Floor Jansen wanted Hytress to be heavy, but not NIGHTWISH-heavy. In a new interview with Janne Vuorela of Finland's Imperiumi, the singer laid out the thinking behind her second solo album, out January 15, 2027 via REVAMP Music/Warner Music.
The starting point, she said, was simple: a heavier record than her 2023 debut Paragon. With NIGHTWISH off the road for the foreseeable future, there was no risk of her solo shows competing with the band's, and the pull back toward her heavier roots got stronger. What she ruled out was copying the band she sings for. Tuomas Holopainen's writing is "as good as it gets", Jansen said, so there's no point trying to imitate it — the search was for "a heavier, more metal sound that is 100% me, but not like NIGHTWISH".
The answer turned out to be compact songs rather than NIGHTWISH's long structures. Jansen calls them "pop songs, but with a very heavy jacket on": big, catchy choruses over a very heavy low end. Production-wise, the team drew on down-tuned modern metal — she names BLEED FROM WITHIN, GOJIRA and even PERIPHERY — and the double-bass drive that goes with it, then set her own vocals and accessible hooks on top.
They also consciously steered away from anything orchestral. Instead of stock symphonic sounds, the atmosphere comes from sound design: some parts on the album started as guitar and were morphed into something you might not recognize as guitar at all.
She also reminded the interviewer that she was writing songs in her own bands long before NIGHTWISH — AFTER FOREVER and REVAMP — so steering a record herself was nothing new. What has changed is the scale: as the voice of NIGHTWISH, anything under her own name is watched by a much bigger audience.
The album was announced in August with the single "Bring Me Silence". A 2027 "Hytress" tour of Europe and South America is booked; NIGHTWISH, meanwhile, remain on hold, with no live dates planned.
"Hytress" track listing:
- Reverse Polarity
- Everything Is Moving On
- In Wildfire
- Cathedral Of One
- Bring Me Silence
- Fighting
- I Am Drowning
- Rock The Bells
- It's Time For Change
- Verity
- Run
- Haven