Sonata Arctica - Successor
Century Media
True Metal
7 songs (30'44)
Release year: 2000
Sonata Arctica, Century Media
Reviewed by Chris

I've been dying to listen to some more songs from the Finland surprise band of the year. This single is more like an interlude album, making us wait for the next bomb let's hope they'll drop on us. This one contains 30 minutes of Sonata's music, mixing covers (2), an edit version of Full Moon and live tracks (2). The live recordings really have an awful sound and I suggest you stop your listening before you reach them (thx god they're in the end of the tracklist), plus they REALLY don't do them credit about live sessions, but having been on one of their gig I can tell you that they rock (don't let these record version give you a bad opinion about that). So what's really interesting here is the 4 news songs. Let's start with the covers : Still Loving You (Scorpions) cover is simply amazing, it contains a little surprise too (I won't say anymore, don't want to spoil it). The second one is a gutsy choice : I Want Out. Now who in the world would be crazy enough to make another cover after the perfect one made by Hammerfall ? I mean, the duo with Kai and Joacim makes this song one of the best tunes I've ever heard (Raus !). So I'm wondering why Sonata did that... but in the end it's not such bad choice... I mean it can't compete with HF version, but it's also true for 90% of all songs in the world so it's not much of a criteria :). After a few listens I must admit that I quite like it, there's some nice tricks then and there and some nice moments, of course there's still this accent problem with Sonata' singer that makes it hard to understand everything he says and is "I Want Out" sound more like a "I Want Tow" ???

So we're done with the covers, then we move on to the 2 new songs of this album, the first one called "San Sebastian" is an excellent melodic speed metal tune like Sonata used to deliver on their first album (Ecliptica). Very nice. The second one is a ballad which I have trouble finding any interest in, a bit too easy and done a million times.

Definitely a worthy buy (if you discard the live tracks that is) for Sonata Arctica fans all around the world, but if you don't know Sonata yet (shame on you) I would suggest to check their album before considering buying this one.

Killing Songs :
Still Loving You, San Sebastian
Chris quoted no quote
Other albums by Sonata Arctica that we have reviewed:
Sonata Arctica - The Ninth Hour reviewed by Jared and quoted 70 / 100
Sonata Arctica - Pariah's Child reviewed by Joel and quoted 85 / 100
Sonata Arctica - Stones Grow Her Name reviewed by Cory and quoted 71 / 100
Sonata Arctica - The Days Of Grays reviewed by Elias and quoted 95 / 100
Sonata Arctica - Unia reviewed by Chris and quoted 55 / 100
To see all 15 reviews click here
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