t was during the 'All Star Jam' at Progpower USA Festival in 2007, when current Nightwish singer Floor Jansen and Pagan's Mind guitarist Jorn Viggo Lofstad spontaneously joined forces on stage for some cover songs and noticed the creative magic between them. Although the two musicians had never met before, they soon discovered their mutual love for stripped down hard rock and decided to write some songs together. In 2008 still barely knowing each other, they composed an entire album's worth of material in next to no time. But due to their tight schedules with their main bands, their new project named Northward never found its way into the spotlight - until this day!

In 2017, the year of Nightwish's break, Floor took the opportunity to contact her old friend Jorn Viggo again, to see if he was still interested in resurrecting Northward - and of course he was!

In 2018, with the help of producer Jacob Hansen (Volbeat etc.), who mixed the record, the band released via Nuclear Blast Records their first self-titled album.
Alongside Floor Jansen and Jorn Viggo Lofstad, Morty Black (TNT) handled bass duties, while drums were handled by Django Nilsen and Stian Kristoffersen (Pagan's Mind). You will also hear a guest appearance by Floor's sister Irene Jansen, singing a duet on the song ’Drifting Islands‘. And finally, Ronny Tegner from Pagan's Mind played the piano on one song.