Search - Sonata Arctica :: Ecliptica

Sonata Arctica's Power Metal Debut

Dirk | 04/08/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Most musicians that claim to "diversify" their style in actuality fall victim to a rather pathetic formula. There may be less of the parent material, but the new and different elements only replace about 20%. You could expect, for example, a brief piano feature on a mostly metal song, or maybe supplemental instrumentation is so far in the background it is still hardly noticeable over the blast beats, scratchy riffs, and toneless, larynx-eroding screams. Though power metal is generally more musical and more sparse on the screaming aspect anyway, Sonata Arctica, upon releasing their debut album "Ecliptica," breached etiquette even further by making a sound that was not only melodic, but unusually symphonic -- even for power metal. Instead of cowering inside the 80-percent-metal-20-percent-other comfort zone, Sonata's sound is quite possibly closer to 50 percent base metal and 50 percent symphonic elements including piano, harpsichord, synth-strings, synth-lead, synth-chorus, and other ambient keyboard instrumentation. Though reading the aforementioned may incite images of a refined baroque orchestra, rest assured Sonata Arctica are anything but laid back. Imagine a Trans-Siberian Orchestra cutting loose on spring break and doing non-seasonal numbers, and you're pretty close to the mark. But their style also draws from both classic and more aggressive modern metal, with both synchopated and "machine-gun" riffs, rapid pumping double bass pedal drum beats; and leads that bring out the air-guitar maestro in all of us--(provided, of course, that no one is watching you make an embarrassment of yourself at that time). Far from finished, the symphonic intrumentation ingredients are added to create an extremely energetic colloid of sonic pleasantry with head-filling ambienece and diverse chord structures that sound as though J.S. Bach got caught red-handed in the act of making heavy metal. (Although, if for some reason metal and baroque were never meant to go together then poor Bach is probably doing about 12,000 rpm by now!)



Sonata Arctica have since released several studio albums as of the period this review was written (April 2008). To those who are new to hearing this unique form of melodic heavy metal and are having trouble deciding where to listen first, I say where other than the beginning! Even in the shadow of Sonata's newer sets, "Ecliptica" is still just as inspiring as it was upon introduction.



As personal preferences weigh any review, I find that Tony Kakko's falsetto style still had a little room for refinement in "Ecliptica." Also, I am one who thoroughly believes that metal guitars and pipe organs go together like bolts and receivers, and Ecliptica did not have quite as much organ as Sonata's later albums. These finite nitpicks only cost half a star, but good ol' Amazon just has to round to whole numbers... so don't take the above illustration of those four yellow cartoony stars to heart. No, this one actually gets: **** 1/2 (four-and-uh-half stars). Good job! Success!"