Finnish symphonic metal leaders Nightwish have made strong progress on the followup to 2024’s Yesterwynde album.
Talking exclusively to Metal Hammer, the band’s keyboardist, songwriter and founder, Tuomas Holopainen, reveals that he has penned six tracks for their as-yet-unannounced 11th record.
“I feel more inspired than ever – proof of that is that I’ve already got six new Nightwish songs done,” the 49-year-old says. “Every time I sit in front of my keyboard, I’m like, ‘Ah yeah, this is great! Just wait till everyone hears this.’ It’s exhilarating.”
He adds that the band have “reserved things” for 2027, hinting that they’ve booked studio time. He also suggests that 2028 will be the year that they end their ongoing hiatus from live shows, which started three years ago.
“Next year is too early to be going back on tour,” he says. “The year after, possibly? I want to do another album before any live shows, and that’s definitely happening. We’ve already reserved things for that next year.”
Nightwish announced their live hiatus in April 2023, citing personal reasons. They said that the decision had nothing to do with members’ individual projects, nor frontwoman Floor Jansen’s then-pregnancy.
During an interview with Finnish newspaper Karjalainen in March, Holopainen revealed that he was working on two new albums. He did not specify whether either of them were for Nightwish. He’s also a member of the folk band Auri with his wife Johanna Kurkela and Nightwish guitarist/pipe player Troy Donockley.
Holopainen launched Nightwish in 1996 and is one of their two constant members, alongside guitarist Emppu Vuorinen. They’ve sold more than 10 millions albums worldwide, and each of their albums since 2000’s Wishmaster has topped the Finnish album charts. Their upcoming release will be their fourth with Jansen.
Holopainen’s update follows Jansen’s announcement of her second solo album, Hytress, earlier this week. Preceded by lead single Run back in June, the followup to her 2023 solo debut Paragon will be more in line with the symphonic metal sound of Nightwish. It’ll come out on January 15 via Revamp and Warner Music.
If you can’t wait until 2028 to see a Nightwish member onstage again, Jansen will tour Europe and South America with her solo band from January to April. Tickets are on sale now via her website.
Pantera bassist Rex Brown has teamed up with Spector on a new instrument: the Euro 4 Rex Brown Signature bass.
“The new Rex Brown Euro Bass has been a labor of love,” Brown says. “We took our time with every detail. From the balance of the pickups to the backplate design, it features the same neck profile I’ve used on my Spectors for years. It all comes together in a bass I’m incredibly proud of and one I think players will really enjoy.”
The Euro 4 Rex Brown Signature carries Brown‘s signature tone and feel into Spector‘s Euro line. Built with players who want clarity, punch, and stage-ready performance in mind, the bass combines carefully chosen tonewoods and electronics with a comfortable playing feel.
Finished in flame maple with a Desert Gold top, the bass makes a strong visual statement right out of the case, echoing the look of Brown‘s original Spectors. An empress wood back keeps the instrument light for long sets, while a 3-piece maple neck and Indian rosewood fingerboard add stability and warmth. Brown‘s own neck profile carries over as well, giving the bass a familiar grip in the hands.
Under the hood, EMG PJ-X pickups pair with Spector‘s TonePump active preamp — a combination Brown has relied on for decades — delivering a punchy, articulate voice with strong low end and enough clarity to cut through a mix. A rear-accessible trimpot allows players to dial in output level to suit their rig.
The Desert Gold finish draws from the New Mexico landscape Brown now calls home, rounded out with smoke crown inlays, gold hardware, a script Spector logo and Brown‘s own logo on the back of the headstock.
Specifications:
Flame maple top with empress back
3-piece maple neck
Indian rosewood fingerboard with smoke crown inlays
EMG PJ-X pickups with Spector TonePump active preamp
Desert Gold finish
Spector script logo and Rex Brown Signature logo
Spector gig bag included
The Spector Euro 4 Rex Brown Signature bass is available now with a street price of $3,599.99.
Brown has never been one to coast on past achievements. Drawing on influences like John Paul Jones, Pino Palladino, Jaco Pastorius, Tom Hamilton, Pete Way and Geddy Lee, he’s built a career grounded in that history while staying focused on what’s next.
Brown and his Texas bandmates built a blueprint with Pantera that nearly every metal band since has studied closely. Late guitarist Darrell “Dimebag” Abbott remains a beloved, genre-defining player, and the rhythmic chemistry Brown shared with Pantera‘s late drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott has rarely been matched. Alongside vocalist Philip H. Anselmo, widely regarded as one of metal’s greatest frontmen, the band once known as Cowboys From Hell sparked a movement that reshaped heavy metal, influenced countless acts, and left a mark that lives on in tattoos worldwide — a legacy built across five multi-platinum albums released between 1990 and 2000 that still draw billions of streams annually.
Dolly Parton was never the most obvious artist to appear in the pages of MetalTalk. Then again, Dolly Parton spent a lifetime making other people’s ideas about where she belonged largely irrelevant. The legendary singer, songwriter, actress and philanthropist has died at the age of 80. Her death in Nashville was announced by her family on Tuesday, 25 August 2026.
For most of her extraordinary career, Parton’s musical home was unquestionably country. She wrote Jolene, I Will Always Love You and 9 To 5, became one of the most recognisable entertainers on the planet and built a legacy stretching far beyond records.
But eventually, Dolly came knocking on MetalTalk’s door too. And when she decided to make a rock album, she did not do it by halves.
Her 2022 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inspired 2023’s Rockstar, a huge 30-song collection containing nine originals and 21 rock classics. The guest list looked as though somebody had been given access to one of rock’s more remarkable address books.
Rob Halford. Nikki Sixx. John 5. Ann Wilson. Steven Tyler. Stevie Nicks. Joan Jett. Peter Frampton. Elton John. Paul McCartney. Ringo Starr. Mick Fleetwood. Debbie Harry. Gary Rossington.
Suddenly Dolly Parton was very much MetalTalk business. When we first covered Rockstar in June 2023, it was the heavier end of the record that caught our attention. Bygones paired Parton with Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, with Nikki Sixx and John 5 joining them, while Ann Wilson appeared on Dolly’s version of the Heart classic Magic Man.
This was not some novelty exercise in putting a country superstar next to a few distorted guitars. Our verdict at the time was simple. This was seriously top-quality stuff.
Parton clearly felt the same way about working with Halford. “Coupling my voice with Rob, one of my all-time favourites, made it even more special,” she told us of Bygones. A few weeks later, MetalTalk’s Monty Sewell was in London when Dolly arrived to talk about Rockstar herself.
There are press conferences, and then there are occasions when one of the world’s genuinely iconic entertainers walks into the room. Sewell described a hot-pink, bedazzled jumpsuit, silver over-the-knee boots, towering hair and, more importantly, the warmth and humour that generations of people had come to associate with Dolly Parton.
What emerged during those 45 minutes was that Dolly hadn’t approached rock cautiously. “I just really put my whole heart and soul into it,” she said. “I went places I didn’t think I would ever go and had real joy doing it.”
That attitude probably explains why Rockstar worked. Parton was not trying to convince anyone she had secretly been a Metalhead all along. Instead, she stepped into another musical world with curiosity, respect and enough confidence in her own identity to remain unmistakably Dolly throughout it.
The story of how Rob Halford became involved summed that up beautifully. The pair had talked while appearing together at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, where they had been singing Jolene. Halford told her that he and his family were longtime fans. Dolly, meanwhile, revealed that her husband Carl Dean loved Judas Priest.
So she asked the Metal God a fairly straightforward question. If she made a rock album, would he be on it? He said he would be honoured.
Rockstar was only a tiny part of the Dolly Parton story. Born in Tennessee in 1946, she went from poverty to becoming one of music’s most successful and recognisable figures. She sold more than 100 million records worldwide, won 11 Grammy Awards and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
But statistics only explain part of why Dolly mattered. There was also the Imagination Library, created in honour of her father, who had been unable to read or write. When MetalTalk met her in 2023, the programme had already donated more than 200 million books to children.
And perhaps the most revealing moment of that London afternoon had nothing to do with album sales, famous collaborators or musical genres.
“My message to everybody is to love one another,” Parton told the room. “I try to find a light in everybody.”
Dolly Parton didn’t need Heavy Metal to make her a legend, and Heavy Metal certainly didn’t need to claim her as one of its own. But for a wonderful moment, our worlds crossed.
She tackled Heart, Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd and made an album called Rockstar because, after the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame had welcomed her in, she decided she ought to earn the title properly. And in the process, Dolly Parton earned herself an unlikely but entirely deserved place in MetalTalk history.
We came to Dolly through rock ‘n’ roll. We left understanding why everybody else had loved her for so long.
Heavy metal has never been a genre built on playing it safe, but its lifelong obsession with the roll of the dice, the dealer’s table, and the sudden turn of a card runs far deeper than mere rebellious swagger. Across six decades of distortion, skull-laden album sleeves, and blistering guitar solos, the world of hard rock has embraced gambling imagery in heavy metal not merely as cool decoration, but as the foundational metaphor for living on the edge of oblivion.
When you examine the DNA of the music, the gambler’s fatalistic mindset maps perfectly onto the outlaw spirit of the scene, creating a shared vocabulary of calculated danger, destiny, and the thrill of the wager.
The All-or-Nothing Philosophy: Metal’s Risk Aesthetic
Gambling isn’t an incidental aesthetic borrowed to look dangerous; it is structural to how rock and metal perceive existence. From the smoky backrooms chronicled in early hard rock tracks to the menacing iconography that stamps heavy vinyl, risk is the heartbeat of the genre.
Metal has always attracted musicians and fans who reject the safety net of ordinary life. Choosing to chase a career in heavy music is itself a massive wager — throwing stability to the wind for a one-in-a-million shot at the stage. That uncompromising, all-or-nothing mentality creates an instant cultural bridge to the world of high-stakes play.
This overlap is visible not only in historical records but across contemporary entertainment. Editorial teams covering the modern digital wagering space, such as the gaming analysts examining the European landscape at Rizik Croatia, frequently note how modern casino gaming and rock aesthetics share the exact same visual and psychological cues: the drama of the cards, the unpredictability of chance, and the unflinching courage to ride out whatever hand fate deals.
The Defining Anthem: How Motörhead Immortalized the Ace of Spades
No discussion of cards and volume can exist without acknowledging the benchmark: Motörhead’s legendary 1980 masterpiece.
“You know I’m born to lose, and gambling’s for fools, But that’s the way I like it baby, I don’t wanna live for ever…”
When Lemmy Kilmister roared those lines over Fast Eddie Clarke’s roaring riff, he wasn’t writing a detached fictional story. Lemmy was notoriously devoted to the machines and the card tables throughout his life, bringing genuine biographical authenticity to every syllable. The Motörhead Ace of Spades lyrics codified the ultimate heavy metal ethos: you do not hedge your bets, you do not cash out early, and you embrace the inevitable finish with your boots on.
The ace of spades carries deep historical connotations of mortality and unpredictability, making it the supreme insignia for a band that built its legacy on absolute defiance.
Skulls, Suits, and Spades: Playing Cards in Album Art
Long before digital interfaces became standard, rock bands turned to visual symbols to telegraph their attitude to the world. Examining classic rock band album art playing cards reveals how quickly dice, royal flushes, and the dead man’s hand became universal symbols.
The Skull and Spade: Merging the suit of spades with skulls creates a visual shorthand that represents both mortality and defiance.
The Flaming Dice: Often featured on denim battle jackets and tour merch to signal a life governed by velocity and chance.
The Dead Man’s Hand (Aces and Eights): A staple in thrash, outlaw country-metal, and southern rock, honoring the legendary hand Wild Bill Hickok held when he met his fate.
These images do more than fill merchandise space; they communicate an unspoken pledge between artist and audience that both sides understand what it means to live on the margins.
The Outlaw Gambler: Metal’s Recurring Lyrical Hero
Heavy metal’s lyrical tradition traces its roots directly through the early American blues, where wandering bluesmen sang of making pacts at midnight crossroads and staking their lives on a single game.
Metal adopted this archetype and turned up the gain. The outlaw gambler rock archetype is an antihero who refuses to beg for forgiveness, laughs in the face of bad luck, and takes full responsibility for their losses. It’s an empowering persona for listeners navigating a world that demands conformity and caution.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is metal music fate and risk so closely linked?
Metal frequently explores themes of destiny, mortality, and powerlessness against cosmic forces. Gambling imagery offers a concrete, visceral metaphor for confronting the unknown and staring down the odds.
What bands beside Motörhead frequently use gambling imagery?
Bands ranging from Iron Maiden (The Angel and the Gambler) and AC/DC (Sin City) to Megadeth, Black Sabbath, and Volbeat have all woven card games, dice rolls, and risk-taking into their lyrics and stage designs.
Why do rock fans love high-stakes visual aesthetics?
The visual language of cards, roulette wheels, and dice represents autonomy, adrenaline, and an refusal to settle for ordinary routines.
TL;DR
Rooted in Reality: Gambling imagery in heavy metal isn’t just a theatrical gimmick; it represents the genre’s all-or-nothing philosophy and outlaw ethos.
The Gold Standard: Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” cemented the card-playing gambler as the ultimate metal archetype thanks to Lemmy’s authentic lifestyle.
Visual Power: Album art, tour shirts, and logos have relied on spades, dice, and cards for decades to symbolize mortality and destiny.
Modern Parallels: Platforms like Rizik Croatia showcase how the thrill of chance and the timeless iconography of risk continue to captivate modern audiences worldwide.
Queens Of The Stone Age will release their ninth album, Perfecth, on October 30 via Matador Records.
Having already teased the follow-up to 2023’s In Times New Roman with the single Easy Street, Josh Homme’s band have shared a second. song from the record, Insignificant Other.
“It’s a song about distance,” says Homme. “About how someone can be your entire world only to simply vanish. And about the strange vertigo of being on the receiving end of that.”
The album title apparently reflects Homme’s belief that the word ‘Perfect’ doesn’t exist. Which it blatantly does. But rock stars gonna rock star, we guess.
“Every song sounds like it’s from a different world,” says Homme. “And that’s on purpose, because it’s trying to stitch together all these emotions revolving around love, lust, foolishness, and the sort of wisdom that comes as a gift from all that.”
A press statement adds: “Kintsugi – the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by filling its cracks with gold – holds that what has been shattered is made more beautiful, not less, by the act of repair. This is the spirit in which Perfecth was made. An album that could only have been made right now thanks to Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman, Dean Fertita, and Jon Theodore taking significant evolutionary steps as a collective and arriving at hard-won clarity, its nine songs map different forms of love: of family, friends, and others both significant and insignificant. The loves that break you beyond survival and the loves that put you back together.”
The album tracklisting is:
1. It’s Only Love 2. Insignificant Other 3. Where The Goth Girls At? 4. Mono 5. From The Cliff 6. Sunday 7. Easy Street 8. Phantom Limb 9. Run Away From The Mob
Produced by Homme and Michael Shuman, Perfecth will be available on CD, standard black vinyl, on clear vinyl, and as a limited Deluxe Edition – a gatefold LP package which includes handwritten lyrics, stationary, ‘stamps’ housed inside a custom envelope as well as a bespoke piece of art temporarily placed in a custom pocket – exclusively on the QOTSA and Matador webstores.
