Sonata Arctica - Pariah's Child

Published April 09 2014

*=Staff's pick	The Wolves Die Young Running Lights Take One Breath Cloud Factory* Blood* What Did You Do In The War, Dad? Half A Marathon Man X Marks The Spot* Love Larger Than Life

Genre	Progressive Power Metal	Tony Kakko	Vocals
Tracks	10	Elias Viljanen	Guitar
Running time	53 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Pasi Kauppinen	Bass
Release	28 March 2014	Tommy Portimo	Drums
Country	Finland	Henrik Klingenberg	Keyboard
Producer	Pasi Kauppinen
Similar artists	---

To finally be able to write something great about Sonata Arctica is something I've waited for a long time. Even though the progressive stuff naturally still exists and absolutely haven't vanished into thin air, the worst and annoying share of it is gone, since I think that it has drowned the latest releases. Greater focus is again put on the actual melodies of the songs instead, which definitely is a huge step in the right direction. According to me, they have rarely succeeded to convince me of newfound greatness since they abandoned their traditional style partly with the Reckoning Night album.

There are actually rather many songs that I feel are able to provide needed injections to this record. For the first time in many years, Tony Kakko and his Finnish crew deliver a creation that makes me a little interested again. This is absolutely no totally redefining moment and also no large-scale return to classic albums like Ecliptica and Winterheart's Guild, but still something that can get the band back on its feet.

Of course I realize that there are two sides of a coin, in terms of the band's fanbase and as you may have figured out, I put myself in the department whose wishes hasn't really come to life during the second half of Sonata Arctica's fifteen year long career. Wrong or right? As far as I'm concerned, a massive section of their older fans left this building and looked at it as a ship with a leaking hull and have ever since looked forward to this episode that includes both slight and crucial adjustments.

Songs like Cloud Factory, Blood and X Marks The Spot definitely get the "all clear" in my book, although the last one mentioned probably would have reached greater magnitudes, the way I consider it, if the guest vocals were performed with a more sensible approach. Half A Marathon Man proceeds in up-tempo and marks rejuvenation and even if the song perhaps isn't the band's most outstanding work to date, it shows that Sonata Arctica still has the tools for a devotion to older stuff and I truly hope that a plan is in place to slowly face reality and see what's most rewarding.

I'm a little astonished that I'm still able to continue to follow this band's releases, since the three latest albums were decent at best and mostly just terrible. Pariah's Child is however much more valid and even old fans may find things that affect the metal veins and this is positively Sonata Arctica's best record since Reckoning Night.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	4	7	6	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe