Band's List Melodic Power Sonata Arctica The Days of Grays

With the release of their 2009 LP “The Days of Grays”, Sonata Arctica has elevated themselves to the highest tier of the greatest melodic metal bands out there today. Led by lead singer/songwriter and tragic poet Tony Kakko, the emotional output both lyrically and musically are as closely knit with the writing as ever before with sweeping melodies, grandiose movements, and epic levels of complexity, all the while maintaining a perfect sense of balance and conformity with all contributions involved.

Sonata Arctica’s best song, their magnum opus “Deathaura”, is the most awesome example of the band’s newfound level. Vocally, Kakko not only varies his own style throughout to match the song’s many moods, but adds a female guest vocalist to contribute as well. Structurally, of all the song’s many parts there is no chorus even though a most powerful three note theme appears more than once. At every other turn, there are tempo changes, beat changes, and most of all different parts led by different instruments in an excellent display of color variation and illustration. Simply put, the composition is perfect.

Lyrically, Kakko has always called for a more than passive level of attention when presenting his dark poetry, but whereas he is known more for a more personal and Love lost kind of perspective (“Breathing” and “As If The World Wasn’t Ending”) he has expanded his subject scope to include themes not just his own. “Flag in the Ground” is a take on the film “Far And Away” and “Juliet” is a splendid take on Romeo’s perspective at the end of his Life from “Romeo and Juliet”. Even “The Last Amazing Grays” could be a take on America’s Greatest Generation as it looks on to the youth of today.

Still, as much of a lyrical and compositional genius Tony Kakko is, the pride and true strength of Sonata Arctica comes from their ability to deliver very strong, metallic rhythm guitar lines as the backbone for all of their songs as the central aim of maintaining a sense of power metal integrity. “The Last Amazing Grays” and “The Dead Skin” feature the best extended dominant rhythm guitar sections on the album, but to be assured it can really be found practically everywhere. Much credit must also go to keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg for not only augmenting rhythmic power with melodic finesse but also for adding what may appear to be a tinge of European folk in his synthesizer work (“Flag in the Ground” and “No Dream Can Heal a Broken Heart”).

Altogether, “The Days of Grays” is amazing, authentic, and theatrical, with intense emotional delivery providing the album’s main drive. For the Sonats, this is simply what they do, but for metal “The Days of Grays” was easily one of the very best works to come out in 2009.

I’ve listened to this album so much that it feels like it’s been in my collection for over five years. When in fact, it’s only been a mere year and a half. Yes, I’ve known about this band for quite a while, in fact, my introduction to them was seeing them live with Mutiny Within and PowergLove. I was mainly there for Mutiny Within, but I can remember my experience of first hearing Sonata Arctica like it just happened an hour ago. The crowd was mingling amongst themselves when all of the lights suddenly turned off. The intro track “Everything Fades to Gray” played and then let a couple moments of Silence create suspense amongst the audience. Then, the lights turned back on like the band wasn’t ready to start their set. Almost three whole minutes later, the lights quickly dimmed all the way and the soft sound of the violas and violins played the beginning of Deathaura as the band quickly entered the stage and exploded with a sound that was so beautiful and powerful that it brought some of the people there to tears (literally). When I saw those people, I could tell that they had a HUGE emotional connection to the band’s music.

As that one song continued on, I was sucked in more and more with each passing second. When Deathaura finally finished, I was sold; these guys took the show and turned it into a blinding star made completely of sound. My emotional connection to this album has been so strong that (for some reason) I’ve been afraid to admit that to me, it’s one of the best albums ever written. I know that the hardcore Sonata Arctica and power metal fans typically prefer the older Arctica albums over the new ones (although all of them are nothing short of amazing). For me, I prefer the really early albums, but The Days of Grays won my heart from the beginning (not because it was the first Arctica album I ever heard, but because it was and still is the BEST I’ve ever heard).

I’m going to be honest, Tony Kakko’s singing voice doesn’t fit my description of an amazing singing voice. But oddly enough, his voice managed to pierce my thick-ass ribcage, go clean through my frozen heart, out the other side, and keep going for an infinite distance. In most of the other Arctica albums, Tony’s singing sounds a little too much on the whiny side, but not so much in The Days of Grays, therefore making it MUCH easier for me to enjoy the music. But don’t get me wrong, Tony is one of the best and most underrated singers in the heavy metal genre.

But Tony isn’t where all of the beauty is, instead of it being a ball of beauty being spread out into a thin layer that covers the entirety of the music, the entirety of the music shines with an utterly blinding amount of beauty that is too much for some to handle. Every single fucking centimeter of Sonata Arctica’s music deserves all the attention in the world, but it’s literally impossible to do all of that in one single review that’s at a somewhat reasonable length. I’m going to get it out that this album is more than enough hard evidence to prove that Tommy Portimo is the best drummer in the power metal genre. Not only does he have the ability to do fast double kicks without making the music too heavy, but he also has strong skills when it comes to dynamics, creativity, and variety. Yes, I know that there are better single guitarists in the power metal world, but the two that play on this record are some of the most emotionally moving musicians I’ve ever heard in heavy metal. The solos that they play are absolutely breathtaking; they do a great job of not drowning anything out, but still shining like a phoenix in the dead of night.

Now, the element of this album that not only completed, but solidified my emotional connection with it is the symphonic sounds created by the keyboards. The music is beautiful enough without all of the keyboards on top, but with the addition of what I think is the most beautiful and emotional keyboard symphonics I’ve ever heard in metal, this album is one of the best records known to mankind.

When I said that the music has tons of variety, think of Opeth and how they have long songs that have several parts/movements that have a lot of contrast. When you listen to Deathaura, there are more than five different “parts” to the song that display excessive creativity, knowledge, and mood changes. When you listen to the album, after experiencing every single mood you can imagine, the album leaves you with a feeling of overwhelming beauty-induced joy. Now that I’ve made a huge confession on my true opinion of this album, it’s time that I concluded my review with a perfect score and move on with my evening in order to avoid going on and on about this album. Because you won’t know the true beauty of this album unless you sit down and experience its power yourself.

Sonata Arctica is yet another amazing group from Finland. This one is exceptional though. They have released 6 full-length albums so far, this being their newest record. I learned about them through one of my favorite record labels, Nuclear Blast, and decided to check out what all of the hype was about. Believe it or not, I actually wasn't expecting much. This album, completely blew me off of my feet though and just about amazed me in almost every way. This is melodic metal of truly epic proportions.

First off, this albums use of keyboards and symphonic effects throughout are simply beautiful and fits every guitar riff with graceful fluency. I almost mistook this album to be symphonic metal, because of how much keyboards, pads, and synthesizers are used. Another one of the features that makes this album as mind-blowing as it is, is how progressive it is. This is another thing that I definitely didn't expect for this album, and how apparent it is. In other words, it's mood is really dramatic and moody and the band changes the key and tempo quite a few times in some tracks such as Deathaura, one of my favorite songs from the record, and also possibly one of the best intro songs I've ever heard.

I also Love how this albums theme and style is always relaxing and beautiful, yet perfect for the average headbanger at the same time. The choir in the background heard on many of the songs is very good as well, and follows the symphonic effects really well. The vocalist has perfect pitch throughout and makes some truly eargasmic harmonizations here and there. His so-called yells or screams aren't even half bad either, even though they're very rarely used. That brings me to another feature that I'd like to mention about this album. The band quoted that they were very heavily influenced by Queen. The funny thing is, it's very apparent, especially in this particular record.

One of the first things I noticed about the vocalists harmonizations is that they follow a very complicated and off beat pattern most of the time, which is similar to Freddie Mercury's style of singing. The guitars aren't incredibly technical or very fast all of the time, but then again, does it need to be as long as it's this creative and isn't too repetitive? Besides, when they are, they do not dissapoint in the least, especially in songs like Flag in the Ground and Zeroes, showing many solos and riffs very similar to their earlier records and music, which will be pleasing to their long time fans. The distortion is definitely satisfying and it doesn't take away from the album at all.

Overall, this album is a metal masterpiece and a medley of orchestral, progressive, classical, and even folk influences that pleasures my ears to no extent. I was absolutely blown away by this album, and would recommend this record to anyone who enjoys metal or any good music for that matter. 20/20