Sonata Arctica – Stones grow her name

Releasedate: 18-05-2012; Label: Nuclear Blast
By: Martine Goffard

Long awaited since The Days Of Grays in 2009, Stones Grow Her Name is the last Sonata Arctica album. Since the band gave up with their classic power metal style five years ago, every new album promises to be a complete surprise as you never know what the artistic mind of Tony Kakko will be up to. This album will not perturb the fans still. Far from the experimentations of the last two cds, Stones Grow Her Name founds its roots at the origins. There’s more energy than in the melancholic Days of Grays.

The album starts like a bomb with the tremendous Only The Broken Hearts. Some guitar riffs, some keyboard notes, like candy to the ears, before Tony Kakko’s voice bursts out with an enthralling chorus. This song promises to be a tube at festivals this summer. Shitload Of Money, starts the same way but with the beating of the drums. This song rocks. It’s a rash heavy metal one with a 90’s taste. The intro of Losing My Insanity makes you remember that Tony Kakko is, before all, a talented piano player, as the always present keyboard can testify. Somewhere Close To You, is the typical “over the 16 ingredients” Sonata song. You need to listen to the song again and again to catch all the subtleties of all the layers of music rushing in your ears. And here comes I Have A Right, a song full of contrasts. You enter in a child fantasy represented by the crystalline keyboard and the soft piano; but he has something important to say. So comes the harsh guitar, the voice balances between softness and anger, the child speaks (a method already heard in Nightwish’s Dead Boy’s Poem). Despite the joyful tone and the cute video clip with its drawings, it’s a serious song on children condition. Same for The Day, who, with its enchanting melody on keyboard, is a tragic song of a love and life broken by a tsunami. Cinderblox relaxes the mood with some banjo and a country touch. While Don’t Be Mean is the sad, slow, love song of the album, with just an acoustic guitar, the piano and a violin.
Then comes Wildfire. It’s a special song in two parts. Go back on the album Reckoning Night. Do you remember the “one” running away from the burning town in the mountain claiming for vengeance? He is back. Orchestrated like a futurist western, it starts under a storm, in what could be a bar. Then, the song changes. It’s the tune of the first Wildfire (2004) remixed. By the end, you find out that Wildfire is an ode to the environment and the ecology; a sacred and recurrent theme for the band. The album closes on “… it is time we control the population to allow the survival of the environment” as you can hear birds singing in the background.

All in all, it’s an excellent album. The band shows again its capacity to make perfect songs from the intro to the last note. Even with the multiples changes of tempos, there’s a real harmony. No one is playing over the top and every one gives his best. It’s artistic, inventive, moving, with passionate solos and as usual, Tony Kakko proves again to be the master of falsetto. The change here is in the themes; less romanticism this time but an engaged album on social concerns. A must buy.

Line up :
Tony Kakko – Keyboards, Vocals
Tommy Portimo – Drums
Marko Paasikoski – Bass
Henrik Klingenberg – Keyboards
Elias Viljanen – Guitars

Tracklist: 01. Only the Broken Hearts (Make You Beautiful) 02. Shitload of Money 03. Losing My Insanity 04. Somewhere Close to You 05. I Have A Right 06. Alone in Heaven 07. The Day 08. Cinderblox 09. Don’t Be Mean 10. Wildfire II 11. Wildfire III 12. Tonight I Dance Alone (bonus track)

Links:
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