Finland's NIGHTWISH will enter the studio on October 27 to begin recording the follow-up to last year's "Century Child". The band will once again use their own studio in Kitee to record the drums, bass and keyboards/synths, while the vocals and guitars will be recorded at Helsinki's Finnvox facility.

NIGHTWISH hope to complete the recordings by the end of March 2004 and issue the as-yet-untitled effort in early June.

"I am definitely feeling some pressure with regards to the songwriting for the new album, I won't even try to deny that," said NIGHTWISH keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen. "But I have already written one very good track, so I'm not worried. I've gotta say that I have to write a bit faster in the coming months if I'm going to write everything before the studio sessions."

With regards to the musical direction of the upcoming effort, Holopainen said, "I can no longer go to our web site to check the discussion forums anymore. It's pretty confusing reading everyone's opinions on what the new album should sound like. I think I've already heard about a hundred different opinions on the subject, from 'They should sound like the first album' to 'They should only have ballads," laughed Tuomas.

NIGHTWISH's last CD, "Century Child", has been certified double platinum in Finland for sales in excess of 60,000 copies. The album was last year's second-highest selling Finnish release in Finland. When taking into account foreign albums, "Century Child" was still in the fifth place.

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