Metal Reviews

The first Sonata song of the first Sonata album, and everytime I hear it I fucking cringe. The first minute is terrible. It gets better when the chorus starts and the melody kicks in, but when I hear that 'It is your new best friend' line, I have to think of Fullmoon and Kingdom for A Heart to keep going.

Sonata Arctica are one of my current top 5 bands out of about 300 ( the others are - Dream Theater, The Gathering, Devin Townsend/SYL, and Opeth) so this is a hard thing for me to admit. Why open an album with such a bad song. A song down there with Last Drop Falls, when a far better opener in the same speedy vein can be found later on in Picturing The Past. Fuck it, My Land would be quite good as an opener and UnOpened would kick ass.

I know all trve Sonata fans say this is the best album but to me it's 2nd best with Reckoning Night being their current opus. People had odd complaints about it being their worst and nothing like Ecliptica, which I just don't get.
They're very similar in that they have no true slow ballads (like Last Drop Falls, Tallulah, Broken or The Misery).The closest you get is Replica and Letter For Dana, and Shamandalie and White Pearl, Black Ocean. These are all heavy songs with plenty of riffs and solo's. As for the other songs, every one of Replica has a better or equal on Reckoning Night (although we must ignore the instrumental track of the latter).
Black File - Misplaced
My Land - The Boy Wjo Wanted to Be A Real Puppet
8th Commandment - Wildfire
Replica - Shamandalie
Kingdom For A Heart - Don't Say A Word
Fullmoon - My Selene
Letter To Dana - Blinded No More
UnOpened - Ain't Your Fairytale
Picturing The Past - Wildfire (sounds like 8th Commandment)
Destruction Preventer - White Pearl, Black Ocean.

Meh, this is just what I think and I love to discuss this band.
Winterheart's Guild and Silence are greast albums too, just not as good.( WG is better than Silence though)

Blank File is great, I don't see how you can dislike it if you are so keen on the rest of the album.

Reckoning Night is a pretty half-assed album if you ask me, it goes Ecliptica->Winterhearts Guild->Silence->Reckoning Night.

Dude, its like pretty much the same as everything on that album.

UR CRZY

I bought Reckoning Night about 2 weeks ago but i've not listened yet. Its coz i bought Wheels Of Steel at the same time but i'll get round to it some day.

I love most of the Songs on Reckoning Night, but there are some rather boring ones. Don't Say a Word is incredibly awesome.

Yes, it's incredibly awesome. Curious thing is that there's a part in this song that reminds me of Michael Jackson's THRILLER !! It's a eerie keyboard passage, reminded me of MJ's video with the zombies dancing. Curious, innit ?

Well, yeah I'm a little crazy.

The sound of the song after the first minute is fine. It's evened out and everything really works well. But that first minute:
the vocals are squeaky and whiny and just plain annoying (we're talking Abba annoying here).
The keyboards and guitars get lost in each other completely and while they do sound speedy, the sound like something my cat could play.
The drums and bass are inconsequential, picking them out is difficult and pointless as they're nothing special.
The chorus is forgettable compared to others on the album (basically that of every other song on the album).
Maybe I've just heard it too many times recently - I need varied music - and there is another resaon I've grown to resent the album a bit which is to do with a small minded unadventurous person who only plays that album when all and Takatalvi are available to him. But that intro-devoid song bugs me.

And Reckoning Night half-assed? How can you say such a thing?

Because that's what I think? Kakko even admitted they rushed the album out in order to get Henrik Klingenberg some money.

blank file is incredible, the singing at a certain point gets almost past human frequency.
my least fave SA album is Winterhearts Guild, but even that has some amazing songs.
Ecliptica, Silence
Reckoning Night
WG

uhhh... Blank File is one of their best tracks. I love everything about it. What the hell?

Yeah, you're out of your mind. Blank File a great track, and probably my favorite on the album.

And Reckoning Night was pretty lame.

Also, does anyone else think of Zelda when listening to Kingdom for a Heart?

i think of the guy in the wizard of oz who wanted a heart.

I never played Zelda (Sega for teh win) but the intro is very videogamecore.

Not Zelda, but i do think of videogames

pansy

You know it really surprises me the sort of music listeners who like Sonata Arctica. They really do seem to have (or had) *something* that works for a lot of people.

why 'or had'?

Because see one of my previous posts and accept we don't all agree with your "best evarz" assesment.

oh. boohoo. reckoning night has some awesome songs though.

for me it's
Silence->Ecliptica->Reckoning Night->Winterheart's guild