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Unia
Tracklist:
01. In Black And White
02. Paid In Full
03. For The Sake Of Revenge
04. It Won't Fade
05. Under Your Tree
06. Caleb
07. The Vice
08. My Dream's But A Drop Of Fuel For A Nightmare
09. The Harvest
10. The Worlds Forgotten, The Words Forbidden
11. Fly With The Black Swan
12. Good Enough Is Good Enough
Band Members:
* Tony Kakko - Vocals
* Jani Liimatainen – Guitar
* Marko Paasikoski – Bass
* Tommy Portimo – Drums
* Henrik Klingenberg – Keyboards
Sonata Arctica Bio:
The band was founded under the name of Tricky Beans and initially played songs which were to a great extent influenced by thehard rock genre and which didn't flirt with the power metal genre as much. During their early career, they recorded threedemos which were never sent to any recording label — Friend 'till the End, Agre Pamppers and PeaceMaker.
In 1997 the band's name was changed to Tricky Means, and from that point until 1999 their style was thoroughly worked uponand ultimately was drastically changed, acquiring strong emphasis on the keyboard melodies and relying on an easilydistinguishable rhythm line maintained both by the bass and the guitar. Vocalist Tony Kakko developed a clean singing stylewhich relies both on falsetto and tenor voices.
In 1999, the band entered studios to record a demo entitled FullMoon, their line-up composed by vocalist and keyboardist TonyKakko, guitarist Jani Liimatainen, bassist Janne Kivilahti and drummer Tommy Portimo. The demo was then sent to SpinefarmRecords by a friend of the band. A recording deal soon followed and the band changed its name to Sonata Arctica.
Later that year, Sonata Arctica's first single — entitled UnOpened — was released in Finland. It entered the Finnish Top 20sales chart on the week of its release and, soon enough, the band had closed deals with labels from around the world, priorto the release of their debut album. The debut Ecliptica arrived by the end of 1999 and had a worldwide release, obtainingrave critics from the specialized press.
Tony Kakko then decided to focus on singing and began looking for a new keyboard player for Sonata Arctica; Mikko Härkin(ex-Kenziner) was eventually invited to fill the position.
In the beginning of 2000, Sonata Arctica was chosen as the band to support the veterans from Stratovarius throughout theirEuropean tour. Janne Kivilahti quit the band after the tour and was replaced by Marko Paasikoski, a founding member (assecond guitarist) of Tricky Beans.
From late 2000 to late 2001, the band worked on composing and recording their next album — Silence — which was released inJune of 2001. An extensive tour followed, which included concerts throughout Europe (together with Gamma Ray) and Japan. In2002 Sonata Arctica made its first incursion to America, making shows in Brazil and Chile. According to some of the musiciansfrom the band, it was one of their best tours to date — the other being the Japanese tour from 2003. A live album entitledSongs of Silence was also released on that year.
By the end of 2002, keyboardist Mikko Härkin left the band due to personal reasons. Thus, their third album — Winterheart'sGuild — was recorded with the help of the seasoned keyboard player Jens Johansson, from Stratovarius, who recorded thekeyboard solos, while Tony Kakko took care of the basics. Keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg then joined the band, in time totake part in the tour that followed the release of the album. Most of the concerts on the tour were sold out.
With the end of their contract with Spinefarm Records, the band received invitations from most European recording labels, andeventually opted out for Nuclear Blast.
In early 2004, the band was chosen as the opener for Iron Maiden's Japanese tour. In March of that year, Tommy Portimo becamea father; his wife gave birth to a baby girl.
Reckoning Night was recorded in three months and released in October. Both the single and the EP of this release remained onthe top of the Finnish charts simultaneously for over six weeks. A promotional tour was to follow, but Sonata Arctica wasinvited by the popular Nightwish to join their European tour, and thus made a change of plans. The concerts that followedwere played for audiences of over ten thousand people.
In early 2005, Nightwish invited the band to open the concerts of their North American tour. This tour eventually gotcancelled, but the members of Sonata Arctica opted to still make a short tour, playing concerts in Canada and in theUSA.
The band has three releases scheduled for the end of 2005 and for the beginning of 2006. Foremost is a live CD and DVDrecorded in Tokyo in February of 2004, which will also include footage from the European 2004 tour and from the NorthAmerican 2005 tour, with at least one acoustic song played in the Reckoning Night Japanese promotional tour. Its proposedrelease date is March 2006 for Europe. Second, Spinefarm Records has decided to release a compilation album in order to getthe most out of their contract with the band, since Sonata Arctica changed their recording label. The compilation albumentitled The End of This Chapter was released in Japan during August 2005 and in Europe on May 3, 2006. A live DVD, recordedin Tokyo in 2005, was released on May 12, 2006 in Europe. It is titled For the Sake of Revenge. The CD of the same name wasreleased on April 28, 2006.
A computer video game is also planned based on Sonata Arctica characters and music. The name of the game will beWinterheart's Guild, like their album. The game will be developed by Zelian Games, and will be an Action-RPG in a stylebetween Fallout and Diablo. Much more details or a release date are not yet available, but a demo is being shown at theLeipzig video game conference in 2006 featuring Henrik Klingenberg as the playable character.
The band's new album "Unia" is scheduled for release on 25th May 2007. And their lastest Single "Paid in Full" was released on the 27th April.
Affiliates:
- UK Sonata Arctica Fansite & Forum
- Soopermuse Productions Forum
- Official Sonata Arctica
- Sonata Arctica Europe
- AAEF
- Nuclear Blast
- Tico Tico Studio
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