Sonata Arctica
Pariah’s Child
Nuclear Blast
2014
I’d never hidden my preference over Sonata Arctica, even from their early days. I was fortunate enough to watch and follow the band since their early days. I knew that they were going to be big as they had something special which made them distinguish themselves from the other newcomers of their genre. They did prove me right over the years, till the last 6-7 ones in which I wasn’t happy with their “strange experiments”. I was rather critical on “Stones Grow Her Name” and at the end of the review I wondered which road Sonata Arctica would finally choose to take. I guess they did right and chose to look “backwards” and be inspired by their first and most successful albums.
Surely, lots of suckers & irrelevant people had made their own stand, telling that SA have taken a different path, they have evolved, cursing the few of us for not getting it and several other nice stories. At a certain point even the band would have believed such nonsense. Guess what?! What did the band show with “Pariah’s Child”? You’re in! All those things were crap. Sonata Arctica faced the same thing that lots of bands face when they meet success and achieve more than they had ever dreamt of. They were kinda ‘lost’ at some point and various sneaky & irrelevant people around them pushed them over the wrong way throughout the years for their own benefit of course.
The fact that the band used its old logo for the first time in 10 years showcases that they released what’s good for the band and that they did wrong all these years. With “Pariah’s Child” they follow their “old recipe” which means Euro heavy-power metal with slight prog touches here & there and nice melodies. That’s what Sonata Arctica is all about after all. Certainly, it takes more than this album to find themselves for good but damn they are on the straight way now than ever before… a way which they slightly started looking at with “Stones Grow Her Name”.
“Pariah’s Child” is also the band’s first album with new bassist Pasi Kauppinen (Silent Voices, Winterborn, Isäntä Meidän etc.) who also produced the album. He did a great job as the sound is superb. The tracks which stand out are: “Cloud Factory”, “Blood”, “What Did You Do in the War, Dad?”, “Love” & the epic 10-minute “Larger Than Life”. Initially, I was afraid about the 10-minute track but honestly it has been done so brilliantly that will please even the most demanding fans of the band. Imposing choir & strong symphonic/theatrical parts… a magnificent track indeed. Ahh and I shall not forget to mention that Tony sounds amazing for once more. I think the band has taken the right path…
Surely, lots of suckers & irrelevant people had made their own stand, telling that SA have taken a different path, they have evolved, cursing the few of us for not getting it and several other nice stories. At a certain point even the band would have believed such nonsense. Guess what?! What did the band show with “Pariah’s Child”? You’re in! All those things were crap. Sonata Arctica faced the same thing that lots of bands face when they meet success and achieve more than they had ever dreamt of. They were kinda ‘lost’ at some point and various sneaky & irrelevant people around them pushed them over the wrong way throughout the years for their own benefit of course.
The fact that the band used its old logo for the first time in 10 years showcases that they released what’s good for the band and that they did wrong all these years. With “Pariah’s Child” they follow their “old recipe” which means Euro heavy-power metal with slight prog touches here & there and nice melodies. That’s what Sonata Arctica is all about after all. Certainly, it takes more than this album to find themselves for good but damn they are on the straight way now than ever before… a way which they slightly started looking at with “Stones Grow Her Name”.
“Pariah’s Child” is also the band’s first album with new bassist Pasi Kauppinen (Silent Voices, Winterborn, Isäntä Meidän etc.) who also produced the album. He did a great job as the sound is superb. The tracks which stand out are: “Cloud Factory”, “Blood”, “What Did You Do in the War, Dad?”, “Love” & the epic 10-minute “Larger Than Life”. Initially, I was afraid about the 10-minute track but honestly it has been done so brilliantly that will please even the most demanding fans of the band. Imposing choir & strong symphonic/theatrical parts… a magnificent track indeed. Ahh and I shall not forget to mention that Tony sounds amazing for once more. I think the band has taken the right path…