26.SONATA ARCTICAUNIAProgressive Metalreleased May 25th, 2007
via Nuclear Blast
1. In Black and White [5:04]
2. Paid in Full [4:24]
3. For the Sake of Revenge [3:23]
4. It Won’t Fade [5:59]
5. Under Your Tree [5:14]
6. Caleb [6:17]
7. The Vice [4:09]
8. My Dream’s But a Drop of Fuel for a Nightmare [6:13]
9. The Harvest [4:19]
10. The Worlds Forgotten, the Words Forbidden [2:57]
11. Fly with the Black Swan [5:08]
12. Good Enough is Good Enough [5:32]
UNIA is
Tony Kakko (Vocals / Keyboards)
Jani Liimatainen (Guitars)
Henrik Klingenberg (Keyboards)
Marko Paasikoski (Bass)
Tommy Portimo (Drums)
WITHTuomas Airola (Cello / Conductor on 12)
Elar Kuiv (Violin on 12)
Anna-Leena Kangas (Viola on 12)
Oskari Hannula (Strings on 12)
Tarja Vanhala (Choir conductor)
Celestina Choir (Choirs)
Peter Engberg (Acoustic guitars / Bouzouki / Chromaharp / Kavaquinho / Q-chord)
Milla V (Spoken words on 6)
Kati Niemelä (Violin / Viola on 12)
Michael “Starbuck” Majalahti (Additional vocals on 1, 6 / English consultant)
First, screw Sonata Arctica’s first two albums. They're good, but Sonata Arctica did not live and die with cookie cutter power metal no matter how catchy the choruses were. The Ninth Hour was the first (and so far only) album they’ve released that actually disappointed me, but everything else, I love. I’m grateful they left the old power metal behind and have continually tried new things on post-Jani era records. This album is an explosive release of all the material Tony had wanted to put on the last few records but couldn’t because the fans expected speedy power metal in the vein of Stratovarius and other keyboard-heavy groups.
Unia means “dreams” in Finnish and this album is all about that. It’s all about exploring weird, new territory, singing nonsensical lyrics about dreams and nightmares, while retaining the classic Sonata Arctica/Kakko-esque storytelling and mouthful of words. Thickly layered vocals and multiple vocal parts are reminiscent of Queen, a big influence in Tony’s songwriting. The keyboards range from filthy synth lead voices to bells and sickly dark synth pads, groaning and twisting like black sludge through the songs. The guitars are surprisingly heavy, but offer little in the way of memorable riffs; they are mostly utilized as a means of adding percussive distortion to the songs, creating a thick and heavy foundation for Tony’s singing, which is the real star of the album. God, this album – there’s nothing but gems on this tracklist.
And it’s true – listen to any song on this album and Tony is up front in the mix, and almost always present. There are very few moments on the album where Tony backs off and the instrumental side takes over. He commands the songs, and they seem to evolve on his command, with entire sections abruptly starting and ending on a single word, with the snap of a finger he is able to manipulate the direction of the songs like some kind of magician. Coming off the heels of a full-bore power metal record, it is amazing what he created with Unia in my opinion. Every song really is a treasure here.
One of the best songs tells a story about a man dying in an avalanche and meeting Cygnus, the black swan, and essentially becoming the Grim Reaper. The poetry is sublime on “Fly With The Black Swan” and I highly recommend it, as well as “The Harvest” with some really enigmatic and bizarre lyrics but comes roaring at you like a tidal wave of boiling water. I’ll cap off this section with just a few of my favorite lyrics on Unia:
- "All the good things in my life dwell in my mind / Took a wrong lane, every day I hear myself say / Sickening's this feeling, my life, my hopes, my dream's but a drop of fuel for a nightmare"
- "Haven't seen you in weeks, no clouds in the sky to rain me a drop / Loving touch I need / And I'm killing time by the lake, diving off the cliff, many times scarring myself, colliding on the lake bed so dry"
- "Diving in the seas of sin without knowing where lies the bottom / Idle moments spawned you idle people, no morality, no soul"
- "It's hard for me to hate myself right now / Finally I'm understanding me / One day we may have whole new mes and yous / But first I need to learn to love me too"
- “We cannot wait for you, for limbo, forever / Don’t make us walk away – packs stay together / Fear would be justified, will be there soon / The things that you do will infect us too”
Although the rest of the band is noticeably uncomfortable speaking English, Tony has a fucking masterful command of writing English lyrics.
In Summary: It’s huge, it’s exhausting, it’s daring, it’s exciting. This album is one of the biggest growers in my collection. It took over 2 years for some of these songs to click, specifically “The Vice,” so I understand how this album rubs people the wrong way. However, in my opinion, this is easily one of the best Sonata Arctica albums, one of the best progressive metal albums ever, and at the very least one of the most unique records I’ve ever heard. Most people who know Sonata have an opinion on this record. If you don’t, well, give it a shot. Almost every one of these tracks is different from the rest. It’s got some absolutely gorgeous ballads, some epic storytelling (a continuation of the Caleb saga, for example), and some bizarre, inventive songwriting. More bands need to take risks like this, but only if they have enough artistic shit in their pants to pull it off the way Tony did with Unia.
Katt’s Favorites: In Black and White,
Paid in Full (music video),
My Dream’s But a Drop of Fuel for a Nightmare,
The Harvest,
Fly With The Black SwanListen to “Unia” by Sonata Arctica on Spotify