Live Report - Sonata Arctica and After Forever - October 9, 2007 - Houston, Texas
Nuclear Blast
Power Metal

Release year: 2007
Nuclear Blast
Reviewed by Ben

Last week I had the privilege of seeing Sonata Arctica in Houston, Texas. This was to be the second time seeing them live, my previous encounter was with them during their second leg of the Reckoning Night tour. A few things have changed since February 2006, Sonata have released a new album, Unia and long time guitarist Jani has been ousted and replaced by the young and virtuous Elias. Seeing as how I have been an ardent fan of Sonata Arctica from their early days in 1999 there wasn’t a chance that I would miss them playing. If the me of six years ago found out I didn’t drive a measly four hours to see them play, I would kick my own ass.

The night was a special night of sorts because in the direct support slot was the Dutch metal act After Forever. I’m glad that they were there because I missed Prog Power this year and hey, I got to see the two headliners in a small club instead. Also having a professional act there with Sonata Arctica lessened the pain of the first two opening bands. Opener number one was a local act, Beneath The Black Plauge, Under The Plauge, something with “plague” in the title. They came off as a poor man’s Arsis but they improved slightly as their four song set went on. Musically, other than being generic as hell, they are tight and do have some chops however, their singer seemed like a goofball and tried to crack jokes that no one got. I say no one because he never really spoke in the mic, he more or less mumbled into it even when bass and drums were kicking off the intro to other songs. The Agonist was up next and were basically a gigantic waste of time. It’s bands like them that make me wonder what the hell people in labels are thinking. The Agonist play formulaic metalcore with a chick singer that can’t growl and sure as hell can’t sing. Every song has cliché breakdowns, and, as Angela Gossow puts it “At The Gates verses with Creed choruses.” Someone fell asleep at the wheel when they thought it would be a good idea to team up Sonata Arctica with this crap. After Forever came on third and the level of talent in this band blew away the previous two. Keep in mind that I absolutely hated Prison Of Desire when it came out but this band has changed ever so slightly and are now a well oiled heavy metal machine. Floor Jansen has a voice that is one of the best in metal, male or female. She can sing operatically and at the drop of a hat go into full on classic metal mode. Floor is also a brilliant front woman, she is so charismatic that she will make you care about the performance of the show. After Forever’s set was culled extensively from their new self titled release and the material translates well into the live setting. I was secretly hoping they would play their version of Iron Maiden’s The Evil That Men Do but with only a fifty minute set they stuck to their own material which was the right decision.

Finally the headliners of the evening graced the stage. Sonata Arctica opened up with a one two salvo off their latest Unia, Black And White and Paid In Full. During the solo in Black And White Elias really showed off his chops on the guitar and proved to everyone why he was chosen to replace the much loved Jani. After the Unia treatment we went back in time to Winterheart’s Guild with Victoria’s Secret and Broken. Other than Broken there were quite a few ballads played that night. Tallulah, Gravenimage, and Caleb were all aired. Normally this can kill the energy of a show but Sonata Arctica have always had strong ballads. During Tallulah the crowd was singing along, waving their arms in the air, and I even took some pictures for a couple because this was “their song.” My personal favorite ballad was the monster Gravenimage. I couldn’t help but sing along to this, one of Tony Kakko’s masterpieces. I noticed my excitement levels soared for the early songs, I was going absolutely balls to the wall crazy during My Land, Black Sheep, Full Moon and especially San Sebastian. Tony didn’t pull out his odd wardrobe for this show (last year he was wearing pajama pants, fishnets, and a t shirt) but he definitely was still the goofy cool dude that he is. He was all smiles throughout the show and constantly interacted with the crowd. Before the first encore had a crowd of burly metalheads singing “Old McDonald”. Surprisingly there was only one song played from Reckoning Night and that was Don’t Say A Word for the third song in their encore. I noticed the younger crowd going insane, they were jumping up and down and pumping their fists like crazy. Methinks Sonata has a hit with this one here. All in all the song selection was excellent especially the decision to include San Sebastian. This song means quite a lot to me and to hear it live was definitely the highlight of the evening.

After the concert my friend Damien and I hung out in the bus area shooting the shit with the guys. It was cool when I ran into Tony, he remembered me from the interview back in San Antonio. We ended up talking with everyone (well except Henrik too much. He was pretty tanked although he did come out and sign cds and take pictures though) until close to three in the morning before the fun fun four hour drive home. I think it’s cool to look at how far exactly this band has come since they released Ecliptica. I remember thinking eight years ago that I would never, ever get a chance to see this small little band from Kemi play live unless I made my way overseas and here I am with two of their shows under my belt. Sonata Arctica will be back on North American soil in February but this time they will play almost exclusively in Canada and up north in the States. If you have a chance, see them. They put on an energetic, entertaining, and fun show. If you don’t have a good time at a Sonata concert you don’t have a pulse.

Killing Songs :
Ben quoted
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There are 2 replies to this review. Last one on Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:19 am
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