Written by Radivoy on 18.05.2012 at 19:24

I'm still having the feeling that this is another experimental and transitional album... like the ones before since Unia. I liked 2 or 3 songs from SGHN, when it used to be the opposite in their first albums. Don't know why, but the voice of Tony seems not to fit in their new style :S. Maybe there's something wrong with me, but i'll keep waiting for this "New Sonata Arctica" to finally get where they want, and let them blow my mind up.

I feel exactly the same about the vocals.





Otherwise, I was still disappointed with this one I can't find anything that memorable about it to make me want to go back and listen again. I found more memorable with TDOG and Unia with this "new style". But nothing yet for this album. I'll give it another chance in the future but for now, I find there is a lot of other quality albums out there that should get my attention more.

Written by [user id=35732] on 20.05.2012 at 18:20

Written by Prometheus on 20.05.2012 at 12:05

VAF-FAN-CU-LO

It's nice to meet you too.

Italian bon-ton always lives up to its reputation.

Just get Jani back already! Jesus!

PS: "Cinderblox" is pretty cool tho.

Somes songs are boring but it's a good album

Cinderblox and the two Wildfires are the best. The Day and Alone in Heaven suck. I wish they got back to more power metal like in Reckoning Night.... =/

Written by Wes on 03.06.2012 at 23:25

Written by Vombatus on 30.05.2012 at 21:37

Listened to it twice and can't stand it ( even had to skip 2 or 3 unbearable songs). Kind of sad since I love SA, maybe I'll give it another try in a couple of weeks.

I also agree with Mora on all the bad points.... the good ones, not so much

Agree with you here. I simply cannot STAND this band anymore. The vocals are song breaking.
The thing for me is i think the wintry keys and background music sound so promising at times. Still, I cannot say that this album is anything better than "bad" to me.

What did you say about the vocals?! Seriously man you got problems i know they don't make early years stuff anymore,but come on the vocals are wonderful.
And you aren't even one hairs ass of him. So your comment about Tony's vocals is Shit,it isn't even an opinion,the vocals are the best thing of the album.

Written by [user id=35732] on 08.06.2012 at 20:12

Written by [user id=39762] on 08.06.2012 at 16:43

Italian bon-ton always lives up to its reputation.

It sure does

It's not by an idiot on a forum that you recognize a country. In America someone has killed nearly 20 students in a college. Hope not every American behaves like that, or we're fucked.

An extremely boring album, that goes no where.

So I finally got around to picking it up and listening to it. Haven't really been looking forward to it since it's gotten quite a mixed (negative?) reception.

Well, the first half (roughly) of the album is weak, dull, forgettable... bad. ("I Have a Right" is pretty good though. That repetitive chorus / circular mantra works well.) Then, out of nowhere, there's a drastic shift in quality and the rest of the album is pretty damn great. "Alone in Heaven" and "The Day" are both excellent songs, "Cinderblox" is crazy fun and "Don't Be Mean" is (despite its title) a fine ballad. The album closing "Wildfires" hark back to classic Sonata Arctica and are album highlights, especially Part II.

I understand why people don't like the album though. Compared to Sonata's more recent work this is very straightforward and compared to their early work this is downright slow (and not powah). The "Wildfires" being the exception. There's also a distinct 80's rock / AOR vibe here - that's always been a part of Sonata's sound, but it's never been as prominent before.

And here I was expecting a disaster. This is just an average album.

Sounds gayish for me

A 7 disc for me, i agree with the people who says it's not the Sonata Arctica best work, but i find remarkable some songs that i liked a lot: The day, a true emotional and powerful song, Cinderblox and the 2 Wildfire. I love the progressive touch on their last works.

Keep the good work guys!

Guys, what's your problem? The band's trying to enrich the dead-end genre of power metal, and you treat it like a foolish attempt to do prog OR like if the band has released a purely commercial album (well I agree for tracks 1, 2 and 5). Get yourself some good headphones or speakers (not the $20 ones from your local computer store) and give this album a few more spins.

I kinda like it. The production's almost perfect and their musical experiments are kinda intriguing me at a number of points thoughout the album. I'd rather say thanks to Sonata for releasing something much better and more interesting than Days of Grays!

Written by andreosokin on 04.07.2013 at 12:18

Guys, what's your problem? The band's trying to enrich the dead-end genre of power metal, and you treat it like a foolish attempt to do prog OR like if the band has released a purely commercial album.

SA has been trying to "enrich the dead-end genre of power metal" since a long time already... and with much better results as prove Unia (or even Reckoning Night if you don't consider it that much standard power metal).

This album on the other hand, is just bad pop-metal... nothing remotely interesting in it.

Written by Vombatus on 04.07.2013 at 14:41

Written by andreosokin on 04.07.2013 at 12:18

Guys, what's your problem? The band's trying to enrich the dead-end genre of power metal, and you treat it like a foolish attempt to do prog OR like if the band has released a purely commercial album.

SA has been trying to "enrich the dead-end genre of power metal" since a long time already... and with much better results as prove Unia (or even Reckoning Night if you don't consider it that much standard power metal).

This album on the other hand, is just bad pop-metal... nothing remotely interesting in it.

Dunno, man, I haven't listened to Stones for several months and when I decided to play it today, I realized that it's a much better album than I even thought before. Maybe it requires the right mood, who knows?

Agree with Unia and RN

Can we stop labeling this as power metal!? Already!? Like now!? Even tony said they "are not into that stuff anymore". So seriously. Although its good metal, its not good POWER metal. I however, love "losing my insanity". Just not power.

"Shitload of Money" describes what this album actually is... a wasted effort, something beyond shit, something worse, if it exists... I curse the minutes that I wasted listening to this crappy album. RIP Sonata Arctica...

I think that with the release of this one Sonata Arctica are saying "We're gonna do whatever the fuck we want, and if you don't like it, too bad." And don't misconstrue me as implying that that's a negative viewpoint... it isn't. They should do whatever the fuck they want and not take any shit from anyone for it. Art is a form of self-expression. SELF-expression. Not what we would like... I don't like the album. I actually hate it. But I'm never going to hold that against them either. I'm just going to bask in the nostalgia of ecliptica, one of the first power metal albums I was ever exposed to, and hope that Sonata feel like they want to make music like that again.

This album has really grown on me and is my 4th favorite after their first 3. Favorites: "Losing My Insanity", "Somewhere Close To You" & "Wildfire, Part: III - Wildfire Town, Population: 0".

This might be one of the most bizarre albums of all time. While it has moments of songwriting brilliance, such as the opening keyboard riff in The Day and the chord progressions in Wildfire Part I and II, it also contains some of Sonata Arctica’s most pathetically weak songs. It’s understandable for bands to create albums that are consistently bad, good, or somewhat consistently mediocre, yet this album showcases immense lows and a few astonishing highs. Tony Kakko likely wrote most of the music too, so the inconsistency almost certainly cannot be explained by creative disagreements between band members. It’s possible he came up with 1/3 of a great album and then got burnt out and gave up, but it’s difficult to imagine that actually being what happened.