“Doing this kind of really orchestral, symphonic stuff for four albums, you have to be prepared to take the next step, and go 10 steps beyond.” On a freezing cold afternoon in early 2004, Kerrang! was invited to Phoenix Sound Studios in London, just behind Wembley Arena, to watch a creative vision come to life. Very, very slowly. In the studio’s enormous live room, two dozen choristers perfectly repeated a dramatic musical phrase that sounded like something from The Omen soundtrack. Above, in the studio’s control room, Tuomas Holopainen paced endlessly, eyes screwed up tight, at once agitated, focused, excited, confident and anxious, flicking his finger in time with each stabbing vocal. “Again,” he’d demand, tape would roll, and the same 10 seconds of music would ...
