Scrooge McDuck Inspires Finnish Metal Band Nightwish’s New Album

The guitarist for Finnish metal band Nightwish, Tuomas Holopainen, has revealed that he is working on a solo album which is entirely inspired by the animated character Scrooge McDuck.

Holopainen was speaking to the metal magazine Metal Hammer about his muse for the album, stating that it was his reading of the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck comics as a young child that gave him the “strangely familiar feel of home.” Holopainen also states that he believes McDuck is a “relentless, honest, and complex character.”

Holopainen noted, “It all started with a story called Last Sled To Dawson, which was published in a Finnish Donald Duck magazine in the late 80’s. It instantly became one of my favorite Scrooge/Donald stories and also introduced Mr. Don Rosa to my Disney universe.”

The musician then stated how important this book was to his work, saying, “I was completely and utterly hooked. It was similar to reading The Lord Of The Rings as an 8-year-old, or seeing Raiders Of The Lost Ark for the first time. Adventure, fun, and the strangely familiar feeling of home.”

Holopainen went into intimate detail about his relationship with the character of Scrooge McDuck, stating, “With Scrooge, there was a much deeper level hidden between the stories and the gags. This is a book about life itself. What an unfathomable privilege it is, what are the things that truly matter during our existence.”

Nightwish’s last studio album was 2011’s Imaginaerum. Do you believe that Scrooge McDuck can inspire an album?