New Sonata Arctica Single

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HinatAArcticA
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New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by HinatAArcticA » Mon Jul 01, 2019 8:24 am

https://youtu.be/FiM94N3FnQA

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They used to be my favorite band :(
At least they got a different producer so the mix isn't atrocious like their last 3 releases.
No need to feel so afraid, colors last a lifetime and fade to gray...
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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by robocop » Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:59 am

It sounds like the guitars are tuned lower, correct me if I’m wrong. First thing I thought of when hearing this song the other day was: how is this best song they can release as a taste of a new album? Oh well, some people will like it. That’s how it goes. The production is still not the best imho. I listen to Silence and I’m like, holy fuck, this album sounds huge.

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by ZenithMC » Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:16 am

HinatAArcticA wrote:They used to be my favorite band :(
Same here.

Unfortunately as of late, Sonata Arctica's musical direction lacks epic elements, energy, atmosphere, and -- well ... direction. The melodies seem devoid of even the slightest amount of inspiration, almost like they're intentionally trying to avoid sounding catchy. The chorus is particularly unspectacular. Well, if this is the sound that they enjoy nowadays, then who am I to complain? It's just frustrating to listen to this when you know what they were once capable of.

At the very least, their live shows are still entertaining.
robocop wrote:The production is still not the best imho. I listen to Silence and I’m like, holy fuck, this album sounds huge.
Agreed.

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by robocop » Fri Jul 05, 2019 11:39 am

It’s true. I’m not asking for a full blow power metal album from them. It’s not realistic. Wouldn’t it just be nice to get some songs that stick in your head like their old stuff? They can record anything they want if that’s what brings them joy. There are fans that suffer, though. lol. Honestly, just from experience, I shut songs off if the production is not up to par. Just a music snob. There are countless bands out there making great power metal anyway.

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by ZenithMC » Fri Jul 05, 2019 11:52 pm

robocop wrote:I’m not asking for a full blow power metal album from them. It’s not realistic. Wouldn’t it just be nice to get some songs that stick in your head like their old stuff?
There are examples of modern Sonata Arctica writing good material every now and then. For instance, I remember the bonus track "The Elephant" from The Ninth Hour being pretty good. There were also some other songs from the previous two albums that I felt were above average. Those particular songs might not be on the same level as their older material, but they're at least okay.

This new single was by no means horrendous. It was just sort of there and didn't stand out. This is exactly how I felt about their last batch of singles too. I hope they aren't going to begin the next album with the most boring songs like they did last time. It's a really good way to set a bad impression and pacing for an album.
robocop wrote:There are countless bands out there making great power metal anyway.
Yes, including Stratovarius! :wink:

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by adrian9 » Sat Jul 06, 2019 5:06 pm

HinatAArcticA wrote:https://youtu.be/FiM94N3FnQA

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They used to be my favorite band :(
At least they got a different producer so the mix isn't atrocious like their last 3 releases.
There was a comment with this trick-

How to improve the music: put on 1.25x speed. =)

It makes a lot of difference, and actually love the song like that, give it a try.
A9

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by HinatAArcticA » Mon Jul 08, 2019 1:33 am

Saw the 1.25 speed comment, and the improvement is mild but I get where it's coming from :lol:

The one positive takeaway I have from the track is that finally the mix has some depth and sense to it. It's not Mikko Karmila levels of good, but is leaps and bounds better than anything Pasi ever did for the band as the sole mix engenier.

I have hope for the rest of the album, as the band has still produced some good tracks in their latest albums. Stuff like Fly, Navigate, Communicate or Half a marathon Man instantly come to mind. I have no idea why they keep picking these lazy bland pop-like tracks to be their singles. Not since Flag in the Ground have they picked an alright track to be the single, and even then the song wasn't nowhere near as good as Deathaura or Juliet. I wished they picked something different for their singles, but what do I know...
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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by SatanicSmile » Thu Jul 11, 2019 7:17 pm

Well, I would say this is rather boring song. But definitely not surprised, since big majority of time they somehow manage to choose some of the more boring songs for single releases. Ever since "Paid In Full" from "Unia". Kinda understand how most of those were chosen considering they are all "easy" for a random listener, but the thing is many of those songs from recent years lack some power.


I don't have high hopes for this new album, however I'm sure the album will have at least a couple of very very good songs. And I hope the new addition to Caleb saga will be great; so far the story only has great songs. Better not "ruin" it :lol:

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by NeverendingAbyss » Mon Jul 15, 2019 9:46 pm

Honestly, I dig the 1.25x speed beat.

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by adrian9 » Tue Jul 16, 2019 5:58 pm

NeverendingAbyss wrote:Honestly, I dig the 1.25x speed beat.
is kind of the old sonata vibe.
A9

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by HinatAArcticA » Fri Jul 19, 2019 4:43 pm

adrian9 wrote:is kind of the old sonata vibe.
Mmmh... maybe SGHN "old" because I don't quite get it. It still sounds pretty dull to me, in the vain of I Have a Right and like I said: I get it, but it doesn't quite do much for me because the composition is still just bland imo.

Also, here's an interview I translated for the SA Reddit:

“Talviyö” will be SONATA ARCTICA's tenth offering, and will be available on September 2019 . For this, Tony Kakko and Elias Viljanen recieved us at hotel in Madrid to talk about this upcoming record of unpronounceable name, and of their upcoming tour in our country (Spain) already confirmed for December. It's been a pleasure to talk with them for a while, and part of this long conversation with the Finns is presented now:


– Let's start by talking about “Talviyö”, Why this name? What does it mean?

Tony.- It means “Winter Night”. We had the album ready, the songs, and we were missing the name. Even the cover was ready.

Elias.- That's right, the cover is a photo of a winter night in Finland, with its snow and coldness, so Tony came up with the idea of “Winter Night” in English because it sounded catchy and strong, and it was the idea that everyone liked the most. It was also his idea to name the album in Finnish, so… (laughs)

Tony.- When I said “Talviyö”, I thought... "Ha! it's gonna be so hard for the fans to pronounce it" and that's it basically. Finnish tt's hard but pretty at the same time, and that's why we chose it like that. It's a great joke, I know, because it's hard to say, but it's also pretty exotic. Look, this is the original photo (Tony shows the original photo of the Finnish night in his phone), it's actually the afternoon in Finland, but it's just really dark because it's winter, and we thought the title was great with the photo.


– What's the difference between “Talviyö” and previous records?

Tony.- I think the way of composing and working was actually very similar to previous albums. I think this is the third album in a row that we work the same way. Generally we looked for the essence of SONATA ARCTICA en each song. Our roots are also noticeable. The early years of SONATA ARCTICA in songs like “Message From The Sun” or “Ismo’s Got Good Reactors” for example. There's a bit of everything. For some time now we've been thinking of making the album better for live performances, with all the power these have. We've talked about it in the band and people have told us that we sound better live than in the studio albums, and after ten years it starts concerning you and we wanted to change this.

We've tried it before with “The Ninth Hour” for example, in which we also had our live technician Mikko Tegelman, but it wasn't a continuous effort, as he had to tour with Nightwish and it just so happened to coincide with our studio sessions. And as he was in North America, he obviously wasn't with us (laugh). But this time we've had Mikko with us full time. We have the sound with great tracks, and we recorded 10 of them last year in June and July of last year and it was just about putting the demos together, and it was actually one free day we had in Spain after a festival when he had a listening session. Eveyrone liked the songs and it was really easy to get Mikko involved because we had everything prepared with enough time and there was no rush when mixing the album. It was in September when we entered the studio to record the base drums, bass, and some guitars that we finished really soon.


– This album wasn't recorded with each band member separately, but with everyone together, right?

Tony.- Yeah, absolutely. It's much easier to play together now and it sounds like a live band. In many previous albums we would record the drums separately and then we'd put everything together. That would not make the sound very organic. Now we have a much more emotional and heartfelt sound, and I think we have to thank Mikko because he has achieved this with us. Another thing that Mikko also did was to change the balance of the instruments in contrast to previous albums, particularly the bass. The bass is very present in this new sound, and you can notice this easily. Often you'll find it right in your face. When Mikko proposed this, Pasi's face was almost a poem, filled with joy and responsibility. Pasi has always been up to the task, but even more now. In any case Pasi is not a bassist that you wanna hide. He's a really good bass player, so nobody had problems with it in the band.


– We were gonna talk about the composition style but you've pretty much told us everything already Tony (laughs). Lets start from the ending this time though. “The Garden” is a bit like a lullaby alsmot, with a three by four tempo present in large portions of the song. What can you tell us about it?

Tony.- It's something like that. It's actually a song about being thankful. I know what you mean. It's a slow song that sounds like a lullaby, but it's really about saying thanks like a hug. When you reach the age of forty for like me, you can allow yourself something like this, and I really don't care if some fifteen year old doesn't have the capacity to understand why this song is so important for me. I really couldn't care less what people think about it honestly. It's a song filled with meaning for me and everyone else in the band.

It's about saying thanks to those that you don't say "Thank you" enough. It's something that happens, and often you regret not opening and saying it enough at the right time. And I don't mean saying thanks like when you're served a cuo of coffee. It's much bigger than that, and that's the meaning of the song, and the only spot where it fit properly was at the end of the album along with “The Raven Still Flies With You”. Together they last about twelve or thirteen minutes, and in a way they are like a lullaby. An easy and pretty way to close out the album.


– Continuing with “Ismo’s Got Good Reactors”, the song is an instrumental track for a change...

Elias.- It's of course a song composed by Tony and I just play it (laughs), but many things happen in this song. I think Tony had the main melody for this track since he was thirteen or fourteen years old. It's a song you can easily play with the black keys in a piano. Musically I think it takes you around the world, from central-East Europe, going through Asia and Japan or something like that. When you're listening to the album, it's like stopping down for a moment to catch a breath, relax and let the music take you. I think the album itself is very deep, and not just with its lyrics but also with its musicality. But speaking about the name of the song, I think Tony wanted to explain something…

Tony.- Yeah, thanks! (laughs). Ismo is a very common name in Finland like Tony or Elias, but Ismo here really is my friend Mikko. He died about nine years ago at age forty two and he was a very close friend to me. His name was Mikko and not Ismo, but in a way they're the same person, and there's a story behind it. When he was twenty years old he was studying to become a school teacher, and of course he had to do practices with students, in this case with disabilities. He was with some students in area near a boat in a lake and a rock. When they tried to get the boar running, the engine started sinking and it was Mikko who by grabbing it managed to pull it out, and one of his students just said "¡Oh, Ismo’s Got Good Reactors”!, like referring to his ability as a hero to react in such situations, but of course, he got both the name and expression wrong at the time (laughs). It's a wonderful story that makes me remember my friend very dearly, and that's why this song has a very special meaning for me. It's not a sad song, but a fun one like he was. The story has been with me since I was ten or thirteen years old, so I wanted to represent it now. Ever since, every time that something falls or is about to fall, I say "Ismo, where are your reactors!?" (laughs).


– When thinking about the album, I have to say that my favorite song is “Who Failed The Most”...

Tony.-
That's actually our next single! We're actually gonna record a video for it very soon.

Are you kidding me? (laughs).

Tony.- Yes, we can in fact also produce music videos in Finland (laughs).

Elias.- That's right, it'll be our next single!


– I say this because last time you were doing promo stuff for an album, I told you that my favorite in that album was “Life”, and you told me it was your next single and that it would be out next week…

Tony.- Really? This proofs that you have an excellent musical taste for sure! What a coincidence.


– About the song, what can you tell us? Is it possible that it has a note from BON JOVI's “Runaway” in some sections? It definitely sounds much more like a rock song...

Tony.- Well, it may sound strange to you but I've also heard that note, though I can't listen to that many things because I'm just not that objective when it comes to my own work. It's hard to talk objectively about your own songs because they have your personal seal... This was actually a song I had planned for my alternate project, which I hope to get to in a couple years, even if takes all the way till I'm fifty. “Who Failed The Most” is a song I felt I needed for this album, cause SONATA ARCTICA needed another song and I thought it was perfect. It's a slower song I had planned for that project, though it was a bit lost and since the project wasn't coming out any time soon, it was time to get it out. It's a great song with some very sweet sections, and it was pretty good as a demo, but when we tried it with SONATA ARCTICA and we played it together I was just convinced. As for the lyrics, I think I've written better stuff and that's why I had it separated for my solo project, but I think the lyrics become quite strong and powerful in the context of the album, and the piece has just been improving over time, finally become what it deserved to be, ready to come out at last! (laughs).


– We know that you'll be in Spain relatively soon, more specifically in Madrid and Barcelona in December if I'm not mistaken...

Tony.- That's right! We don't have the exact dates, but we're really excited to see you guys again in December. We know we start in November in Finland, but since we're here in Spain, we can tell you now that we'll be here around December.


– What can we expect of these shows? Setlist, show...

Tony.-
Well, we'll have a broad and nice selection of songs from our new album, since that's what we're supporting with the tour (laughs). Of course, we'll also have a selection of our older albums, but that selection just becomes harder every time, since a lot of people wanna listen to a lot of very different songs each.


– You know that everyone wants to listen to “Talullah” and “Replica"...

Tony.- Yeah, we can't leave out “Full Moon” or “I Have A Right” for a while now… All songs have a different meaning, and there's a moment where it's just impossible to pick everything. We know that we don't always play what everyone wants to hear, but we have a great pack of songs and I'm sure everyone who attends the shows will enjoy them. We'll soon be on tour supporting KAMELOT in North America, and we'll test the waters to see what songs we wanna play for our tour (laughs). The band that will be with us will be BATTLE BEAST, so it will be a great way to start our tour like that. That will last for about six weeks and then we'll start with the European tour proper. And about the show itself, we don't really have anything pre-made for our shows right now, and we don't even have a lighting engineer for this tour yet, but we'll try to provide a winter night to those attending the show every night. There's still stuff we need to try, but it's an important challenge for us. We want to have a very arctic show (maybe with snow).


– Finally, any message for your fans...

Tony.- Well, we love you all very much and we really miss you. Yesterday in Barcelona (ROCK FEST) was incredible. It was really hot, but it was a heavenly experience non the less. I hope you're expecting our singles, both about the one already out and the one coming. “ Talviyö” will be out very soon so, give it a listen and see you on tour! I cant wait to see our fans again!

Elias.- “Stay Metal!”

Tony.- That's right! always.

– Well, that's it for the interview. Thank you very much!

Tony.- Thank you! It's been a pleasure to see you again!

Elias.- Thanks a lot!

____________________________

I don't understand why they can't just take I Have a Right Out of the setlist, but it's up to them I guess.
As for the Tony side project songs turned Sonata songs, we're two for two with Somewhere Close to You and Fly, Navigate, Communicate so I'm somewhat hopeful for the next single.
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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by Empathica1928 » Mon Aug 12, 2019 6:56 pm

I love almost everything Sonata does up through and including Pariah's Child. That album hasn't aged well for me and the production is terrible but there are still some great lyrics, melodies, and instrumental parts on that, and Larger Than Life rules. Ninth Hour is fucking horrible and the fact that this album is going to continue largely in that vein makes me worried.

I'll still buy it on release but it very well could be the last Sonata Arctica album I buy if it's anything like The Ninth Hour. I didn't get Ninth Hour until 3 months after it released and I'm just dreading going through that experience again. This single has a nice hook but it's so much better if you speed it up by 1.25x on YouTube. Normally, it just sounds plodding, like all the energy was sucked out of it.

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by SatanicSmile » Sun Aug 18, 2019 12:43 pm

Empathica1928 wrote:Ninth Hour is fucking horrible and the fact that this album is going to continue largely in that vein makes me worried.
I think Tony said in some interview that the new one will be even slower, a bit at least

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by Empathica1928 » Thu Aug 22, 2019 4:50 pm

SatanicSmile wrote:
Empathica1928 wrote:Ninth Hour is fucking horrible and the fact that this album is going to continue largely in that vein makes me worried.
I think Tony said in some interview that the new one will be even slower, a bit at least
'

See, slow isn't my problem. I love a lot of slow music. Sonata just... man, 'boring' doesn't begin to describe the vibe of Ninth Hour. I don't mind if there's a bunch of slow songs on Talviyo, but there needs to be some interesting songwriting and melodic phrasing in there. Tony sounded like he didn't even try on Ninth Hour, like he meandered his way through melodies he hadn't fully developed, recorded one take, and called it a day.

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by SatanicSmile » Fri Aug 23, 2019 3:09 pm

Empathica1928 wrote:
SatanicSmile wrote:
Empathica1928 wrote:Ninth Hour is fucking horrible and the fact that this album is going to continue largely in that vein makes me worried.
I think Tony said in some interview that the new one will be even slower, a bit at least
'

See, slow isn't my problem. I love a lot of slow music. Sonata just... man, 'boring' doesn't begin to describe the vibe of Ninth Hour. I don't mind if there's a bunch of slow songs on Talviyo, but there needs to be some interesting songwriting and melodic phrasing in there. Tony sounded like he didn't even try on Ninth Hour, like he meandered his way through melodies he hadn't fully developed, recorded one take, and called it a day.
Yeah totally same, but I still think the album overall was maybe too slow. Or should I say calm. But it's not the only problem with the album for me. I only really liked "Till Death's Done Us Apart" but even that has its weak parts. "Among the Shooting Stars" has potential in my ears but it's way too short, even though I feel the album is too "slow". The album just isn't very good as a whole and mixing is what it is

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by Southern_Cross » Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:21 pm

I really want to like it but I'm not gonna lie, it didn't really hit home for me. I wasn't a huge fan of the mixing but also I have zero mixing experience or knowledge so I could be totally wrong.

I just thought it was lacking, it sounded like it wasn't fully finished yet. Idk, maybe the rest of the album will be better. I really hope so considering I'm seeing them live in October.
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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by Kmasters » Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:34 pm


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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by SatanicSmile » Fri Aug 23, 2019 11:01 pm

Kmasters wrote:New Song and still Boring as Fuck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8imDPFt ... e=youtu.be
Kinda agree but it's at least a little bit more interesting than the first one for some weird reason

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by NeverendingAbyss » Fri Aug 23, 2019 11:16 pm

I consider the song an improvement. It's quite good, imo, especially the second half.

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by Empathica1928 » Wed Aug 28, 2019 11:05 pm

Holy shit that song is fucking awful

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by adrian9 » Sun Sep 01, 2019 9:15 pm

not even the speed up trick could save this one
A9

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by SatanicSmile » Sat Sep 07, 2019 4:15 am

Heard the album, quick review

At the moment I only like "The Last of the Lambs" although it repeats the title all the time and for now I got no clue what the heck it means. For Caleb saga song it's short, slow and it's nowhere on the timeline of the story (maybe good that it isn't). I find the lyrics a bit poor but like the overall atmosphere

"Cold" is on my top 3 :lol: For sure it's not impressive, but for now I just like it more than the others. That should tell much what I think about this album for now. In this song I guess the only problem for me is the solo, it's like I've heard it before on some of their recent albums

For now... Most of the songs I have no idea what is going on - some nice parts here and there musically, but the songs are a mess overall for me. And I can't really find vocals catchy

Hate the first track, lyrics sound stupid. Think this one had some solo which I could not hear very well

Because of the video Nuclear Blast posted earlier this week my expectations got higher for those a few days

So the first impression is bad, but gotta give more listens

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by Empathica1928 » Tue Sep 17, 2019 6:35 pm

I think I was overly harsh on this record on the initial play, but honestly, it still sucks. It has more pep in its step, so to speak, than The Ninth Hour, and that energy is sorely needed. However, it's like saying the horse with a gimp walks better than the one with a broken leg. The Ninth Hour was so bad that Tony could've just farted into a microphone over a fast beat and Talviyö still would've ended up more interesting than that miserable hour of nothing.

The few bits of interesting musical ideas - drum solo! interesting keyboard sounds! a very brief hint of good vocal melodies and performance! - are surrounded and clouded by uninteresting, lifeless, tepid music. The shoehorning of electric guitar just to have this humming wall of distortion is very annoying, too. And the last two songs go on far too long for as boring as they are.

Boring is the mood du jour for Sonata as of late, and I'm not all that impressed. Even the slower stuff on their earlier records actually sounds inspired - almost nothing here does. The band sounds tired and broken.

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by ZenithMC » Wed Sep 18, 2019 4:15 pm

I provided my review of Talviyö in this thread, as Jens wanted to know what everyone thought about it.

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by SentineLEX » Fri Oct 04, 2019 6:06 pm

It's funny, now that Talviyo is out, The Ninth Hour has really grown on me. I actually enjoy listening to it now.

Talviyo isn't bad but hasn't grown on me yet

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by AAAAAAAAAA » Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:46 am

I went to a Sonata Arctica concert the other day and it was very lifeless. No one besides Tony was having fun on stage. I think the guy is role playing as Freddie Mercury and the others are bored as hell.

By contrast its incredible how much energy and chemistry the band has in the live footage from the Silence tour or even the For the Sake of Revenge tour.

I really don't think I could have put together a worse setlist for this concert either. I heard only one song from the first six albums.

The band closed with the song "Life", which is just pure trash.

Can you imagine closing your set with the song no one wants to hear?

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ZenithMC
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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by ZenithMC » Sun Oct 06, 2019 11:14 am

AAAAAAAAAA wrote:No one besides Tony was having fun on stage.
Oof! That's quite a change from when I saw them five years ago. Not even Pasi was having fun? I remember seeing him hop all around from one side of the stage to the other.
AAAAAAAAAA wrote:The band closed with the song "Life", which is just pure trash.

Can you imagine closing your set with the song no one wants to hear?
:shock: I wonder why they didn't close with Don't Say a Word? At least, that's what I think they closed with when I saw them. Can you imagine if they closed their set with The Garden. :lol:

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AAAAAAAAAA
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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by AAAAAAAAAA » Sun Oct 06, 2019 6:22 pm

Most of the band was just hanging out I the back of the stage mailing it in. Henkka seemed particularly demoralized.

No "don't say a word". They rather play X Marks the Spot: a horrible song with an incredibly cringey backing tape that Tony was mouthing the words to as if it was the Gettysburgh Address.

They did play Full Moon at least. But the new guitar player totally fucked up the solo. And his guitar tone is really bad by the way.

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by NeverendingAbyss » Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:27 pm

That's awful. Not playing Don't Say a Word is like Strato not playing Black Diamond.

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Re: New Sonata Arctica Single

Post by Empathica1928 » Mon Oct 07, 2019 4:59 pm

NeverendingAbyss wrote:That's awful. Not playing Don't Say a Word is like Strato not playing Black Diamond.
Yeah seriously. What the fuck went through Tony's head when he decided to drop it from the set, even as an opener?

I have a friend who insists the band looks like they're having fun on stage and I just do not believe her. She is literally the only person I know who has praised the stage presence of the band, from all I've read and all the videos I've seen, everyone looks lifeless and almost painfully bored on stage.

"New" guitar player? Elias has been in the band for over 12 years, Jani wasn't even in for 10! :lol: I don't remember ever hearing him fudge up the Full Moon solo but perhaps he was that zoned out. The FM guitar solo isn't even difficult.

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