And the vocalist, who took over singing duties from Anette Olzon in 2012, says keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen and bassist Marco Hietala really pushed her on what will be her first record with the group.

She says: "Tuomas challenged me to use everything I had to offer: high, low and soft - but definitely the lower stuff. It's something I haven't explored much and he wrote parts where I had to use this completely.

"I'm very proud of it and happy I could do it this way because it's the first time I'm singing on an album I didn't write myself, so Tuomas and Marco wrote things that really challenged me."