Sonata Arctica thread

[The Walrus]

I was 16 chatting with the only guy on Earth who I also knew was a fan. I had no idea DT had a message board back then 

[ErHaO]

A recent song with Tony on the lead by a band called Ancestry. I like Tony's performance here. Solid song, starts mellow and ends up heavier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUXFkgKHRbQ



Also, acoustic albums (vol 1 and 2) incoming, as well as an acoustic tour. https://www.sonataarctica.info/uncategorized/sonata-arctica-announces-acoustic-adventures-mmxxi-tour/
The acoustic album(s) will be studio versions from what I can see, not the streaming shows they did last year.

[MinistroRaven]

From the new acoustic album to be released January 21st

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6emYgjTkTMc

[Pettor]

Hrmmmmm, it's still weird with Sonata. At one point they did wonderful covers where even their own songs would get interesting new version. Wolf and Raven 2008 was an interesting take on an already perfect speed metal song. Then later they made Ecliptica revisited and somehow it only showcased how much magic goes into the mixing and presentation of a song. I love My Land. That song somehow always had a special place and I still listen to it with full admiration when it comes on. It's special and Tony's singing somehow feels emotional and real. But on Ecliptica revisited I feel nothing. The song just doesn't have anything of the magic left. It's still the same song but just done a bit different. I am not 100% sure what it is but Sonata stopped having that special magic "it" about their songs.

This new album seems to have the same problem. The Rest of the Sun Belong to Me is a great song and making it acoustic is an interesting idea. But yeah, I feel nothing. This is that song acoustic and yepp, that's it. No magic, no goosebumps. Nothing. Maybe it's the mixing / production that somehow strips the music from the special sauce. It bothers me because Sonata meant so much at one point.

[ErHaO]

It misses livelyness. They need an outside producer if you ask me.

Talkvio..whatever actually has some good songs buried in it, I really think that, but it is one of the very rare cases where I simply cannot enjoy them because of the truly atrocious sound quality. Like, everyone was complaining about Pariah and Ninth Hours but boy did they double down on shit sound for what followed.

I saw some youtube clips of recent concerts and I thought Tony sounded much better, so at least covid seems to have given his voice some rest. I hope the acoustic album will have vocals more akin to this live performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SkzuyzcCnU. And Tony sounded really good in the (in my opinion good) song I linked in my previous post.

[Melphina]

The band's music has sounded like ass for years in no small part because of Pasi producing it. They desperately need a different producer

[wolfking]

Hrmmmmm, it's still weird with Sonata. At one point they did wonderful covers where even their own songs would get interesting new version. Wolf and Raven 2008 was an interesting take on an already perfect speed metal song. Then later they made Ecliptica revisited and somehow it only showcased how much magic goes into the mixing and presentation of a song. I love My Land. That song somehow always had a special place and I still listen to it with full admiration when it comes on. It's special and Tony's singing somehow feels emotional and real. But on Ecliptica revisited I feel nothing. The song just doesn't have anything of the magic left. It's still the same song but just done a bit different. I am not 100% sure what it is but Sonata stopped having that special magic "it" about their songs.

This new album seems to have the same problem. The Rest of the Sun Belong to Me is a great song and making it acoustic is an interesting idea. But yeah, I feel nothing. This is that song acoustic and yepp, that's it. No magic, no goosebumps. Nothing. Maybe it's the mixing / production that somehow strips the music from the special sauce. It bothers me because Sonata meant so much at one point.

I've felt nothing for about 10 years now.  Unfortunate, they were such an amazing band.

[Evermind]

I own a physical copy of Ecliptica Revisited and I deeply regret that.

[wolfking]

I own a physical copy of Ecliptica Revisited and I deeply regret that.

I purchased it too.  Halfway through I gave myself an uppercut!

[Pettor]

Haha to be fair it was surprisingly blend. Based on material from an album as good as Ecliptica it's kind of surprising, but once again showed case that a good song also need good execution 😁 At least Tony does some impressive vocal lines (Destruction Preventer).

Sonata did manage to release 6 really good albums (and some nice songs here and there since) before going down the current route.

[ErHaO]

I once read a youtube comment that some modern Sonata songs become better when you play them at 1.25 speed. That comment was actually spot on.

Take this song for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEq5oTmycGYl
Start at 30 seconds and play at 1.25 speed using youtube settings (and then compare it to the plodding original speed). I think that is so much better. More up tempo and better sound production and I would find it an enjoyable song.

So yeah, they really do need a producer, badly.

Also, I like Pariah's Child and Ninth Hour quite a bit, with the biggest caveats being the sound. But their latest was a big dissapointment to me.

[MoraWintersoul]

I got the digital version of Acoustic Adventures because it's out now in Japan and I have thoughts!

1) Some songs are nice to hear during a gig but idk about their inclusion here - they are different enough, but ehhh about Alone In Heaven and Tonight I Dance Alone (Mora skipping SGHN songs, who's shocked). Surprisingly maybe even my fave On The Faultline, which sounds very good here but is so perfect on the album already. Tallulah should be in this group but somehow it's justifying itself to me for now 

2) It's great to have an album where I would change absolutely nothing about the mix after literally 10 years. Everything sounds very clear and natural and balanced. Seeing how they recorded the instrumental tracks by having the four of them sitting down all together and recording a good continuous live take for each song and it sounds this good in the end, I hope this turns on a few lightbulbs that whatever they did with Talviyö to "get a live sound" on that album probably wasn't correct

3) Don't Say A Word and Wolf & Raven are, predictably, kind of nuts. Go off kings.

4) The arrangement of The Wolves Die Young surprised me, in a really good way. The difference in this version of A Little Less Understanding isn't surprising seeing how we've heard it already, but I still don't know if I even like the song after all the effort they put into it

5) Faves after a few listens are Paid In Full and For The Sake Of Revenge. No, I'm not a hopeless Unia/prog era stan, why are you asking. I hope one of them is the music video.

6) Tony is really playing with his voice here, which is pretty nice. He has a few spots still where on certain vowels in certain points of his range something sounds not-really-normal, that remain from whatever we noticed was wrong with his voice around 2019ish. But the positive changes of age on his voice are really working for me here, especially when you consider how stripped down the whole thing is and how many of the songs are still in their original keys or close to them - I thought that for instance they would take The Wolves Die Young a good notch down, and you can hear in the vocal take that it would have been a decent idea, but the chorus is pretty high and he just goes for it. The smallest imperfections have nowhere to hide but the human element/dimension of this is cool.

[Melphina]

Very cool insight, Mora. Looking forward to this. I have a feeling this will sound much more in line with where Tony's head is at these days rather than the last couple where the rock and metal seemed incredibly forced.

[ErHaO]

I have only heard the single release linked a while back. I gotta be honest, I think that still sounds as shit. But it has the advantage that it is acoustic music with much more openness/acoustic space than metal with symhponic elements blasting along.

I have been listening a lot of acoustic music on my new(ish) audio gear and it sticked out in a bad way still. I mean I can hear everything, but it does not in any way sound like an acoustic guitar is playing in front of me, for example. Hopefully the rest sounds better.

I really think I'd listen a lot to The Rest Belongs The Sun if it sounded better.

[Dittomist]

After a couple listens, I'm liking this acoustic album a lot. It's relaxing, interesting, and sounds so much better than Talviyo. For some reason I thought "Don't Say a Word" was going to be a disaster in this format but it's actually one of the standout tracks, along with "For the Sake of Revenge," "Alone in Heaven," and "On the Faultline." Bring on Volume 2!

[MoraWintersoul]

Them making an Actually Good (not just "good for a metal band" which would have also been unexpected ) music video was not on my 2022 bingo card: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwnCju2aHfU

[Lowdz]

I was interested in checking this out, and it fit the mood I was after but I’ve heard better Kontakt samples than the acoustic guitar here.

[ErHaO]

I got the digital version of Acoustic Adventures because it's out now in Japan and I have thoughts!

1) Some songs are nice to hear during a gig but idk about their inclusion here - they are different enough, but ehhh about Alone In Heaven and Tonight I Dance Alone (Mora skipping SGHN songs, who's shocked). Surprisingly maybe even my fave On The Faultline, which sounds very good here but is so perfect on the album already. Tallulah should be in this group but somehow it's justifying itself to me for now 

2) It's great to have an album where I would change absolutely nothing about the mix after literally 10 years. Everything sounds very clear and natural and balanced. Seeing how they recorded the instrumental tracks by having the four of them sitting down all together and recording a good continuous live take for each song and it sounds this good in the end, I hope this turns on a few lightbulbs that whatever they did with Talviyö to "get a live sound" on that album probably wasn't correct

3) Don't Say A Word and Wolf & Raven are, predictably, kind of nuts. Go off kings.

4) The arrangement of The Wolves Die Young surprised me, in a really good way. The difference in this version of A Little Less Understanding isn't surprising seeing how we've heard it already, but I still don't know if I even like the song after all the effort they put into it

5) Faves after a few listens are Paid In Full and For The Sake Of Revenge. No, I'm not a hopeless Unia/prog era stan, why are you asking. I hope one of them is the music video.

6) Tony is really playing with his voice here, which is pretty nice. He has a few spots still where on certain vowels in certain points of his range something sounds not-really-normal, that remain from whatever we noticed was wrong with his voice around 2019ish. But the positive changes of age on his voice are really working for me here, especially when you consider how stripped down the whole thing is and how many of the songs are still in their original keys or close to them - I thought that for instance they would take The Wolves Die Young a good notch down, and you can hear in the vocal take that it would have been a decent idea, but the chorus is pretty high and he just goes for it. The smallest imperfections have nowhere to hide but the human element/dimension of this is cool.

I ended up mostly agreeing with you. And I think the sound is much better overall than The Rest Belongs to the Sun, which sounds so muffled/distant to me.

Anyways, it is a relaxing album and if this is what they play live, I would have a good time.

[Melphina]

This album rules. I love everything on this. Very cool to hear some stuff that reminded me of Cinderblox. Beautiful album. Tonight I Dance Alone, Don't Say A Word, and surprisingly A Little Less Understanding really stood out as special on the first couple listens.

[ErHaO]

So I saw their acoustic concert a while ago. It was really good and the crowd was clearly into it as well. A nice cozy concert and good performance. Some songs really resonated with me. Especially Shamandalie worked really well in a lower, stripped version. And even some renditions I found boring on the studio releases (I Have A Right, for example) were nice in a live setting.

Tony sounded much better than the streaming concert and also better than both recent acoustic studio releases (which I all enjoyed).

I could not find a good clip of my night, but here is a great performance of Tonight I Dance Alone from this tour I found as an example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH7ui_C5kCM 

[wolfking]

This new song is pretty damn good!

https://youtu.be/oVCXqTZ19Kk?si=p-jys72aHHuDwaBq

[twosuitsluke]

This new song is pretty damn good!

https://youtu.be/oVCXqTZ19Kk?si=p-jys72aHHuDwaBq

Don't get my hopes up!

I own a physical copy of Ecliptica Revisited and I deeply regret that.

I purchased it too.  Halfway through I gave myself an uppercut!

Also, I just caught this amazing post

[Evermind]

I'll check out their new album. The new song sounds alright. I actually have to check out their acoustic stuff, I liked some songs from the first one and they released the second one since then.

[Dittomist]

"First in Line" is a killer song! I loved it immediately. The new album can't come soon enough! 

[wolfking]

"First in Line" is a killer song! I loved it immediately. The new album can't come soon enough! 

Can't help but feel that this will be a Flag in the Ground kinda setup.

[Pettor]

New song from upcoming album called Dark Empath. I read that this is a direct sequel to Don't Say a Word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWxIrqvBw4o

[MirrorMask]

New song from upcoming album called Dark Empath. I read that this is a direct sequel to Don't Say a Word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWxIrqvBw4o

By now it's easier to keep track of the Fast and Furious movies series than how many songs, and in which order, are in Sonata's stalker saga.

[Pettor]

New song from upcoming album called Dark Empath. I read that this is a direct sequel to Don't Say a Word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWxIrqvBw4o

By now it's easier to keep track of the Fast and Furious movies series than how many songs, and in which order, are in Sonata's stalker saga.

Hah! Honestly have no clue anymore which order or if they even make any sense 😅 Buuuuuuut I think this must be between Don't Say a Word and Juliet then? Caleb, Til Death Do us Apart, The End of This Chapter must be the prequels.

Caleb
Til Death Do us Apart
The End of This Chapter
Don't Say a Word
Dark Empath
Juliet

Can this be correct? 😅

[Mladen]

What about The Last of the lambs? Wasn't that a part of the whole story as well?

[Pettor]

What about The Last of the lambs? Wasn't that a part of the whole story as well?

Ah most likely! Last album was a rough one for me. Where would that song fit?

[Dittomist]

Dark Empath is great. I'm so looking forward to this album!

[wolfking]

Video of Dark Empath;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxwKBpdin0Y

Eh, not as good as the first song, but can't really complain.  It's got some RN/Unia vibes.

[Dittomist]

At the stroke of midnight (eastern time), the new album will finally be available!  The reviews have been very positive so far.

[twosuitsluke]

Wait, hold up!! Did Sonata Arctica just release an album I actually want to revisit?! I'm hardly a super fan, but they were one of the very first Power Metal bands I discovered, and Ecliptica and Silence will always hold a special place in my heart.

Well Clear Cold Beyond is return to that early sound, so it's no surprise I enjoy this more than their previous few albums. Standouts are Dark Empath, Cure for Everything and Angel Defiled. For me, it's a welcome return to this sound.

[Evermind]

Huh. I'll spin it today then.