Live Report - Sonata Arctica w/ Torn Black & Reckon With One - April 18th, 2005, Toronto Canada
Metal Reviews

Release year: 0
Reviewed by Crims

Four years ago it would almost be unheard of to see a European Power Metal band playing in Toronto. Thankfully, times are changing. Ever since Blind Guardian made their first Toronto appearance about 2-3 years ago, many bands have followed suit. With the sold out success of Nightwish earlier in the year it was only fitting that Sonata Arctica would also make an appearance. Thus, on Monday, April the 18th, Sonata Arctica graced The Opera House in Toronto Canada with their presence. Having sold out the night before in Quebec City I was curious as to what kind of showing Sonata Arctica would get, especially considering the lack of a relatively big name supporting act. I entered The Opera House after waiting in line for about 15-20 minutes and the first band had already started playing. Though it wasn’t a huge surprise given the length of the line up, the venue was quite full, but thankfully not so full you couldn’t move around… just the way I like it.

The first band up was Reckon With One, from Brampton Ontario (look it up). I had seen them live about 4 years earlier in support of Anonymus and Nevermore. They played a mixture of traditional Metal with a heavy dose of CoC styled groove, mixed with some minor ‘core elements. It was nothing spectacular but the guitarist, Mark Anthony could really rip, and they had moments where the riffs completely destroyed. Four years later they’ve added a keyboardist and changed their style. Now playing a style of Prog similar to Into Eternity, with a mixture of ‘core, traditional leads aReckon With One were mildly successful with their new delivery. To the bands credit they had a solid live sound, being very heavy but not muddy, and Mark Anthony is still awesome. Problem is, the music wasn’t all that interesting and there were too many modern elements in the riffing. Much like their previous concert there were some moments that were really good but overall I was disappointed. Judging from the crowd response and after show discussion, most people in the audience really enjoyed their work, however. I’m not sure how many songs I missed (I think I only missed one), but Reckon With One played roughly 5-6 songs and then it was time for a short break.

In between sets, Far From The Sun by Amorphis played over the speakers… could have been worse I guess. Next was a band going by the name of Torn Black. I looked up the name on the Internet and all I found was a Mexican Black Metal band with only demos and no major releases in about 9 years. While the thought of some Black Metal before happy Power Metal sounded intriguing I also knew it was very unlikely this Mexican Torn Black was the band coming up next. Naturally, I was right and a bunch of 17-18 year olds (at least they looked that young) came on stage. One of them was brandishing a Bodom t-shirt, they also had a keyboardist, so I put two and two together and figured they’d play some Bodom worship Metal. Sure enough they did. The band definitely showed some promise with some very talented members (in particular the keyboardist and lead guitarist) but the overall sound was sloppy, especially during a cover of Silent Night, Bodom Night. While they gave that awesome song a good try, the band obviously needs a lot more experience, but that’s all right, because they’re still young and show a lot of promise. The music was old-styled Bodom with hints of the first Skyfire CD. Each song usually contained 4 or 5 keyboard+guitar leads and there was plenty of double bass with spurts of blasts. Though the vocalist wasn’t forceful enough, the pacing and timing of the vocals were bang on and with the hints of folkish melodies, I could picture back up clean gang vocals working really well. The guitar tone was also awesome, sounding like the guitars on Dim Carcosa by Ancient Rites. Torn Black put on a decent show with a bit of movement and a lot of head banging, and they seemed to enjoy themselves and worked through some mic troubles professionally. I look forward to seeing this band evolve and grow and I have no doubt that they will.

With the two opening acts out of the way the crowd was getting restless for the band they all came to see… Sonata Arctica! With random chants of So-na-ta, So-na-ta providing a constant echo everyone was getting anxious, especially since the time in between sets was passing the 40 minute mark. Finally at 10:00pm the band came out to a huge ovation. The band immediately went into the awesome, Misplaced, and suffice to say everyone went nuts. I was near the front, so maybe it was just the crowd at the front, but horns were flashing, fists were pumping, and the kids were moshing. Unfortunately the intensity lapsed for a bit as Tony Kakko also had mic troubles, but they were fixed by the time he got to the best parts of the song.

You know, as much as it’s nice to see local bands giving such an honest effort on stage, it really doesn’t compare to bigger name bands like Sonata Arctica. Perhaps it’s psychological, but when you see Kakko come on stage he has a presence and before a single note is played the adrenaline starts pumping and everyone is ready to go bonkers. And go bonkers they did. For the entire 90 minute set the crowd never let up, singing along to Replica and Full Moon in their entirety while fist pumping and horn flashing in unison to the ultra fast 8th Commandment and Black Sheep. While I could have done without the band playing Broken or Sing In Silence (good songs, just not great live songs), I guess it was necessary to break up the speed heavy songs. In my opinion Sonata Arctica played pretty much all their best songs with a focus on Ecliptica (a good thing in my books) but some of the newer songs like Wildfire and My Selene were unfortunately missing, not to mention my personal favorite Sonata song, Wolf & Raven (maybe it’s just too fast?). Regardless the crowd never let up and the band, especially Kakko, seemed to really enjoy themselves. Their natural energy and Kakko’s “rock-star” tendencies translated very well into their live performance and it helped that everyone in the crowd seemed to be huge Sonata Arctica fans. While some stupid (in my opinion) kids decided to constantly mosh (even during Replica) they kept it confined and the majority of the crowd was more content with enjoying the music in other ways. The band did one encore which ended in the superb The Cage, which was a perfect closer to the evening. There is always something to be said when you look around and see 600 Metal heads with huge smiles on their faces, flashing the horns, and screaming in shear enjoyment. It’s safe to say that Sonata Arctica did not disappoint their fans and they definitely exceeded my expectations.

Overall it was a great evening and left me buzzing for quite a few days afterwards. It will be interesting to see if Stratovarius can match the quality of this show when they roll into town in September. I hope they can but it’ll be tough. Even though it wasn’t sold out, The Opera House was practically full and next time Sonata Arctica comes by your town, don’t hesitate to go see an energetic, crowd pleasing performance of Finnish Power Metal.

Killing Songs :
Crims quoted
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