After that tour, the atmosphere among the band was deleterious – Tuomas felt like 2001 was the worst year of his life. In March 2001, the band entered the studios again to record their own version of Gary Moore’s “Over The Hills And Far Away”, two new songs and a new version of Angels Fall First’s “Astral Romance”.

Tarja joined Argentinean Beto Vazquez’s project “Infinity” beside Candice Night (Blackmore’s Night), Sabine Edelsbacher (Edenbridge) and Fabio Leone (Rhapsody). Emppu also took part in that project and composed guitar riffs on one track. While their fellow countrymen from Sonata Arctica had a great success in Japan, Nightwish preferred to go to South Korea where they took part in a festival organized by the country. Everything there was singular: the crowd (50000 people), the welcome (escort, bodyguards, reserved cars, five star hotels) and the progress of the day: no sound checks for Nightwish. Besides, they were told that the show was broadcast on a national TV channel only 2 minutes before going on stage. And finally, during the show, while they had one song left to play, the police intervened backstage and ordered the band to stop the show.

When the Finns came back in Europe to play in Moscow, they discovered a dangerous and aggressive audience which highly contrasted with South American fans from Wishmaster Tour. With hindsight, the composer saw that period as a sort of identity crisis marked by a serious lack of confidence. Troubles and rough times accumulated. That was why he decided to split the band in fall 2001. After their last concert in Finland at the Tuiskula on September 15th 2001, Tuomas personally announced the end of Nightwish to their labels (Spinefarm in Finland and Drakkar in Germany). Then, he announced it to the band which made things grow bitter: the composer was sure that it would not work any longer. Yet, after a journey in Kemi by Lapland’s woods, at his friend’s house Tony (Kakko) from Sonata Arctica, Tuomas reborn and started a new life. He brought Nightwish back to life but decided to fire Sami, who showed a real lack of motivation, and asked Marco (Hietala), Sinergy’s bass player, to join the band. Marco accepted straight away.
In October 2001, Tuomas gave up the tour organization responsibilities in order to consolidate Nightwish. Ewo then officially became the band manager through King Foo Entertainment, his production society (which he led with Toni Peiju).