Sonata Arctica – Stones Grow Her Name (2012)

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The ever changing Sonata Arctica finally returns after three years with another exciting (and different sounding) release titled “Stones Grow Her Name”. After listening to this album, we are sure the remaining purist fans of the older Sonata Arctica will surely shy away, and the ones that like their more recent musical direction (like us) will surely love in an instant.

Sonata Arctica is not afraid to move away of their comfort zone, and with each of their latest releases they have been experimenting and delivering excellent music that has changed the ways people perceive the band. In “Stones Grow Her Name”, the band explores more traditional songs as well as some very different tracks that at a first glance will make you think WTF.

Opening with the super melodic and catchy “Only The Broken Hearts (Make Your Beautiful)”, it is quickly established that Sonata Actica is back with a vengeance. The typical bombastic keyboards and excellent guitar work are quickly outshined by Tony Kakko’s signature vocals. In the party anthem “Shitload O’ Money”, the band sounds very catchy and bombastic. The chorus sections are very typical of the band, but well placed to keep the melodic side of this song alive. We particularly think the title and lyrics are a bit dumb, but the song itself is pretty catchy and effective.

After a playful piano opening, “Losing My Insanity” delivers a very solid and direct track with heavy riffs and excellent vocal melodies. “Somewhere Close To You”, “I Have a Right”, and “Alone in Heaven” keep the album in high-spirits with a dose of dark and melodic passages, very powerful vocal lines and excellent instrumentation, very typical of the band in “The Days of Grays”. Our favorite track in this release is the lush “The Day”. In this song the band combines excellent keyboard atmospheres with very melodic riffing and excellent drumming. The progressive edge of this song is what made us fans of Sonata Arctica, and they completely nail it on this song.

The weirdest song in this release has to be “Cinderblox” a track that fuses some Country elements with some high-intensity banjos and epic guitar solos… making this track very weird, but an interesting piece to enjoy. The ‘power ballad’ of this album has to be the super mellow “Don’t Be Mean”, a song where Tony’s vocal talents are greatly showcased. The closers “Wildfire Part II and III”, deliver most of the experimentation of this release in very emotionally driven songs that mix almost everything the band has to offer in almost 14 minutes of music.

Sonata Arctica once again reminds us why they are one of the premiere Metal bands in the world and with “Stones Grow Her Name” they deliver another excellent and exciting release. While the band might not sound as they did earlier on their career, they are still producing excellent music that Power Metal fans would cherish and enjoy to the max.

Band: Sonata Arctica Album: Stones Grow Her Name
Label: Nuclear Blast

Release: May 18th, 2012

Oficial Site myspace
Genre: Power Metal

Country: Finland

Rating: 89/100
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