Sonata Arctica

Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, originally assembled in 1996.

Biography

The band was founded under the name of Tricky Beans and initialy played songs which were to a great extent influenced by the rock 'n roll genre and which didn't as much as flirt with the power metal genre. During their early career they recorded three demos which were never sent to any recording label - Friend 'till the End, Agre Pamppers and PeaceMaker.

In 1997 the band's name was changed to Tricky Means, and from that point until 1999 their style was throughly worked upon and ultimately was drastically changed, acquiring strong emphasis on the keyboard melodies and relying on an easily distinguishable rhythm line maintained both by the bass and the guitar. Vocalist Tony Kakko developed a clean singing style which relies both on falsetto and tenor voices.

In 1999, the band entered studios to record a demo enititled FullMoon, their line-up composed by Tony Kakko, guitarist Jani Liimatainen, bassist Janne Kivilahti and drummer Tommy Portimo. The demo was then sent to Spinefarm Records and the band changed its name to Sonata Arctica. A recording deal soon followed.

Later that year, Sonata Arctica's first single - entitled UnOpened - was released in Finland and caused impact, entering the Finnish Top 20 sales chart on the week of its release and, soon enough, the band had closed deals with labels from around the world, prior to the release of their debut album. The debut Ecliptica arrived by the end of 1999 and had a worldwide release, obtaining rave critics from the specialized press.

Tony Kakko then decided to focus on singing and began looking for a new keyboard player for Sonata Arctica; Mikko Härkin (ex-Kenziner) was eventually invited to fill the position.

In the beginning of 2000, Sonata Arctica was chosen as the band to support the veterans from Stratovarius throughout their European tour. Janne Kivilahti quit the band and was replaced by Marko Paasikoski, a founding member of Tricky Beans.

From late 2000 to late 2001, the band worked on composing and recording their next album - Silence - which was released in June of 2001. An extensive tour followed, which included concerts throught Europe (together with Gamma Ray) and Japan. In 2002 Sonata Arctica made its first incursion to America, making shows in Brazil and Chile. According to some of the musicians from the band, it was one of their best tours to date - the other being the Japanese tour from 2003. A live album entitled Songs of Silence was also released on that year.

By the end of of 2002, keyboardist Mikko Härkin left the band due to personal reasons. Thus, their third album - Winterheart's Guild - was recorded with the help of the seasoned keyboard player Jens Johansson, from Stratovarius, who recorded the keyboard tracks together with Tony Kakko. Keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg then joined the band, in time to take part in the tour that followed the release of the album. The tour had mostly sold-out concerts.

With the end of their contract with Spinefarm Records, the band received invitations from most European recording labels, and eventually opted out for Nuclear Blast.

In early 2004, the band was chosen as the opener for Iron Maiden's Japanese tour. In March of that year, Tommy Portimo became a father; his wife gave birth to a baby girl.

Reckoning Night was recorded in three months and released in October. Both the single and the EP of this release remained on the top of the Finnish charts simultaneously for over six weeks. A promotional tour was to follow, but Sonata Arctica got invited by the popular Nightwish to join their European tour, and thus made a change of plans. The concerts that followed were played for audiences of over ten thousand people.

In early 2005, Nightwish invited Sonata Arctica to open for them on their North American tour. Long story short, Nightwish cancelled the tour, but Sonata decided to do a small tour anyways, playing shows in Canada and the United States for the first time. Around this time, Spinefarm decided that since Sonata Arctica had changed record labels, they were going to make one last wad of cash off of the band name by releasing a best-of compilation album. Titled "The End Of This Chapter", this album is due out in the first few months of 2006. As per usual, Avalon Records will distribute this album in Asia.

Also coming soon is a live CD/DVD filmed in Tokyo in February 2004. In addition to the live show, the DVD will include some footage shot during the European Tour 2004 and the North American Tour 2005, and at least one acoustic song recorded live on the Reckoning Night Japanese Promo Tour. Some fans are disappointed that both live albums will have been recorded in Tokyo. Who can blame them? The Japanese live CD and DVD will both be released in the last months of 2005, and the European and American releases in the beginning months of 2006. As expected, the japanese will get bonus material, even on the DVD.

Tony Kakko has stated multiple times that the next studio album's release date is projected around October 2006, though that's just a rough estimate. It's also been confirmed that some B-sides will be recorded for the singles of the next album, so the band will follow the tradition of writing B-side material as apposed to just putting live tracks on singles.

Line-up

• Tony Kakko - Vocals
• Jani Liimatainen - Guitar
• Marko Paasikoski - Bass
• Tommy Portimo - Drums
• Henrik Klingenberg - Keyboards

Former members

• Mikko Harkin - Keyboards
• Janne Kivilahti - Bass

Discography

Albums

• Ecliptica (1999)
• Silence (2001)
• Songs of Silence - Live In Tokyo (Live, 2002)
• Winterheart's Guild (2003)
• Reckoning Night (2004)

EPs

• Successor (2000)
• Orientation (2001)
• Takatalvi (2003)
• Don't Say a Word (2004)

Singles

• Friend 'till the End (Demo, 1996)
• Agre Pamppers (Demo, 1996)
• PeaceMaker (Demo, 1996)
• FullMoon (Demo, 1999)
• UnOpened (1999)
• Wolf & Raven (2001)
• Last Drop Falls (2001)
• Victoria's Secret (2003)
• Broken (2003)
• Don't Say a Word (2004)
• Shamandalie (2004)

External links

• Sonata Arctica's official website (http://www.sonataarctica.info/)
• German/English fansite (http://www.sonataarctica.net/)

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