Flag In The Ground is very "new" stuff originally from 1996, fellows...so dont judge quickly w/o knowing facts

and by the way, this song rocks anyway

Ellrohir, don't you have some good rapidshare links again? I need the new single but I can't buy it in Hungary

Sorry, but my source usually dont provide power metal links...it is originally black metal forum, though many stuff can be found there, new sonata arctica couldnt...

you have the same chance as me trying Mr. Google...

Yeah but i hate when I download something and it's a promo or in bad quality..

Yes, i prefer guaranteed links too

Listen to the whole new album here...

http://peoplesmusicstore.com/gabi?product=501378

Hm...not available in my country...

Written by Ellrohir on 27.08.2009 at 10:41

Hm...not available in my country...

Same here, got all excited, and then my hopes were smashed! (incase you couldn't tell, those are my hopes being smashed by that hammer) lol

I just finished listening to it.

I remember the first time I heard Unia, I was a little taken aback by what I heard, because it sounded like Sonata Arctica but with every track, things got stranger and more experimental, and by the end I wasn't completely shocked but I was really curious about the last half of the album.

Well, my first impression of this new album is a strange one. If I had to sum this album up in one word, it is 'bewildering.' There are so many strange moments on this album. They really pushed the Unia direction tenfold on this one. If Unia was the transition period between melodic power metal into experimental, proggy territory, The Days of Grays is where Sonata Arctica has found themselves. This is a much stranger album than Unia was, in my opinion.

I don't think I'll listen to it again until the album is fully released, just to keep it fresh, but now that I've at least heard it once, I can try to digest it and think about it until the release date. Very, very interesting, this album...

Single "The Last Amazing Grays" should be out since yesterday...anyone has it already?

Written by Ellrohir on 27.08.2009 at 23:21

Single "The Last Amazing Grays" should be out since yesterday...anyone has it already?

I've got it! and I likeeee it so much!!!!

Aw! they removed the album

Hm, no wonder i would say...it was surprising even to saw it there

Should be interesting to hear how the new one is.. with this whole "we don't focus on speed anymore" thing and all. I visited their hometown a couple of years ago btw, what a boring place!

Mm... i saw it being posted elsewhere yesterday

Not to be Narrow minded but Sonata, just isn't the same with without Janni. Dream Asylum sounds more like old Sonata, than they do now. I guess I'm more of a Janni fan than sonata huh? I understand bands have the right to experiment, but I all so have the right to choose what I like, and I don't like what Sonata's become.

But there are many people who almost adore it...

Written by Ellrohir on 31.08.2009 at 12:18

But there are many people who almost adore it...

you could say that about alot of bands no?

Yes - from the point "new" Nightwish and "new" Edguy (Rocket Ride) came on my mind

I know we will never end this discussion about old vs new; but i found their new album pretty boring. The first 3 songs are decent/good, but after that is down hill to boredom. Probably if you liked Unia you will like this, if u didn't like Unia i would this one is worse.

Deathaura is awesome, but The Last Amazing Grays I find it too boring and Flag in The Ground is good, but only for promoting the single, the rest of the album is interesting, this album is for sure not as accesible as Ecliptica or Silence were. It's an strange album, but I liked that, and well, as Fhuesc says, this discussion is endless, old Sonata fans like lots of double bass and keyboard + guitar soloing, new Sonata fans simply like their new stuff, I consider myself a fan of both old and new, but I have to say that their new stuff I is more interesting than their old(or maybe since RN, I consider that album like the end of old SA and the beginning of new SA).

The Days Of Grays is like a roller coaster, the intro is good, the next two songs are very good, then you reach flag in the ground (this is the part when in the roller coaster you start to climb and then you reach the top). And the other 9 songs are ballads and pink power flower metal and the album just goes straight down..... to my recycle bin.

Sonata is dead to me, no more Winterheart's Guild like albums.... even there the ballads were good

Dead to you, alive to others...

Okay, so The Days of Grays, when first hearing Flag In The Ground I though "Yay! Sonata is back!". But then I got a low quality version of the whole thing, I listened very briefly on every song just to find that this is Unia all over again, even more so. I actually quite liked Unia and Reckoning Night, in fact, Reckoning Night is one of my favourite albums by Sonata. But come on? Noone wanted another Unia in The Days of Grays. I even find Jani's new band Cain's Offering being more true to the old Sonata ways than Sonata them selves, go Jani and Cain's Offering! You show them what the good music is! I will definatly give The Days of Grays a fair chance when it comes out, I need to have it even if I won't like it that much, to complete my collection, Sonata is still Sonata, and who knows, after a few listens I may enjoy The Days of Grays much more, but until then I'll stick to Flag in the Ground and The Last Amazing Grays, which are the only enjoyable songs from the album right now.

Written by =maD.Doc:. on 03.09.2009 at 14:08

when first hearing Flag In The Ground I though "Yay! Sonata is back!".

its because this is (and the only one) stuff originally from 90ties...only it waited in chest until now

Written by Ellrohir on 03.09.2009 at 15:08

Written by =maD.Doc:. on 03.09.2009 at 14:08

when first hearing Flag In The Ground I though "Yay! Sonata is back!".

its because this is (and the only one) stuff originally from 90ties...only it waited in chest until now

I know it was written back in 1996 :p

Written by Ellrohir on 03.09.2009 at 10:34

Dead to you, alive to others...

What's the point here? I said dead to me, and I am obviously not everyone... lol

Here is my review for the new album. I wrote it yesterday:

Sonata Arctica return in September 2009 with an intensively theatrical album, The Days of Grays.
The band takes a more whimsical and varied approach to song writing with this one. The compositions
aren't as direct and catchy as previous albums. The Days of Grays might come across as a second act to its
predecessor, Unia. Sonata Arctica these days sound like they should be involved in musical theater;
the layered orchestration, theatrical acted out vocals and epic nature lead to this belief. There is still a
metal base throughout the album (once again Marko Paasikoski tries to keep it metal) but this is overshadowed
by the aggressive and ever present orchestrations of the
two board players. Flag In The Ground takes us back to heavier power metal and is one of the
heavier songs at this point. Breathing is a drawn out ballad that the album could do without and
is placed badly between Flag In The Ground and Zeroes, two respectively heavy power metal driven tracks,
the latter still sounding ballad-like. The addition of female vocals in order to move along a sort of plot-driven
interaction of characters added another dimension but push the band into less heavier territory more and more.
With so much change and variation in the band's sound and sudden directional shifts, could The Days of Grays
be the start to the last of days for Sonata Arctica...or a broader reach of audience?

I am just reminding i know people, who enjoy Unia (and possibly will enjoy this new album too) as "new beginning of Sonata" while others call it "dead of Sonata"

Well I disagree with the above-mentioned post actually - I felt Unia was their best album to do, most challenging to listen to, most varied, most "progressive" YET they still wrote GOOD MUSIC. I got hold of "The Days of Grays" and I dont know what the fuck happened to the band....its is practically unlistenable!! There are only 2 or 3 songs on the entire album that makes any musical sense, or songs that remind me more of Unia.

The album feels like a mishmash of different ideas without any sense of coherency, trying to sound different for the sake of being different. Its extremely disappointing....whereas Unia was a good and measured progression from "Reckoning Night", this new album tries too many things without making any decent music. Tony goes completely overboard with his voice, the music doesnt flow at all and toward the end of the album there are like 3 songs in a row which all start off the same way!

Seriously disappointing, after hearing the songs "Everything Fades to Gray" and "Flag in the Ground" i was incredibly excited on the rest of the album, yet Sonata Arctica completely lost the plot from "Breathing" onwards. Like I said, they tried to experiment too much, trying to add stupid little bits and pieces into songs, or just writing songs which are severely dull with no direction at all.

I LOVED Unia, and I still do, but even for me who enjoyed their less straight forward approach on there, cant listen to the new album which turned out to be a weird theatrical vocal exercise out of a Tim Burton movie, with too little to keep you interested. WEAK choruses (apart from 2 songs) and music which in general doesnt sound at all coherent or thought through. It souns like they just wanted to throw as much shit into each song as they could....

Jani's absence is GLARING and I have a feeling that he was the one who sort of kept Tony in control and brought some sense of sanity and direction to the band - now that hes gone there is an overwhelming feeling of lack of direction and song writing. No wonder Cain's Offering is so much more appealing. Their album is great, they didnt reinvent the wheel but theres enough in each song to keep you interested and enough variation to make you go "damn I didnt see that one coming!". Thats whats missing from the new SA album....too much randomness which builds up to absolutely nothing.

5/10 - Unlistenable and disappointing, listen to Cain's Offering instead.