Nightwish: Imaginaerum LTD version on vinyl 2LP in limited edition. This particular edition was published in Europe in publishing company Nuclear Blast on 12. October 2012.

The songs for the new work were written between 2008 and 2009, most of them immediately after the "Dark Passion Play" world tour, which ended in September 2009. "Ghost River was the first song I wrote and Song Of Myself was the last one," recalls Mister Holopainen. "The music for ´The Crow, The Owl And The Dove´ was written by bassist Marco for his band Tarot, but when I heard the melody I saw these fantastic soundscapes forming in my head and I knew that this number was a perfect fit for NIGHTWISH - and Marco wasn't against it," explains Tuomas happily. All other songs and lyrics were written by Holopainen himself. "It was an extreme challenge for us to write songs that were equally part of a bigger story and visual imagination. Basically, I felt like I was creating a soundtrack for a film that didn't exist yet." The summer of 2010 was then reserved for recording and arranging. "We rented a room at the Röskö summer camp, which is located near my hometown of Kitee," explains the affable Finn. "During this two-month stay, the songs got to a level that everyone in the band was completely happy with, and we recorded a demo. Pip Williams started working on orchestral and choral arrangements. He spent the next four months working day and night on his parts for Imaginaerum. We started recording drums in October 2010, followed by guitar and bass sequences. In February this year we went to Angels Studios in London to work on the orchestral parts, choir and ethnic instruments. Keyboards, piano, Celtic instruments and vocals were recorded at Petrax studio in Finland," the composer lists the various musical stages of the last few months. "The next step was mixing in April - under the baton of Mikko Karmila at Finnvox Studios in Helsinki - and the first version of the new album was ready in June. We decided to remix the record twice, until finally in July we were all absolutely thrilled with the result. We got our hands on the final master on August 31st - mixed by Mika Jussila. It was a really exhausting but also exciting period before we had `Imaginaerum' in the can, but the effort was more than worth it!" Review of "Masterpiece" (Metal Hammer) "A perfect masterpiece? (Orkus) "A work of genius? (Sonic Seducer) "Uncompromising superlatives. Nightwish's most personal and sensitive album ever." LEGACY / Kira Appelt , "Thankfully, their symphonic heavy metal then sounds as haunting as ever, combining pure power with fantastical romance, leading epic melodic arcs around heavy metal riffs, and still shining with arguably the best vocals in the genre." (Good Times, February/March 2012)

Album spans genres Rock and Symphonic metal.