Nightwish parted ways with longtime bassist Marco Hietala in 2021 and recruited Wintersun bassist Jukka Koskinen for touring duties. Now Nightwish has announced Koskinen as a full-time member of the band, making him the second member of Wintersun to be in Nightwish (the first is drummer Kai Hahto, who joined in 2019).

“We’re delighted to announce our dear friend Jukka Koskinen is officially inaugurated as a member of the band,” said Nightwish in a post. “We’ve been incredibly thankful to have him on our side while touring and it only feels natural to have him join the band officially. Now it’s time to recharge our batteries for October when we head to South America.”

In related news, Nightwish is currently working on the follow-up to their 2019 album Human. :II: Nature. LP. “I’ve got all the songs done during the pandemic. [I thought] I might as well use that time,” said keyboardist and main composer Tuomas Holopainen in a recent interview. “We listened to the demos for the first time with the whole band about three weeks ago when we were in America. Things are rolling.”

According to Holopainen, he wrote the new tracks over the course of a year, and then revealed that “We’re hitting the studio next summer, so in about a year from now” is when we can expect some new music from Nightwish. About the new music, Holopainen said, “lyrically there’s a couple of things that reflects the pandemic, but not in the way you would expect.”