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It's been more than three years since bassist-singer-songwriter Marko Hietala left the band Nightwish and went quiet for a year. But he's been back for a couple years now and the good stuff just keeps coming. A reunion and reconciliation with former Nightwish lead singer Tarja; tours with her and Dutch singer Anneke van Giersbergen as well as on his own; a reunion with Tarot, the band founded by Marko and his brother that launched his career; and two new solo singles, the latest of which dropped yesterday. Hopefully, we are looking at a new album in 2025 but nothing's confirmed yet.

Dutch symphonic metal band Delain basically blew itself apart in 2021, replacing the entire lineup except founder and keyboardist Martijn Westerholt. Lead singer Charlotte Wessels went solo in the wake, leaving Martijn to replace one of the best and most experienced of the female metal leads. And he found a great young voice to do the job. Diana Leah has been excellent in the new lineup of the band, singing both new material and Wessels-era classics with skill and enthusiasm. They released the first single from an upcoming EP today.

Sharon Den Adel of the band Within Temptation packs an incredible voice. So does Finnish rocker, and former Nightwish lead, Tarja. So how about Sharon covering a Tarja song? I'm in.

Within Temptation is doing some concerts with Tarja (crossing my fingers for performances of Paradise (What About Us), the amazing collaboration they did years ago) and this cover is the first in a tit for tat cover game WT is doing with her and annisokay, another band they are doing dates with.

The recent return of nu/alt-metal greats Linkin Park came as a bit of a surprise, given vocalist and founding member Chester Bennington committed suicide in 2017. However, co-vocalist/rapper/multi-instrumentalist Mike Shinoda and other surviving members recruited a couple new faces, including vocalist Emily Armstrong of the band Dead Sara, and are now back in action. New album From Zero is due in November. It's a controversial move given Chester was much-beloved among their fans but Emily is a solid vocalist and has the right voice for it so there's hope this might work out. Here's one classic and one new song from the livestreamed concert where they introduced her.

Nightwish dropped a bit of a surprise when they announced the release of Ocean of Strange Islands as the third single from upcoming album Yesterwynde. That makes originally announced third single Lanternlight (a personal choice of lead singer Floor Jansen) to be the fourth when it comes out on the album's release date. Ocean... is much more in the vein of classic Nightwish in style than it's two predecessors, even if the soft ending featuring the uillean pipes of Troy Donockley is a bit unexpected.

And then a man whose career predates the births of all the members of Nightwish, even 60-year-old Troy. David Gilmour is best known for his tenure as guitarist and singer in Pink Floyd, which he joined in 1967, but began his musical career in 1962 and continues to this day with a new solo album out a week ago. This is the title track, which reunites David with Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright. And the song is probably the most Floyd-ish sounding track I've heard so far from the new album.

Five days until Nightwish's new album, but fans of the band's lead singer Floor Jansen are still basking in the glow of her triumphant final solo show of 2024.

"Bridle Passion" originally appeared on Northward, a one-off band and album of songs written by Floor and Norwegian guitarist Jorn Viggo Lofstad. While Northward never did perform live, Floor has been using the songs in her solo shows ever since she started exploring a solo career in 2019.

Going, Going, Gone - Stars

Last single before the release of The Obsession, third solo album from Dutch metal singer Charlotte Wessels, features her friend and frequent collaborator Alissa White-Gluz, best known as lead singer of melodic death metal band Arch-Enemy. Here, Alissa's lovely singing voice is ascendent, with her death metal growls being used more in the background.

And from the West Coast of Canada, the second single/video from Powernerd, the forthcoming album from multitalented Devin Townsend.

I listened to Yesterwynde, the new Nightwish album, today and it is magnificent. But the song that really takes the show is perhaps the most beautiful song ever to emerge from this band. "Lanternlight" features a stellar vocal performance by Floor Jansen with just keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen and a light string section behind her. Troy Donockley slips in with some backing vocals. And it is just beautiful. And keep in mind, Floor recorded this at the end of a 12-month period when she had cancer treatment and gave birth. And she still knocked it out of the park. Tuomas told interviewers that they arrived at Floor's home studio to record her vocals for the album prepared for two weeks of recording, but she was done in six days. It is some of her best work to date.

Ummet Ozcan - Xanadu (Mongolian Techno)

Sing - Travis