Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Nightwish

Endless Forms Most Beautiful is the eighth album by Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish. It was released on March 27, 2015 in Argentina and most of Europe, March 30 in the UK, and March 31 in the US. The album is the band's first featuring singer Floor Jansen and the first with Troy Donockley as a full-time member. It was also the first without drummer Jukka Nevalainen, who took a break from the band due to severe insomnia. Drumming was by Kai Hahto of Wintersun and Swallow the Sun. The album includes only five Nightwish members, despite its being their first album release as a sextet. Unlike its predecessor Imaginaerum, which has themes of imagination and fantasy, Endless Forms Most Beautiful addresses science and reason. Focusing on the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins, the latter part of the album cites passages from their books. Both authors influenced album tracks; The Ancestor's Tale inspired "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", and by The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution inspired "The Greatest Show on Earth". Some songs, such as "Edema Ruh" (inspired by Patrick Rothfuss' novel The Name of the Wind), still have fanciful themes. The album's first single, "Élan", was introduced on February 9, 2015 (four days before its planned release date). "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", announced as the second single on April 17, was released with a lyric video on May 8. The third and final single, "My Walden", had a limited release on April 16, 2016 as an exclusive for Record Store Day.