A
lot of fans were a bit disappointed with the last 3 albums. Especially
'Stones Grow Her Name', although not a bad musicical piece, the songs were a bit commercial and not
really Sonata Arctica. A lot of songs on that album you had to listen to several times before understanding and that is not really what we were used
to from Sonata
Arctica. Their first albums were packed full of catchy songs, that stuck
immediately and with nice sing a long refrains and hard kicking double bass
drums. Well, I can tell you that with this new album a lot of these elements
have returned. In fact you could probably say that this should have been the
album they had to release after 'Reckoning Night'. The first track "The Wolves
Die Young", with an excellent videoclip (see below), starts very
recognizable and has the catchy Sonata Arctica touch.
The
guitar sounds rather crunchy and the keyboards finish it off. After that it is a
joy to listen to tracks like power metal song "Running Lights" and the very very
catchy and happy track "Cloud Factory". "What Did You Do in the War, Dad?" is a
very emotional track and "Half a Marathon Man" is a nice rocking song with
Hammond organs. The song I like most is "X Marks the Spot", after a gospel
spoken part, this song has a funny look on religion in general and is one of the
happiest and most inspiring tracks. The album ends with an epic theatrical
track in which Sonata Arctica goes a bit Rhapsody/Nightwish. Choir singing,
emotional dramatical singing parts go hand in hand with normal power metal vocals
and opera kind of singing. A nice end that keeps you asking for more and I'm sure
every fan will push the repeat button to listen to the entire album all over.
