Sonata Arctica, The ninth hour

Sonata Arctica is a band I have a rather complicated relationship with. I love a lot of power metal bands, but all of them are the ones that somehow break the boundaries of this genre and also use symphonic or progressive elements. At the opposite poles are the artists that rely on the same tractored riff, ridiculously long and artificial guitar solos and have this rather dumb (or shallow, to put it more mildly) musical positivity on top of lyrics that usually refer to dramatic themes. Sonata Arctica is both of those bands, depending on how the Sun shines on Jupiter or something, because one moment it can bore me to tears and the next it’s so nice and lovely. And then it has Tony…

Tony is just amazing. His voice is warm and gentle, intense and gut-wrenching when it has to and it’s graced with such a special colour. So much charisma, so intriguing, so full of something I can’t exactly put into words, but it’s so unique and identifiable that I could recognise him even back when I only knew Fullmoon and Beauty and the beast from Nightwish. I’ve been in love with Tony for ages, so much that I started searching for all his collaborations to listen to his voice and hated the fact I couldn’t get into Sonata Arctica to get more Tony. Thankfully, with this album that’s less generic power metal boredom and more everything else, I can finally satiate a part of my cravings.

The theme of the record is humanity slipping further and further away from nature and I find the music matching the story very well, there’s a naturalness and gentleness to it that’s very befitting. No matter what style they’re approaching, for the most part there’s still this sweetness and warmth and they give me a very positive and uplifting feeling. Of course, a great reason for it is that Tony has a voice which could melt butter, soothing and always sounding like he’s telling an epic story, but the music overall is very pleasant as well. In fact, a lot of the tracks even have a rather Christmasy feel that reminds me quite a bit of Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Also, there’s Nightwish. It’s a bit of a mystery to me who inspired who, or whether their close friendship is reflected through this closeness in music, but the common ground is definitely there, especially in the form of the keyboards and the lyrics that are one second too mundane and the next second too pretentious.

There are of course exceptions, like Rise a night and Fly, navigate, communicate, which go into that area of redundant drum beats with a fast paced rhythm and less personality than a cactus. Stuff like that leave me completely cold and are the kind of thing that kept me away from SA before, so I’m really glad there are only a couple of tracks. I suppose that’s why I’ve taken a liking to this album, while everyone else is complaining it’s too mellow and full of ballads.

Speaking of ballads, it’s of course a ballad that steals the show and the title of favourite, We are what we are. I’m just in love with it. It’s so pretty and touching, both lyrically and musically (in fact lyrically, it could be called the heart of the album, as I think it embodies the concept of man against nature the best and most explicitly). The instrumental in the beginning is gorgeous and I like so much how Tony reiterates the instrumental at first softly and then with passion and intensity. Also, remember how I was saying in my Nightwish review that everything Troy Donockley touches turns to gold? It may be related to my love for Irish music, but his low whistle alone could be enough to make this song lovely!

On a completely different note, Fairytale and Till death’s done us apart. The first is a tongue in cheek song about the American elections with some not very subtle jabs at Trump, cynical and sarcastic, which straddles the border between serious and in jest and makes me wonder if I should find the whole Trump story amusing or concerning. The second is quite captivating and mixes Jon Oliva’s slightly weird style and even raspy voice inflexions with Nightwish’s era of creepy children tales. It’s a curious result,  but I say that in the most positively intrigued way.

For the most part it’s a very pleasant and recharging album. The songs don’t follow a standard structure and sometimes the chorus is barely distinguishable from the rest of the track (if there is one), but at the same time everything seems natural and flows logically. The continuation of each moment is not exactly something you’d expect or could guess, but doesn’t sound contrived or out of place when it happens. And since anything that can allow me to enjoy Tony’s delightful voice has ten points from the start, I genuinely enjoyed this record.