Sonata Arctica
The Ninth Hour
Nuclear Blast Records
2016
I’ve always considered Sonata Arctica as a completely blunt, second rate Stratovarius clone, with mediocre songwriting and a singer that needs a whole lot of tuning to sound acceptable. Talking about Kakko, he’s long abandoned his high register, which somewhat helps, as he wasn’t cut for that specifically. However, him remaining largely on a lower range really deprives the band from the ability to go for some faster, more anthemic stuff…
Between self and general plagiarism, the band manages a few decent numbers, like “Life”, “Fairytale” the somewhat clumsy, but ultimately OK “Fly, Navigate, Communicate”, with the better track probably being “White Pearl, Black Oceans - Part II - By the Grace of the Ocean”, which is the one most reminiscent of the band at their relative best.
By far the worst Sonata Arctica effort ever with the songwriting and arrangements really minimal, even the soloing trimmed down to a minimum… basically barely there. Even longtime fans should feel that something is amiss.
Between self and general plagiarism, the band manages a few decent numbers, like “Life”, “Fairytale” the somewhat clumsy, but ultimately OK “Fly, Navigate, Communicate”, with the better track probably being “White Pearl, Black Oceans - Part II - By the Grace of the Ocean”, which is the one most reminiscent of the band at their relative best.
By far the worst Sonata Arctica effort ever with the songwriting and arrangements really minimal, even the soloing trimmed down to a minimum… basically barely there. Even longtime fans should feel that something is amiss.