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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sonata Arctica - Metal Force To Be Reckoned With, February 24, 2005
Sonata Arctica is one of those Finnish bands that have been causing quite the stir in the metal scene. When one thinks of the best performers of Power Metal, they are among the first to come up in the same sentence as Nightwish and EdGuy. Now distributed in the USA by Nuclear Blast, they have returned with the CD "Reckoning Night". For this release I admit that I expected a little more. I had found their previous release "Winterheart's Guild" to be a work of metal genius. It is very good, but does not seem to possess the intensity that I found on the other release. The 10 tracks I found go between very heavy and fast to your almost sing along-able type of track. Sonata often has the variety in their CD's. The lineup is Tony Kakko (vocals), Jani Liimatainen (guitars), Tommy Portimo (drums), Marko Paasikoski (bass), and Henrik Klingenberg (keyboards). Fans of the technical side will enjoy how the members of Sonata play off of one another during the songs.
The production does not seem to be as in your face as I would have liked it to be or that has been on previous releases. The band however is in top notch form on their playing and vocal harmonies. The best tracks to experience this is during "Misplaced" and "Wildfire". There are a couple of potential singles also on the CD, such as "Don't Say A Word" and "My Selene". My favorite tracks thusfar would have to be "White Pearl, Black Oceans" and "Misplaced". There is a nice ballad called "Shamandalie", this will appeal to those who loved "A Letter To Dana" most specifically since it's the closest they come to this feel.
Clearly, Sonata Arctica is one of those groups that fans of the genre should be supporting. They make sure to give you a deftly crafted record on a regular basis and they have not yet become repetitive in it. You can also find them on various tributes. It's amazing how the European scene allows for these guys to do albums, tours and tributes on a regular basis, yet here in the States we wait 4 years between some releases by our favorite bands. Often suffering at the hands of a producer who has a better "vision" for the piece. If music keeps coming like this from the other side of the pond, I think I might move there.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow, November 24, 2005
Sonata Arctica has recently become one of my favourite bands. I had heard 'The Cage' and 'Blank File' in the past, and I liked them a lot. I was in Japan a couple of months ago and decided to buy a few albums, so I bought Ecliptica, Winterheart's Guild and this one, Reckoning Night. All are fantastic, but RN may just be my favourite.
Reckoning Night is slightly different to the other SA albums. It sees them using a little wider range of influences, throwing in a bit of heavy metal and hard rock to go with their already amazing power metal. This breathes life into their sound, not that it needed it though! Blinded No More is a good example of this new feel, and is a damn good song. Tony Kakko also uses his amazing voice to more effect on RN, just listen to the song Wildfire, with so many different vocal styles in it, the song just rules.
There is not one moment on this album I don't love, from the awesome opener Misplaced, to the single Don't Say a Word, to my personal favourites, Ain't Your Fairytale and White Pearl, Black Oceans... These songs take the cake for me due to the beautiful vocal melodies and harmonies. While these are present in pretty much every SA song, they are just truly amazing in these 2 songs.
Having said all this, Reckoning Night did actually take a while to grow on me. I don't know why, as it has all the ingredients that make Winterheart's and Ecliptica great plus more, but it seemed a lot different on first listen. This may put you off, but definitely listen to it more than once before you throw the album off as bad, it will grow on you!
PS, if you can, get the Japanese version with the bonus track Wrecking the Sphere on it, it is such a great song and just shows how much better the bonus tracks on Japanese releases are. The song is 7 minutes of sheer brilliance. Don't get the 2 minute acoustic jam hidden track mixed up as Wrecking the Sphere, its not! The hidden track is simply called 'Jam'.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful., December 28, 2006
If you've never listened to Sonata Arctica, understand that SA are storytellers. Every song is a story unto itself and honestly told like a story. Most bands make some songs which are tales of some kind or another; usually what you get, however, is "I lost my girl" or "I found a girl" or "I hate life."
Not exactly original.
Sonata Arctica's songs are vivid paintings of a fantastic nature; somehow in four to nine minutes they can give you a setting, some unnamed characters which they still manage to make you resonate with, and a satisfying (if not always happy) conclusion. On this album, for example:
*Ain't Your Fairytale - Told from the perspective of wolves who must fight to maintain their world against the growing threat of men.
*Don't Say a Word - A man obsessed with his love takes it to very creepy extremes.
*Wildfire - A boy, cast out and reviled by a town for the deeds of his father, takes his revenge by condemning the people to a horrible doom in the flames of his hate.
*White Pearl, Black Oceans - Their masterpiece. Of all the songs they've done, this is easily the most epic in its scope (at least to me). A lighthouse-keeper, always alone, ventures into town on New Year's Eve and subsequently suffers a heartbreaking series of events that shatter him.
Technically they are precise and inventive on Reckoning Night; lyrically, as I've said, this is the most accomplished of their work. If there's a complaint to be had about their work it's that their English is flawed (they're a Finnish band), although I doubt it'll bother you unless you're an English major.
Also, though it has nothing to do with the music - Reckoning Night has some of the best artwork in its packaging that I've ever seen. If you like the album's cover you'll like the rest of it.
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