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Good review but i disagree with Days of the Greys, best album after the killer duo ecliptica & silence for me.

Just my two cents
Chris

I'm sorry, but I feel this album lacking any energy that made the first SA to be such outstanding. Loosing my insanity is a good track, which reminds us somewhat of the good old times of the band, but if you listen to some similar older track, i.e Black Sheep and listen to this, then sorry, even this highlight would be considered somewhat a medicore fillertrack on their older albums. Surely it's excellently produced, but boring as hell and except the before mentioned track, then there is not really any track that stands out, just a lot of tracks that will be forgotten the second the tracks end.

Sonata Arctica did a Helloween. Keepers1&2 were great, then there was an argument with the guitarplayer Kai Hansen and singer Michael Kiske and both wanted different direction and then Hansen left the band and we got "pink bubble goes ape" and "chamleon" and if the lineup would have not changed after that we would never have gotten the kickass helloween of today. I don't believe that we will ever get a good old kickass SA if there is no change in the lineup... now Kaakko is the sole emperor of the band and this is the direction he wants to take the band, Liimatainen wanted to take it a different direction that most of us prefered, but too bad he left the band...

It's meh



Da fuck you live in the dang same town I'm living in

wait what?

I live here in Altus too!!!!!

Your not fucking around?

Their worst album ever. It's disgusting that they even use the name Sonata Arctica to go along with this release. I hear nothing but pretentious bullcrap that don't have the slightest hint of decent melodies. I'm sorry to say not even Cinderblox is doing it for me. I don't want "fun" songs from Sonata Arctica. Leave that for Helloween and Edguy (who've been goin' waaaaaaaaay downhill lately (>2004) as well).

The only song I can listen to is Losing My Insanity and that's cuz it's an Ari Koivunen cover (originally written by Tony, though).

Sorry for sounding like a raging bull but Sonata Arctica (pre Unia) is one of my alltime favourite bands and I actually get sad knowing they'll probably never release a song that I'll truly enjoy again.

Nope not fucking around. Lived here since 1999.

Just got it tonight. I think I Have A Right is the best thing on the album so far, just a killer tune with a great melody that holds you in its spell.

Obviously will have to digest more, but so far I'm hearing some of the cut and paste feel that Unia had in places. I hope that will smooth out in time, because there seems to be some real effort at trying different ideas here.

Good record, full of catchy, easy listening songs. Around 70 is an expected rating for it. Closing Wildfire duo are highlights of this album for me.

"It doesn’t take a genius to surmise that this fact led to the departure of founding member guitarist Jani Liimatainen in 2007"

- As far as I know, Jani had to go to prison back then because he didn't comply with military service in Finland. He was thus asked to leave the band. (By the way, regarding this, go and listen to "It Won't Fade", and read the lyrics between the lines It's an amazing song!).

Regarding this new album, I would rate it around 80, but I have to admit that I'm a big fan of all the different periods of the band. For me Wildfire II and III are great, complex songs. I find Cinderblox to be a great song, even though I thought I wold hate the banjo-metal thing. But that wasn't the case, it is addictive at the end. The Day is a beautiful emotional song, depicting the feeling of a father who lost everything in Japan's Sunami in 2011. With the exception of Don't be mean, which is the only song I skip regularly, I think all songs are highly enjoyable.

And going a little bit of topic, I do believe Unia is a terrific album, you just need to give it a lot of time and even patience, and it will grow a lot. I was really disappointed back in 2007, blaming the lost of good old Sonata from Ecliptica and Silence, and I abandoned this album. But then at the beginning of this year, knowing that Sonata would release another album, I gave it a good amount of time, including reading the lyrics, and at the end I was wondering if I was deaf the first time. The hideous complexity of the first listens became by then an amazing thing. I know that this won't appeal to everyone, but I guess that if you like progressive and complex music it is worth another try.

Wow, I think you are right on target with your analysis of where SA has gone since Reckoning Night with Jani's departure and the diminishment of guitar in the mixes and arrangements, and Tony's often off-the-wall, progressive indulgences.

I like Winterheart's Guild a lot, would rate it almost equivalent to Silence, though the albums are definitely different. I agree, many tracks on Unia and The Days Of Grays leave you scratching your head, but I think there are some great tracks too: "Paid In Full", "For The Sake Of Revenge", "Caleb" among them on Unia and, in addition to those you mention on TDOG, I have to say "Juliet" is one of my favorite SA tracks.

The new album is definitely a step in a better direction and the guitar has made a bit of a comeback on it (though I could do with more). I think I like a few more of the songs a little more than you. While I understand your beef with "I Have A Right" not being very representative of the rest of the album, it's also pretty obvious why they chose it as a single (I think if you are fan of ANY Sonata Arctica material, you accept that it comes with a certain bit of syrupy sappiness). I think it's a great, catchy track blighted only by the painful (and unnecessary---we get the message Tony) kid voiceover in the break section (a snappy little guitar solo would have been perfect there instead). I'm not a country fan and, yes: no new subgenre of "bluegrass metal" please, God---but I agree "Cinderblox" is a pretty brilliant country/metal hybrid.

I am one of those fans of of SA, and Edguy for that matter, who definitely appreciates the older material more, but I am not a power metal purist that has written them off simply because their beats-per-minute isn't what it was on their earlier albums. I think both bands still produce quality music and I believe each has another potential "great" album in their future.

Great review.

Awesome info man, I did not know that about Jani.

As to Unia, there was a time a few years back when I thought it was very good, but where as Silence and Ecliptica never got old for me, Unia just didn't hold up. I think a large part of that is just the lack of memorable melodies and hooks, with the exception of Black and White, It Wont Fade, and maybe The Vice. Still, I can certainly see why others would dig it more than I do, and am glad that you do. Every album is great in someone's eyes, and that is a good thing.