Sonata Arctica thread

[Lethean]

Looking forward to it in just a few hours.

[Lethean]

That was nice, technical issues aside.

[MoraWintersoul]

Yeah, it lagged for me in a few places, but overall better realized and more unique than the other streams I've seen so far, though just as short. The setting is GORGEOUS and really them. Watching the sun rise as they were playing at 3am like a bunch of lunatics was pretty epic.

Setlist (lol semilive posted the setlist everywhere on social media so no spoiler warning necessary anymore):
The Rest Of The Sun Belongs To Me (always great)
Life (always preferred the acoustic version to the album one)
My Land (standardly great)
Tonight I Dance Alone (hell to the fucking yes)
I Have A Right (whatevs, I think it's shorter here at least)
Half A Marathon Man (more hell to the fucking yes, sorry Ville)
On The Faultline (when I tell you I cried like a little bitch)
Alone In Heaven (could never warm up to this song but it's better acoustic. some rough vocal spots for Tony, he still doesn't sound 100% like his normal self to me, but he sounds better than most sets this winter)
Letter To Dana (standardly great)
A Little Less Understanding (this was meh on the album, but with some actual thought put into the arrangement and these keys, bass and a banjo? it kinda slaps... I think in the next stream they might switch this for Cold, that's the only switch that comes to mind, or maybe Replica takes the place of Letter To Dana)
Paid In Full (speedy, good)
Victoria's Secret, a very lowkey Elias and Tony duo version they played on the last acoustic tour, in the morning light 

[ErHaO]

I enjoyed it! Good performances overall and a nice setlist, I like these acoustic dreamy versions of songs I know and love. It sounds surprisingly good on my speakers and it kind of looks like a professional videoclip, with the sun coming in and all. Really good quality stream audiovisually and a nice choice of "venue".

[MoraWintersoul]

Also, Henkka completely cursed Tony with those comments about getting the lyrics wrong in the Q&A And Elias trolled us when he pulled out the banjo, my chat thought they would play Cinderblox, because they talked about it as something optional and then he just played ALLU on the banjo all the way through.

They're always relaxed and just  but it's always nice to see that up close. To me, this is the definitive lineup of Sonata for sure.

[Lethean]

Ok *that* was awesome. 

[The Walrus]

Yeah, it lagged for me in a few places, but overall better realized and more unique than the other streams I've seen so far, though just as short. The setting is GORGEOUS and really them. Watching the sun rise as they were playing at 3am like a bunch of lunatics was pretty epic.

Setlist (lol semilive posted the setlist everywhere on social media so no spoiler warning necessary anymore):
The Rest Of The Sun Belongs To Me (always great)
Life (always preferred the acoustic version to the album one)
My Land (standardly great)
Tonight I Dance Alone (hell to the fucking yes)
I Have A Right (whatevs, I think it's shorter here at least)
Half A Marathon Man (more hell to the fucking yes, sorry Ville)
On The Faultline (when I tell you I cried like a little bitch)
Alone In Heaven (could never warm up to this song but it's better acoustic. some rough vocal spots for Tony, he still doesn't sound 100% like his normal self to me, but he sounds better than most sets this winter)
Letter To Dana (standardly great)
A Little Less Understanding (this was meh on the album, but with some actual thought put into the arrangement and these keys, bass and a banjo? it kinda slaps... I think in the next stream they might switch this for Cold, that's the only switch that comes to mind, or maybe Replica takes the place of Letter To Dana)
Paid In Full (speedy, good)
Victoria's Secret, a very lowkey Elias and Tony duo version they played on the last acoustic tour, in the morning light 

So they played in the middle of the night? AND they played The Rest of the Sun Belongs To Me?! WTF. I'm still not into watching livestreams, but that is awesome. Rest of the Sun is one of my all-time favorite Sonata songs. And this was all acoustic? Even better. Sonata sounds great doing acoustic stuff these days. Wouldn't mind if they just went completely soft rock, honestly. The Live in Finland DVD has that little acoustic break and it's my favorite part of the set (although that's also because the production plain sucks on that recording and it's less noticeable on the acoustic bits).

Sad they didn't include Candle Lawns with On the Faultline; those are the only two songs I like from The Ninth Hour, but they're both superb imo.

[Lethean]

I enjoyed them both but liked today's even better.  Mostly the same setlist, but I was very happy today with As if the World Wasn't Ending.  Also no problems with the stream at all today.

[MoraWintersoul]

Yesterday was an 8, today was a 9. Really good setlist changes (AITWWE is one of my fave tunes, AIH not so much; Tallulah and Letter To Dana are about evenly matched acoustically and it's nice to hear Tallulah acoustic but on a real drum kit), overall just a slightly better performance, and even though twice as many people were watching I had almost zero connection issues.

So they played in the middle of the night? AND they played The Rest of the Sun Belongs To Me?! WTF. I'm still not into watching livestreams, but that is awesome. Rest of the Sun is one of my all-time favorite Sonata songs. And this was all acoustic? Even better. Sonata sounds great doing acoustic stuff these days. Wouldn't mind if they just went completely soft rock, honestly.superb imo.

Yes!!! They're crazy. Literally, the only reason for doing that is for us to see the sunrise and sunset in the two streams. Smooth motherfuckers, the lot of them.

Also, play Live In Finland on surround sound. That fixed some of the problems for me even though I don't have a surround sound system. IDK what is up with that, maybe the video company messed it up. I don't think it's the mix because Pasi mixed the Kemi show as well, which sounds perfect.

[Lethean]

But they didn't play long enough to really see the sunset.

Really love how happy Tommy always seems to be when he's playing, electric set, acoustic set, opening act, headliner, playing at 3am, whenever. 

Katt - the live streams are available for 48 hours.  So if you want to watch one or both, I'm pretty sure you still have time.  Maybe you can splurge a little with all of the energy drink money that you're saving.

[MoraWintersoul]

It set about as much as it does in the summer up there I imagine 

Really love how happy Tommy always seems to be when he's playing, electric set, acoustic set, opening act, headliner, playing at 3am, whenever. 

One of my favorite things about acoustic shows is that Tommy gets to be in the front and we get to see him. Like, imagine if we never got this moment  or this one 

[The Walrus]

Yeah I'm not gonna watch (got other things to do) but the set is definitely rad. Wish they'd play Rest of the Sun for real on tour.

[Lethean]

It set about as much as it does in the summer up there I imagine 

Really love how happy Tommy always seems to be when he's playing, electric set, acoustic set, opening act, headliner, playing at 3am, whenever. 

One of my favorite things about acoustic shows is that Tommy gets to be in the front and we get to see him. Like, imagine if we never got this moment  or this one 

Those are some really nice moments.

[MoraWintersoul]

Yeah I'm not gonna watch (got other things to do) but the set is definitely rad. Wish they'd play Rest of the Sun for real on tour.

They did on last year's acoustic run through Europe, which was pretty cool. Before that it was only played on the Winterheart's Guild tour, because even back then they had too many straight up power metal songs vying for a spot in the setlist. I agree it's a great song, better than many of that style, guess they favored others, up until now when they could reimagine the song as a mid-tempo moody acoustic thing. But we have this video of it from the WHG tour, which is quite nice.

I really recommend this whole bootleg where that vid is from, so you can see the exact moment Tony and Henkka become metal's finest comedy duo 

[The Walrus]

Spent the last week binging the Sonata Arctica discography, from Ecliptica through Talviyö. Wrapping up Talviyö's third spin right now actually.

Ecliptica through Reckoning Night is one of the best runs of power metal the style has ever seen. Winterheart is my favorite SA album and my #3 all-time favorite record, but the rest are just fantastic. Very very little to nitpick here, as that's all I have, nitpicks, songs like Last Drop Falls and how Silence is just a bit too long, blah blah. Amazing all around.

Unia and The Days of Grays are probably my #2 and #3 Sonata albums for good having listened to so much Sonata. Like, I've heard every album countless times (except the most recent two), but this just drove home how phenomenal those albums are in my opinion. I admire the experimentation, creativity, wild and spellbinding vibe of all the songs. TDOG gets dangerously close to being too Nightwish-y with the orchestral parts in Juliet and The Last Amazing Grays, but it never goes overboard. Some of Tony's best lyrics ever are on these albums, imo.

Stones Grow Her Name is the last 'amazing' Sonata album imo. I think that album gets soooo much undeserved hate from fans. Other than Don't Be Mean, I really don't have anything to complain about. I love this album to death.

Pariah's Child hasn't aged well for me. Some songs are good, but there seems to be a scarcity of momentum of truly inspired songwriting. The return to the old logo is really misleading considering songs like Running Lights are almost completely devoid of that old power metal sound apart from some fast drums and that strong, melodic hook. Tony starts to sound like he's phoning in some of his vocals. Larger Than Life remains one of the band's best ever songs. I started to sour on the idea of listening to SA albums repeatedly at this point - this album gets tedious very fast.

The Ninth Hour - I did not enjoy revisiting this more than once, and even the first time was more than enough. I like it more than I used to, but that's not saying much. Candle Lawns and On The Faultline remain my favorites, easily. Even the faster stuff sounds phoned in and uninteresting and uninspired to me. God, the guitar work in Sonata after Jani left is just miserable, but especially after Stones. Elias has the easiest guitar job in metal next to Emppu

Talviyö - just like TNH, I enjoy it more than I did when it came out, but after hearing this a few times, I'm almost annoyed that I listened to it so much. There is such a drastic drop-off in compelling songwriting after Stones, certainly after Pariah's Child, and this album just doensn't do it for me. And the last two songs being painfully long is just the worst. I just don't really like this or The Ninth Hour, and I don't see that changing at all for a very long time, like until my musical taste does some drastic shift and I revisit these as an old man.

Just my two cents (or more...), felt like getting that out there after spending all week with the band.

[MirrorMask]

My disagreements with you about the early albums are so minor that are not worth to be spelled out in detail.

On very broad terms: yes, the first four albums are finnish power metal olympus. There's no wrong opinion about which one is the best, just favorites (Mine would be Silence).

I completely love Unia. Crazy wacky albums firing on all cylinders. Ideally my favorite, along with Silence. Unia and Days of Grays are the best example of a nice blend of innovations but still overall good quality.

Stones.... it's the before / after moment of their carrer for me. Yes, some songs are good. I'd say it's the worse until then.... and the best from that moment on.

The rest... completely forgettable save the odd good song (Wolves Die Young, 'til Death do Us Part). With the last album I just gave up. I heard it twice, maybe thrice, and then decided life was too short to go for the third time in a row through the process  of tolerating an album just to endure the 2-3 songs I might like. I will eventually check out the next album, out of curiosity, but currently me and Sonata are broken up.

[The Walrus]

Yeah, I think largely you and I are on the same page with Sonata. You're absolutely not missing anything by skipping Talviyö, especially given how you feel about TNH.

Stones for me... I just ranked their albums to a friend, but I ranked Stoned over Ecliptica and Silence because of how unique and creative it is, and not at all relying on the Strato-clone early Sonata power metal. Some of my friends are still triggered by that lol. But I love all 7 of their first albums sooo much that it doesn't really matter.

[Evermind]

I've heard the last album once and it was the first Sonata album I haven't bought even though I had an opportunity to.

Completely agree on Unia and TDOG with you Katt, these are stellar.

[The Walrus]

Same, Ev. It's still the only Sonata Arctica album I don't own. I'll get it one day, it's just... yikes. Not feeling it at all.

TDOG has some of my all-time favorite songs by anyone: In The Dark, The Dead Skin, Zeroes... don't know why some fans hate the album so much. Seems like a lot have turned around on it, though, having lived through the last 3 albums 

[Evermind]

Same, Ev. It's still the only Sonata Arctica album I don't own. I'll get it one day, it's just... yikes. Not feeling it at all.

Yeah maybe when it's like $3 on sale I'll get it too.

[MoraWintersoul]

I'd probably be semi-broken up with them if I didn't like TNH so much, despite the mix/master. I feel like it's almost an album made for me in particular, despite me skipping a track or two (hey Candle Lawns - this is why the distinguished Walrus and I will never agree on music ), they fulfilled a lot of my bizarrely specific desires on it.

I gotta say though, SGHN is still so. Ooooof. I re-listened to it this year with my sister because we wanted to give it another shake, and the amount of groans and "WHO AUTHORIZED THIS, WHO APPROVED THIS" and "THE CHORUS, AGAIN? IS THIS THE SEVENTEENTH CHORUS???" and "OMG I FORGOT THAT THIS WAS A THING FOR THEM WHYYYY" was too damn high. If they ever come out with that vinyl box set they were talking about, I don't think I would even have the strength to put that one on? Go back a few pages to read me desperately trying to comb for something I like about that album, but god, I couldn't put it on right now. It's Sonata's Hot Space: it's fine with me that they did it, anyone giving them grief for just trying out something different an ass, but I don't think it actually has more than a few good songs.

[The Walrus]

I'd probably be semi-broken up with them if I didn't like TNH so much, despite the mix/master. I feel like it's almost an album made for me in particular, despite me skipping a track or two (hey Candle Lawns - this is why the distinguished Walrus and I will never agree on music ), they fulfilled a lot of my bizarrely specific desires on it.

I gotta say though, SGHN is still so. Ooooof. I re-listened to it this year with my sister because we wanted to give it another shake, and the amount of groans and "WHO AUTHORIZED THIS, WHO APPROVED THIS" and "THE CHORUS, AGAIN? IS THIS THE SEVENTEENTH CHORUS???" and "OMG I FORGOT THAT THIS WAS A THING FOR THEM WHYYYY" was too damn high. If they ever come out with that vinyl box set they were talking about, I don't think I would even have the strength to put that one on? Go back a few pages to read me desperately trying to comb for something I like about that album, but god, I couldn't put it on right now. It's Sonata's Hot Space: it's fine with me that they did it, anyone giving them grief for just trying out something different an ass, but I don't think it actually has more than a few good songs.

Yo. We are fighting now. 

[MoraWintersoul]

Sonata Arctica, the gift that keeps on giving - it's even fun to bitch about the stuff you hate and trigger others with your album rankings I imagine that this is how it must have felt like to talk about Queen in the 80's or something, long after the "every album is perfect" heyday.

I'm no ~old school powre metuhl only the first two albums are tr00 methul~ fan, but if I heard this in real life

Stones for me... I just ranked their albums to a friend, but I ranked Stoned over Ecliptica and Silence because of how unique and creative it is

I might actually throw a glove in your face!!

[The Walrus]

Catch me outside, howboudat 

Yeah, like, let me be clear, I think Ecliptica's highs are higher than Stones. But - BUT! - the originality, creativity, and curiosity of Stones is much more important to me. There's not a single keyboard moment on Stones I even care about learning on piano, except The Day which is one of their best keyboard moments imo, but on Ecliptica, almost every song shaped my taste and style as a keyboardist, and those are all-time classic solos and keyboard parts, no doubt. But I played Ecliptica and Silence to death in my teens, and nowadays if given the option, I'll take Only The Broken Hearts, or The Day, or the Wildfire songs, or even Cinderblox, over hearing Letter to Dana or Mary Lou - even if those are catchier. It's hard to describe. But we can, at least, agree that Full Moon is a BOP 

[Evermind]

Yeah no, if we're talking Ecliptica through Pariah's Child, then Stones is easily the weakest album in the bunch. Sorry man.

[The Walrus]

Yeah no, if we're talking Ecliptica through Pariah's Child, then Stones is easily the weakest album in the bunch. Sorry man.

Hey, I know it's a super minority opinion, but I also do think it's way stronger and more consistent than Pariah's Child. But like I said, the highs aren't as high as, say, Ecliptica's or Silence's, in my opinion. But as a full record I think it's more consistent and interesting. I know that's waaaay unpopular to hear, but I also can't lie, hearing power metal nerds in some Facebook groups I'm in acting like Sonata's *only* worthwhile content is in the first 2-4 records has really soured me on the 'legendary' status of Ecliptica 

[Lethean]

Glad to see so much love for Unia and The Days of Grays.  I think those albums are incredible.  Talviyo has been around for over a year now and at this point I can probably say it's my next favorite after those two.  Not so much love for that one, but it's ok.  I think it's a beautiful album.

[The Walrus]

Glad to see so much love for Unia and The Days of Grays.  I think those albums are incredible.  Talviyo has been around for over a year now and at this point I can probably say it's my next favorite after those two.  Not so much love for that one, but it's ok.  I think it's a beautiful album.

Lethean confirmed to have THE hottest take on Sonata Arctica on the planet. Your plaque is coming in the mail. 

[Lethean]

I've generally felt like I was outside the "norm" of Sonata fans since I became a fan.  But I do mostly like the older albums.  Ecliptica is more miss than hit for me but I love Replica and My Land.

[The Walrus]

I've generally felt like I was outside the "norm" of Sonata fans since I became a fan.  But I do mostly like the older albums.  Ecliptica is more miss than hit for me but I love Replica and My Land.

I can see that, knowing your taste in metal. It's actually refreshing to hear. I go out of my way to specify that I think SA's first 7 albums are all phenomenal to me but so many of my power metal friends are aghast that I don't think Ecliptica is the best thing since the refrigerator 

[Pettor]

Sonata is most likely the biggest decline of a band I've seen. That's partly because I did love their albums so much until after Days of The Gray. Winterheart is still pure magic. Can still remember the first time I heard Gravenimage 😍

Reckoning Night was an amazing release and the run from DSAW to WP,BO is amazing. Wildfire is still such an amazing banger grande and still surprised they never play it live.

Then Unia. Maybe the best. Just an explosion of creativity and for me it succeeds and proved to me how good Tony was at coming up with these amazing melodies and had a feeling for complexity as well.

DOTG is the last album with a certain magic feel to it. SGHN has some cool stuff but was already a strange release. Whatever they have been doing after is just something else. I can't understand how a person can downgrade melodies and music qualities to the degree that is Talviyö. TNH had some good stuff and I have nothing to add to the already widely discussed disastrous mixing they began with around PC. TDDUA actually sounded like DSAW except the bad mixing.

I still hope with every release that some old qualities will be brought back but it's actually going the wrong way.

[ErHaO]

Their latest album does have some interesting things buried in it, but it has to be the most dead sounding album I have heard in years. Like, PC and TNH have similar sound issues but their latest really is next level. And with a more mellow/slower type of album overall, that becomes even more of a limiting factor. That is personally my biggest frustration and it keeps getting worse.

Though, I do kind of like how TNH sounds on my vinyl player for some reason.

[Lethean]

I've generally felt like I was outside the "norm" of Sonata fans since I became a fan.  But I do mostly like the older albums.  Ecliptica is more miss than hit for me but I love Replica and My Land.

I can see that, knowing your taste in metal. It's actually refreshing to hear. I go out of my way to specify that I think SA's first 7 albums are all phenomenal to me but so many of my power metal friends are aghast that I don't think Ecliptica is the best thing since the refrigerator 

  Well I guess they'd like my opinion even less than yours then.  I do like some of the other songs off the album, and I think it's kind of impossible not to like Full Moon at least a little bit.  But listening to the album from start to finish isn't something I tend to do. I'm more likely to listen to various songs from it if the mood strikes.

[wolfking]

I always thought TNH was really quite good.  I didn't like the previous two so it was a nice surprise.  The latest one was just horrid though.

[MoraWintersoul]

I've generally felt like I was outside the "norm" of Sonata fans since I became a fan.  But I do mostly like the older albums.  Ecliptica is more miss than hit for me but I love Replica and My Land.

I can see that, knowing your taste in metal. It's actually refreshing to hear. I go out of my way to specify that I think SA's first 7 albums are all phenomenal to me but so many of my power metal friends are aghast that I don't think Ecliptica is the best thing since the refrigerator 

I do get the general love for Ecliptica, Tony's been writing great songs right out of the gate and several of my all-time faves ended up on it. I can't understand putting it on top, or even too near the top. It's not even their best power metal era album.

Overall, there's been a weird shift in opinions over their power metal era. I got into them several months before Unia. Remember when people only went on Youtube to write negative comments? Their comment sections were all about how they weren't "true power metal", that it's all "gay shit" and that we should all go and listen to Malmsteen. Then Unia comes out and suddenly everyone's mourning this greatest power metal band ever that betrayed their fans by changing their genre. WTF guys, where were you when I was on the internet looking for someone who also liked them?