Sonata Arctica are 5 piece power metal band from Finland.
Line Up:
Jani Liimatainen - Guitars
Tommy Portimo - Drums
Tony Kakko - Vocals
Marko Paasikoski - Bass
Henrik Klingenburg - Keyboards
Jens Johansson - Guest Keyboards
This album is Sonata Arctica's 3rd release (After Songs Of Silence). This album isn't what I thought it would be when I started listening to it. The first 4 songs are brilliant. After that it gets...meh...diferrent. Still an awesome album though. There are very few weak spots, as far as I can tell. Tony's singing has gotten better, the whole band has grown in talent, ideas, and as a band.
Ok, lets start.
Abandoned, Pleased, Brainwashed, Exploited:
This is a great song to start the album off with. Tony came up with a great vocal melody here. I like the drums and keyboard too. The song title is kind of weird though. 4.5/5
Gravenimage:
This song starts out with some really spooky keyboard, like something they would play on a disaster film, like The Day After Tomorrow. It gets a bit heavy, and it turns into what looks like would be a ballad. Then it gets faster, and heavier. Then it turns back into the beginning. It is a really interesting song. Tony has some really emotional sining in here. Great guitar also. 4.5/5
The Cage:
It starts out with an awesome keyboard solo by the keyboardist from Stratovarius, Jens Johansson. It tells an awesome story about being locked up in "the cage". You can tell the keyboard solo is by Jens, beautiful. Then after it comes a great guitar solo by Jani. God I love this band. This is a brilliant song. 5/5
Silver Tongue: This song has a catchy rythym. It's got some great guitar fills in it too. The is the kind of song that you WANT stuck in your head.
When the keyboard solo comes in, I wonder if thats the only keyboard sound he has = /. But afterward it has a good guitar solo. Tony's vocals get edgy, and stronger. 4/5
The Misery: The is a very good ballad by them. It is just a clean guitar with Tony singing, until about halfway through the song. Then a slow, steady drum beat comes in, and Tony is singing stronger. It is quite a sad song. No solos or anything, but they don't need one every single song. 3.5/5
Victoria's Secret: It starts off with a very happy sounding fast drum beat. Then it gets slower when it goes into the verse. It is kind of haunting. Tony's vocals go great with the piano. The chorus is pretty awesome. Fast beat, great melody. Afterward it has this awesome little bridge thing with a brilliant keyboard riff. Then comes in a great keyboard solo. After that is a guitar solo. Great work by Jens and Jani. 5/5
Champagne Bath: This song starts out similar to Revontulet. It has a guitar shredding a riff with the band coming in at weird timings. Then it goes into the song. The chorus is pretty catchy, it often gets stuff in my head. Near the middle of the song it has this really dreamy type keyboard riff behind Tony's singing. The outro is the same as the intro. Pretty good song. 3/5
Broken: I don't really like this song too much. It's slow, and has some really lame vocals that sound like Sum 41. Ugh... 2/5
The Ruins Of My Life: Has some war sounds in the backround when it starts off. It just plays that for about a minute then blasts into the song at a
really fast pace. It has some great edgy guitars and vocals. This song has three great guitar and keyboard solos. Then after it, there is this four second part with death metal growls singing about six or seven words. Then it goes into this piano thing with Tony singing. It gets fast again and abrubtly ends. 4.5/5
Draw Me: This song starts off great with some clean guitar and keyboard. Then Tony just sings over a clean guitar for a bit. Then some drums
come in playing slowly and really quitely. It's another love ballad, beautiful lyrics by Tony. This song is really beautiful, it makes me want to cry everytime I hear it. After the song ends, there is silence, then it sounds like a bunch of birds chirping. Then the band is talking to each other in finnish. Then it's silence for about 4 minutes and has someone laughing. I don't like that, its pretty dumb. The song is great though. 4/5
This is a great album by them. Recommend songs are:
Abandoned, Brainwashed, Pleased, Exploited
Gravenimage
The Cage
Silver Tongue
Victoria's Secret
The Ruins Of My Life
I give this album a 4/5. It has its moments, but it's not Sonata's best album. IMO...
