“Sometimes I think, ‘This has become so big that I can’t handle this monster any more.’ I have some trouble comprehending it”: How Nightwish became the planet’s most epic symphonic metal band with Endless Forms Most Beautiful

Nightwish posing for a photograph in 2015.

The couple huddled on the bench gaze open-mouthed at the scene in front of them. Parading along the shore of one of the crystal-blue lakes that sandwich the Finnish city of Tampere are six people dressed like they’ve just wandered in from an episode of Game Of Thrones: leather, buckles, beards, hair. All that’s missing are a dwarf, a couple of eunuchs and a three-eyed raven.

“Is that really them?” asks the woman in accented but perfect English. Her companion peers closer through the late-afternoon sunshine and nods uncertainly. The two of them look like students in their early 20s: tidy haircuts, unassuming clothes, warm jackets to defy the brisk air. If there’s an air of uncertainty about them, it could be because, by their own admission, they’ve “had a little smoke”.