Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night

[davidn]

The "default" cover.

I only recently got in to Sonata Arctica after being sent "Silence" by raphx. Until then, I'd been aware of their existence and had heard a couple of songs by them, but had never actually got around to investigating them further.

They're a Finnish band that seem to lie musically somewhere between Stratovarius, Dragonforce and Nightwish, with classical influences and a wide variety of song styles. Most of them, however, were one of two extremes as far as speed was concerned. What makes this album different from what I've heard from them so far is that Sonata Arctica seems to have calmed down - instead of having a few ridiculously fast songs and a few ballads, most of the songs are surprisingly normally paced, although the two separate styles are still recognisable.

Reflecting Whitney's commentary that I listen to "a bunch of pretty men in leather" so accurately that it may as well be parody, the membership of five look stereotypically cleanly Scandinavian to the point of actually glowing, with the exception of Jani Liimatainen, who has the worst case of acne ever, and Henrik Klingenberg, who is undead.

Another curiosity is that the album booklet has two covers (it took me a while to work out what was going on there), of which I prefer the "alternative" version.

1. Misplaced: Bizarrely, the album begins with a fake introduction. About three bars from near the end of the song play, then it cuts off for a few seconds and starts again at the right place, making the song itself "misplaced". I've heard some strange production choices before because it seems to be becoming a European metal trend (like Kamelot cheating to get their fifth album up to 55:55, and Kotipelto fading the last track of Coldness back in and distorting it, making me think my speakers had broken), but this one is still pretty unexpected. The song itself isn't one of the best openers I've heard because it takes a while to get going - the traditional catchy chorus seems to have been moved to a half-bridge before the solo and end of the song.

2. Blinded No More: The compulsory slow-paced song after the opener, I don't think that much stands out about this song. The melody is all right, but I do wish that Tony Kakko wouldn't write about his breakups all the time. Having said that, the lyrics are nowhere near as bad as those for "Don't Say A Word" slightly later on.

3. Ain't Your Fairytale: Sonata Arctica always have at least one "werewolf" song on each album, and this is the one here. It's also in the closest style to their earlier albums, with a fast pace, happy yet aggressive tone, and high harmonic chorus. This is a definite favourite.

4. Reckoning Day, Reckoning Night: In another strange choice, the title track seems to be not much more than an interlude leading in to the next song. It's largely just an atmospheric collection of strings, voices and pianos, and while it's decent, I wouldn't even consider it a "song" as such. It's more of an introduction that leads in to...

5. Don't Say A Word: If the band has a weakness it's that when Tony Kakko falls out with a girlfriend he feels compelled to write a song about how she ruined his life. This is the latest incarnation of it - on the positive side, though, it is much more upbeat than the normal ballad pace that these songs take, and has a grand Stratovarius-like chorus. The single got to number one in Finland, apparently, so it must have some appeal at least.

6. The Boy who Wanted to be a Real Puppet: Yes, quite. But despite the title, this is one of the best songs on the album - it has a more Nightwish leaning to it, especially in the introduction with the choir vocals. It's written in 3/4 time, for a change in pace. Lyrically it's confusing - it seems to be about someone stealing a cursed puppet and becoming it himself, so that he can "never feel hunger, never grow older". Despite the silliness of the entire concept, I like this a lot, and keep replaying the "...and a heart made of real gold" part near the beginning. There's clearly a worthwhile message behind this song. If only I knew what it was.

7. My Selene: For the first time in the band's history, this song was written by Jani rather than Tony, but his style fits with the rest of the album perfectly - indeed, it's one of the best on the album. A love song it may be, but evidently they can occasionally be done well.

8. Wildfire: A very aggressive song, this consists of more shouting than singing, and has a strange major melody, but it grew on me after a while. It's not so aggressive that it isn't tuneful, but it does take a couple of listens to get used to.

9. White Pearl, Black Oceans: Despite it not being the title track, this is definitely the centrepiece of the album, a sea epic in the style of Iron Maiden's (and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's, I suppose) "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". If I seemed a little unimpressed with a few of the songs so far, this makes up for it. In fact, it was hearing a sample of this song that inspired me to buy the album after I kept jumping back to hear the chorus again. A reasonable amount of the eight-minute song is taken up by variations on the almost hornpipe-like theme, with instrumentals of varying styles between them. It manages to have a lot of varying content without becoming overcomplex.

10. Shamandalie: I haven't listened to this nearly as closely as anything else on the album - it's the token uncharacteristic piano ballad that all bands of this genre have to include (it must be compulsory on the power metal album formula sheet, or something, but I haven't fully worked that one out yet). From what I've heard of it, this one is pretty decent, and not as obviously whiny as the previous two ballad-like songs.

11. Wrecking the Sphere: Apparently this is a Japanese bonus track, but it somehow found its way on to the American-manufactured version of the album as well (but without a mention on the case or the booklet). It's not a song as such, it appears to be just the band messing about in the studio and playing some sort of folk song. I suspect it's probably quite funny if you understand Finnish.

So that's my completely unprofessional opinion. They're certainly more than decent enough for me to consider getting more by them.

Edit: Sorry, I've just realised that all this is really boring.