Sonata Arctica
Biography
Finnish prog metal quartet Sonata Arctica specializes in a soaring, orchestral variation on European heavy metal, fusing the sweeping, romantic bombast of bands like Europe with the over-the-top instrumental chops of Dream Theater. Born in 1996, the band, which included vocalist Tony Kakko, guitarist Jani Liimatainen, drummer Tommy Portimo, keyboardist Mikko Harkin, and bassist Janne Kivilahti, recorded a handful of demos before releasing their first single, "UnOpened," on Spinefarm Records in July of 1999. Producer Mikko Karmila (Children of Bodom, Stratovarius, Nightwish) recorded and mixed Sonata Arctica's full-length debut, Eliptica, and the album was released in 2000 by Spinefarm and Century Media Records. Following a successful tour with Rhapsody and Stratovarius, the group put out a six-song EP, Successor-MCD, which featured live tracks, a pair of covers, and other previously unreleased material. Sonata Arctica were rewarded with various awards and honors around this time: Hard N' Heavy magazine voted them Newcomer of the Year, as did Emma, the Finnish Music Awards. Kivilahti quit the band in late 2000 and was replaced by Marko Paasikoski before work began on the band's second full-length album. With producer Ahti Kortelainen behind the boards, Sonata Arctica recorded Silence at Tico-Tico studios in time for a 2001 release. ~ Andy Hinds, All Music Guide
Selected Discography
Thank you Plague and 12nights! ill take ur comments into consideratio n when deciding what to buy next with my limited supply of money! :P
|
||
@Roonil: 12nights' comment about how "the album is like one big ballad" is true. If you have a hardon for ballads, by all means get it. If you actually listen to power metal for the metal aspects, it's a terrible album.
@12nights: Nope. To be honest, I pretty much only recognize Tony Kakko. I do however, know who all the members of Limbonic Art and Emperor were...as well as what they played. :D |
||
Plague:
Jani's not blonde! He's the flaming redhead, remember? Tommy is the cute little blonde one. :P I just think Jani looks really awesome in his WHG outfit. :) |
||
If you have a lot of money then I would say go ahead and get it. If you are like me and more careful with your music purchases, I would recommend you get Sonata's older stuff. TDOG is nice, but it's easily the worst of their albums yet. Juliet, The Last Amazing Grays, Deathaura, and Flag In The Ground are fantastic, but the rest of the album is sort of... blah. The album is like one big ballad. You have to decide for yourself.
|
||
Is the Days of Grays any good? ive heard good and bad about it, and im debating whether or not its worth buying...
|
||
I got three songs off of Winterheart' s Guild today...I'm getting there? LOL.
P.S.: You just like Jani 'cause he's blonde. |
||
LOL! No, not capes. I guess they're sort of like robes, but they look like cloaks to me. The guys look really cool in them, especially Jani. :) You should really get Winterheart' s Guild, it's one of my favorite albums of all time!
Well, hope you get your sleeves organized! |
||
@Klosnj11: LOL.
@12nights: Well, I usually have all of mine stacked in a semi-neat manner, but I had a lot of album sleeves in the front of my binder, then I got a new binder, then things got mixed up, and now I can't find it. I don't have Winterheart' s Guild. Are they in cloaks, or are they capes? Because capes are a surefire way to make me laugh at them. |
||
Plague:
That's why I always keep my CD's nice and organized in their little tower. I don't like things to be chaotic. :) On a topic somewhat related to that, I LOVE the art in the Winterheart' s Guild booklet. It looks like a cool forest,and the guys look awesome in their "cloaks". |
||
I wish to report abuse in the form of an entire discussion on hair color. I would understand if this was a KISS page, but common guys!
Every time i listen to Sonata Arctica's music, i seem to find another song that i fall in love with. |
||
I realized yesterday, that I have no idea where my album sleeve for Unia went...I was reuniting all my album sleeves with their respective discs, and that's the only one I couldn't find...I also failed to reunite Epica with theirs, but that was due more to me being too lazy to dig for the Epica CD...
|
||
One of those famous woman poets from the 18th or 19th century wrote all of her poems in such a way that they can be sung to the "Gilligan's Island" theme...can' t remember her name though. (This is why you should pay attention in your HS English classes, you'll want to remember something later, and you won't be able to recall the important information. )
|
||
tho a lot of folk metal sounds erriely like the teme from the old television show''gillig a n s island''
|
||
I dyed my hair red sometime ago, and it looked good. Then, I got a stalker who had a thing for red-heads. Now, I've started dying it black, even though my natural color is a very dark brown, anyway. I'll admit, the black looks good on me, too. But blonde? Forget it, man!
|
||
I actually know someone who dyes her hair red. Looks better than I think her natural hair color would.
|
||
Yeah, when your eyebrows are dark brown and your hair's blonde...
|
||
Brunettes for preference here, or possibly red-heads...
... ... sorry, what were we talking about again? Music you say? Fancy that! But seriously, for all the women who dye their hair blonde, it's not much of a stretch to suggest the majority of them would have looked better wearing their natural hair color (I have many an extent example!). |
||
LOL. I liked a blonde girl for around five years...stil l haven't found anyone I like more than I liked her...Anyway s , because of her, I've kind of built up an attraction to blondes.
"Wildfire" is a good song. |
||
Nice try, 12nights. Your efforts are applauded but not good enough, I'm afraid.
|
||
Yeah, I'm definitely attracted to the blonde guys in bands. Let's see... Emppu from NW, Tommy, Osten from Tristania, Petri from Norther, Eicca from Apocalyptica , and many more. There's just something about long light hair that automaticall y makes a guy look awesome!
Okay, pulling self out of fangirl mode now... *Tries to come up with something not remotely fangirly* Um... Wildfire is a great song, I love the angry lyrics! *Cheesy smile* |
||
@12nights: Hey I like blonde hair too...except I like girls...
LOL. |
||
Another breeding ground of superbly stupid conversation is FailBlog, if you've ever been on there. I love the website, but reading the comments will immediately and forcibly thrust you into a world of mindless trolling.
I think I'd take YouTube comments over those three together, at least YT idiocy comes from different sources. On a more Sonata-relat e d topic, I think I'm starting to develop a big Fangirl-styl e love for Tommy. First Emppu from NW, now him... I think I like the blonde ones. |
||
Thanks, as soon as that mental image popped into my head I knew I had to put it to words, heh.
LLM: Though the combination of those 3 would be a horrific entity of dread purpose that must be stopped at all costs lest it really annoy us, I'd still go with the YouTube comments in the end. They take idiotic to the next de-evolution a r y level. |
||
What's more idiotic, YouTube comments or moomoo, willow, and TGS put together?
|
||
Calling the crowd posting YouTube comments "unintellige n t " is definitely a contender for Understateme n t of the Century. YouTube commentors make your run of the mill morons look like Nobel Laureates in the field of Particle Physics - it's like all the idiots on the internet have merged into some gestalt being, capable of far greater idiocy than any individual alone could muster. Like Voltron, if Voltron united to form a giant idiot.
|
||
@Emily: You could also try Grooveshark (.com), they have all the good stuff and you don't have to deal with the unintelligen t conversation on YouTube.
|
||
@Emily: Reckoning Night is going to have the most songs in that style, and Unia will run a close second. But 12nights is right, it's not really representati v e of their style. Past or present.
|
||
Hmm... Don't Say A word really isn't representati v e of Sonata's style, it's more "funky" than most of their stuff (not saying it isn't amazing!). I would recommend that you listen to some stuff off their first three albums, which Pandora doesn't have, so maybe go over to YouTube. In particular: Wolf & Raven, San Sebastian, FullMoon, My Land, Letter To Dana, Victoria's Secret, and The Cage.
(However, the album that DSAW is on also has White Pearl, Black Oceans, which is my favorite Sonata song!) |
||
I am utterly loving Don't Say a Word, which is the only song that pops up on my Nightwish station (unfourtantl y ) and I'm scampering off to buy it now.
What songs do they have that are similar to that? |
||
Yeah, I've heard that they're fantastic live as well, and I fully intend to see them someday, because even crappy bands with good spirits are more fun live than otherwise, and Sonata Arctica at least does what they do well, even if I prefer not to listen to the new stuff.
"My Dream's But A Drop..." reminds me of Queen. I like it, although I prefer not to listen to it too often. |
||
Cool, your comments echo what I've heard about their live performances (and now I'm kind of jealous).
I'm surprised you hate My Dream's But A Drop Of Fuel For A Nightmare, as that's one of my favorites (along with Paid In Full and It Won't Fade). What is it about that track that makes you hate it? |
||
Unfortunatel y they didn't play San Sebastian or, despite the audience's pleas, Victoria's Secret. BUT they more than made up for that by playing White Pearl, Black Oceans - I've never felt such a rush!!! Tony gave a fantastic performance, what else could you expect?
Tony also led us in a rousing verse of "Old MacDonald Had A Farm". And during the intro to FullMoon, he inserted some random yodeling and segments from "Total Eclipse Of The Heart". :) All in all, it was pretty damn amazing! |
||
The concert last night was FANTASTIC!!! CDs do not give these guys justice! They only played four songs from TDOG, so I was happy. And actually, though I don't like the songs on that album, I couldn't help but love them when they were played live, there was such an energy! Elias actually did a fine job with the solos, which I didn't expect. You should have seen/heard the crowd during FullMoon and 8th Commandment, we were all singing our hearts out!
|
||
Tomorrow I'll see them!!!!!
For me, the song that I can't stand on Unia is My Dream's But A Drop Of Fuel For A Nightmare. I just hate it! The best songs off that album, in my opinion, are: 1.The Vice 2.Caleb 3.Paid In Full |
||
My first exposure to Sonata Arctica WAS Unia, and with the exception of track 3 I like all the songs on that album quite a bit (and that song's structure itself is fine, but the synthesizer is playing a bloody annoying sound throughout that I just can't listen to). I like that it's very different from your average power metal while still retaining the elements of power metal I like.
12nights: Yes it does mean that (it's Chicago's most annoying nickname). |
| report abuse |
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide © 2006 All Media Guide, LLC.