After hearing the first 2 singles from this album I can for the first time in many years say I’m excited for a new Sonata Arctica album. Both songs are great!



Top 50 Albums of 2023

I really hope this is good. The first single was great and the second one was decent. Really hope this band can rally after the last one.

Pretty good! Glad they finally remembered what a double pedal is! The last few songs drag out but there are some good tracks here. First In Line, California, Dark Empath, and Cure for Everything stand out.

A couple of great tracks (First In Line, California, Dark Empath, Angel Defiled), but peters out on the last 2 songs.

Music aside, how is it possible to ask someone to make an album and have “Snowy village under the Northern Lights and a frozen lake”…and end up with something so lame!? AI would have made something better!

Yeah, it's cool that they decided to go back to their power metal roots and all, but I don't think Clear Cold Beyond is even remotely near the quality of the first three albums. Old Sonata were well known for their great writing skills, not just the use of double pedals alone. There's something funny about the vocals, they sound so weak to me. Maybe Kakko has just gotten old or the mix isn't that well done or something.

Alright, in my opinion this is by far the best Sonata Arctica album in two decades. I was emotionally sent back to my early days of discovering different metal subgenres, and I got the same feeling as when I first listened to this band. Really great songwriting, and what I would consider a "perfect" mix of the early and modern Sonata Arctica sound.

2024 is gonna be a great metal year, and a very different year than 2023 was for me. My 2023 was a year of discovering a shit ton of new music, and It seems like 2024 is gonna be a year with a lot of great releases from the bands I grew up with. And all things considered, I really really enjoyed this release!



Top Releases of 2024

Great songs: Angel Defiled - its the best, could easily be a Silence song
Cure for everything - also great song, could be a Winterheart's guild or Reckoning night song
Other highlights: Shah Mat, First in line
Good enough songs: California, Teardrops, Dark Empath

The other songs are not bad, they are listenable, but some feel like a filler or just a miss. For exemple The best things is a song that has a Unia/Stones grow her name sound and lyric, kind lame ballad. Clear cold beyond is meant to be a "epic closer" I don't think it worked out to be satisfying (funny that this is the song that the bass is most prominent).

Points of gigantic improvement from the last 20 years: mixing is SO MUCH BETTER, Tony's voice is back, Henkka and Elias finally put some effort and stopped being so lazy.
What is missing: Jani, more bass, a better balance between guitar and keyboard (a very key driven album), there is room for improvement in compositions/lyrics, at least one good ballad.

I have some hope that the bonus tracks will be cool.
Overall, as someone that couldn't even finish an album since Pariah's Child, I'm so fucking happy they are back. I wish they had this energy in the "classics tour" they did last year. Hoping to see more of them in the near future.

A very weird album, the first half is all about speed and emotion whereas the second part is very ballad-focused and boring. It is not bad by any means, but I am not sure what Sonata Arctica know what they want to make anymore. It is a combination of all their different styles from the past 20 years. I give it an 8/10.

Written by Lulucifer on 12.03.2024 at 03:58

Great songs: Angel Defiled - its the best, could easily be a Silence song

What do you like about Angel Defiled? I think it is the weakest of the album because it has no structure IMHO. Sort of too much being Avant Garde and not in a good way.

Great Album! Is nice to see this guys with a good album again!

Written by Oracles on 12.03.2024 at 19:27

A very weird album, the first half is all about speed and emotion whereas the second part is very ballad-focused and boring. It is not bad by any means, but I am not sure what Sonata Arctica know what they want to make anymore. It is a combination of all their different styles from the past 20 years. I give it an 8/10.

Curious take this one, bro, because I find the album very concise in speed terms, maybe I need to listen it again, but even so I didn't find any song boring.

Anyways, this was a very surprising release. Never awaited such an energized release after the musical direction they took with Talviyö (one of the most disappointing albums I've ever heard, and I am a lover of the rest of the Sonata's music, even the post-Reckoning Night stuff). So, the only thing remaining here is to enjoy this moment.

I'm a huge fan of all eras of SA. I'd actually argue that "First in Line" and "California" are better than 90% of their older speedy tracks. Dark Empath is also amongst the best songs they've ever written.

But beyond those three tracks, it starts to get a bit iffy. Teardrops has certainly grown on me a bit, and Angel Defiled is also pretty fun.

However, SA continues their streak of albums without a strong ballad (except "Candle Lawns," which I quite like), while "Shah Mat" and "Cure for Everything" are just straight up skippable. And the last two tracks... I mean, they aren't BAD. But I'm rarely in the mood to listen to them, and they really conclude the album on a flat note.

So while the highlights are very high, there is too much skippable material here for an SA album IMO. Which ranks this album as probably the third weakest SA album, beating only Ecliptica and Talviyo.

Much better than quite a few albums before this. I found myself enjoying multiple songs quite a lot: for exampla Angel Defiled, A Monster Only You Can't See and First In Line

Cheap cover art. Awfully flat mixing. But Angel Defiled has a great "Winterheart's Guild" feel to it, and overall it's the best album they released in 15 years, so there's that.