Floor Jansen and Jørn Viggo Lofstad
Northward
is a Hard Rock collaboration between renowned Dutch vocalist Floor Jansen (After Forever, ReVamp, Nightwish) and Norwegian guitarist Jørn Viggo Lofstad (Pagans Mind).In 2007, while Jansen was fronting After Forever, she and Lofstad got together at the ProgPower USA Festival in Atlanta, Georgia for a jam session of cover songs. They turned out to share a love for classic hard rock, and over the next year wrote an album's worth of original songs, but unfortunately, they had no time to record any of them... until 2017, when Nightwish took a year off. Jansen and Lofstad got back together that year and recorded the album, which was released from Nuclear Blast on 19 October 2018.
Jansen and Lofstad have no current plans to perform live, with Floor citing Nightwish and motherhood.
Tropes in Northward:
- Break-Up Song: "Storm in a Glass" can be read like one. The female speaker is said to be looking in the mirror at "bewildered eyes, slightly red" and wondering "what more can I do to make you happy?"
- The Cameo: Floor's sister Irene Jansen (a moderately successful session vocalist who has sung for Ayreon) does a duet with her on "Drifting Islands".
- Description in the Mirror: A recurring trope in "Storm in a Glass", with the lyric video showing Floor eyeing her reflection in a mirror. The first stanza reads:A second look in the mirror
Bewildered eyes, slightly red
A second chance to calm down
I'm not that crazy
Take a deep breath, easy now - Intercourse with You: "Big Boy", with lines like "So here's my body / And here's my big smile" and "Play me like a drum now, big boy".
- Metal Scream: The cover art for Northward depicts Floor and Jørn face to face and screaming at each other.
- Obligatory Bondage Song: "Big Boy" and "Bridle Passion" have shades of this. "Bridle Passion" uses it metaphorically to describe trying to restrain one's emotions.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: "Bridle Passion" is a soft acoustic number with just Floor and one guitar.
- Supergroup: Floor Jansen is a well-known Dutch metal vocalist currently fronting Nightwish. Jørn Viggo Lofstad of Pagans Mind plays lead guitar, with his bandmates Stian Kristofferson and Ronny Tegner playing drums and keyboards respectively. Morty Black (ex-TNT) plays bass. In addition, Volbeat's Jacob Hansen produced the album, and Jansen's partner Hannes Van Dahl and his Sabaton bandmate Chris Rörland made the cover art.
