ways. I really want to get rid of that feeling and be happy with myself."

 

But if music is Tuomas' vehicle in his quest for innocence, his search for home - what happens to Nightwish if he ever finds that home?

"It's a bit of a scary thought... I think Dark Passion Play is our best album and it was born under a great deal of depression and sadness and sorrow and being incredibly pissed off all the time. So it's a scary thought that we need to go through all these feelings to be able to create art. But on the other hand, the previous album Once was done when I was feeling happier than ever and it still ended up being a good album. As long as you feel, whether it's good or bad, that's the most important thing."


Dark Passion Play is out now through Roadrunner Records. Nightwish have just completed a national tour but you can be certain they'll be back!