Sonata Arctica

This afternoon, while finally doing some work on Crystal Towers (it'll be finished soon, honest) I noticed in my playlist the MP3s of Sonata Arctica's "Silence" that raphx had sent me ages ago, but that I subsequently forgot about. I had listened to a couple of their songs before, and had the impression that they were a more manic version of Stratovarius.

After listening to the album a few times, this impression still holds - their songs are incredibly happy, fast and aggressive at the same time, making their general sound akin to that of an exploding Skittles factory. Unlike many albums, it didn't take me a while to get in to but I instead instantly liked a lot of it, apart from a couple of minor downfalls...

The most significant of these is the five-minute whingefest by the name of "Last Drop Falls". I'm not against ballads, but the lyrics are the kind of pop-like drivel that I listen to this kind of music to get away from. It appears that Kakko had a bit of a falling out with his significant other. In fact, many of their other lyrics are very strange - they seem to write typical power metal fantasy lyrics but in a modern setting, which is an interesting clash of styles. They also tend to make fast and sudden time changes a lot, which begin to demand the attention so much that - and this is no joke - I actually find them physically tiring to listen to after a while. I'd better go and lie down.