IRON MAIDEN’s STEVE HARRIS On NIGHTWISH: ‘ANETTE OLZON’s Voice Suited Them A Lot Better’

Steve Harris Anette Olzon

During a recent interview with Loudersound, IRON MAIDEN founder and bassist Steve Harris sang praises of NIGHTWISH‘s sixth studio album, 2007’s Dark Passion Play, following the departure original singer, Tarja Turunen, who was replaced with Anette Olzon.

“When I heard Dark Passion Play, I couldn’t believe it,” Steve said. “I thought, ‘Now, this is a proper f*cking album.’ It’s got everything bar the kitchen sink in there. It was controversial because of the new singer [Anette Olzon], but she was brilliant. No disrespect to [original NIGHTWISH singer] Tarja, but Anette’s voice suited them a lot better. There’s heavy stuff, classical, even a bit of Disney — all kinds of sh*t in there. I think it’s one of the best-sounding albums I’ve ever heard in my life.

“Then I got the next one, [2011’s] Imaginaerum“Storytime” is a fantastic, instant song. The rest of the album took me a while to get into. Dark Passion Play was so good, I thought there was no way they could ever come up with an album that’s anywhere near that, but the more I got into Imaginaerum, the more I loved it.”

NIGHTWISH‘s latest album, Human. :II: Nature., was released in August 2020 through Nuclear Blast.