Reader Recommendations: Steers & Stripes

now playing: Brad Paisley - Online

This begins the reader recommendations I mentioned on Monday. This album comes to me from my good friend Kia over at Typo Away, who was kind enough to provide me with (I believe the term is) a metric buttload of possibilities, and all I had to do was ask. I think I'll be set for a while, but that shouldn't stop anyone from recommending more music to me. Just leave a comment and I'll add it to my queue.

Now, incredibly long-time readers (we're talking first entry here) might recall me saying that as a rule, I do not like country music. So far, this has held strong, though I must admit the occasional Brad Paisley song is pretty damn catchy. This is largely because in my experience, as the opening track of Brooks & Dunn's 2001 album Steers & Stripes backs up, there might as well only be one country song with a bunch of different lyrics to it. "Only in America" is certainly inspirational, and I appreciate that it pulls off a sense of national pride without drowning the listener in images of Americana, but the instrumentation sounds almost identical to every other country song I've heard. The same remains true of "Go West", slightly later in the album, and "When She's Gone, She's Gone", which also gives us the requisite metaphor of a woman being like something in America -- in this case, the Mississippi River.

I am pleased to say that this trend does not continue, with songs like "The Last Thing I Do" and "Good Girls Go to Heaven" bringing to mind southern rock along the lines of Lynyrd Skynyrd or, more recently, the Ghost Hounds. The album's first ballad, "The Long Goodbye", is no doubt heartfelt, but outside of the closing guitar solo, it still sounds generic to me. I was impressed with "My Heart is Lost to You", which would best be described as a Tex-Mex song: It uses Spanish guitar and salsa drums, but maintains a country feel and overall reminds me a little of Carlos Santana. "Ain't Nothing 'Bout You" struck me as a bit of an odd song, but not particularly in a bad way. I mean no offense to Mssrs. Brooks and Dunn by this, but the backing band sounded (to me) that it had been lifted from a late-90s Backstreet Boys song. It has a bit of a manufactured quality to it, as though it's trying to sound like a pop song when it clearly shouldn't be. I can't really argue with the numbers, though; it was the number one country single of 2001, so I guess it worked.

The second half of the album soon follows with "Unloved", another generic-sounding ballad, but this time it has a backing chorus. Immediately after is "Deny, Deny, Deny", which has help from a xylophone and more Spanish guitar to tell a bit of a talking blues life story. From a musical standpoint, the chorus sounds unfinished, not coming to a clear resolution where it would normally be expected. That's entering nitpick territory, I think. Let's continue. "Lucky Me, Lonely You" has two false starts that are probably intended to add some familiarity to the recording, but all it did was confuse me. "I Fall" is another slow and non-noteworthy ballad, which leads into "Every River", a mid-tempo love song with cliché lyrics, but as they say, clichés are such because they work. Worth mentioning are the hand drums and Hammond organ in the band, keeping it just interesting enough to hold my attention. The album closes with a more than welcome southern rock song, "See Jane Dance", with lyrics and guitar solos that would fit in perfectly on a .38 Special album.

I know there's a lot of negativity in the above paragraphs, but truth be told, I enjoyed a decent part of this album. It isn't anything I would listen to voluntarily all the way through, but I can definitely see myself adding some single tracks to my regular rotation. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of twang in this album. I'm constantly worried that country songs will be too twangy (which I realize is like saying "this salt is too salty" or "this Dragonforce solo is too wanky"), so this album definitely exceeded my expectations. Overall, I would call this album average, but I'm proud to say that this album has shattered my preconceptions of what country music can be. Between plateaus of straight-up country, there are valleys of near-lifeless ballads, but they're almost completely offset by peaks of inventive southern rock. And I will never say no to southern rock. B-

100-Word Reviews: Beyond the Obvious

now playing: Murder By Death - That Crown Don't Make You a Prince

I have a love-hate relationship with Lockport-based Jinxed's only album, Beyond the Obvious (2004, One Eleven Records). It has some of the best lyrics I've ever heard in its genre, including the only song I know of to use "iniquities" in a chorus, but the instrumentation might as well be interchangeable. Though the songs are simple, there's a twinge of Take This to Your Grave-era Fall Out Boy that keeps me coming back. The band dropped their drummer, reformed as Mariday, and are still making songs today, but I definitely prefer Jinxed's sound. Pick up Beyond the Obvious on Amazon.

Album Review: Dearest (I'm So Sorry)

now playing: Millencolin - Afghan

I wanted to do a full week of Sonata Arctica reviews, but it struck me about 30 seconds after I posted about The Days of Grays that Sonata only has six albums, and I don't know enough about their demos to do a full-fledged post. So let's keep on barreling through with what's next on my list, shall we? Incidentally, my list is pretty short, so I've decided to start taking reader recommendations. If I only review things I know I like, well, I'm not a very good reviewer, am I? Look for those to start up sometime later this week. Possibly tomorrow!

Long-time readers might remember me mentioning Picture Me Broken back in July, when I first discovered them. I've stuck with them since then, and I'm glad to say it's paid off. Thanks to OurStage, the band rose above dozens of other, lesser Bay Area bands to win a VMA as Best Breakout Bay Area Artist on September 13th. Rapper Kanye West later approached Picture Me Broken singer Layla Allman, saying that he would let her finish, but Gregg was the best Allman of all time. (No, he didn't.)

After their success at the VMAs, Picture Me Broken put out their first professional EP, Dearest (I'm So Sorry). The six-track EP features four new songs, as well as retooled versions of "Live Forever" and "Dearest (I'm So Sorry)", both available as demos via OurStage for some time. Let me talk about the re-records for a second before we go into the new stuff. "Live Forever" sounds harder and stronger, but I'm not sure if it's better. I'm still wrestling with the possibility that I might just be used to the demo. The melody and lyrics have both been tweaked, and the chorus now has keyboard overlaid (one change I do definitely like). I'm not sure how much I like the addition of more screams, even if it adds to the heavier effect. I don't think it will end well for Allman's voice if she keeps it up at that pace. In contrast, the title track doesn't seem like it had many changes made to it; I guess you really don't mess with perfection.

Most of the new songs show some fancy guitar work from Nick Loiacono (look to "Echoes of an Empire" or "Breaking the Fall"); "Echoes" also has a prominent bass line courtesy of Austin Dunn and heavy double bass from new drummer Connor Lung. Allman gets her chance to shine in the grim half-ballad "If I Never Wake Again", featuring piano and vocals and heralded by a gunshot. The band really brings it together cohesively in "Devil on My Shoulder", which opens with a drum solo before the main guitar and bass riffs kick in, then Allman joins the mix and the song just flows naturally from there.

When my biggest criticism is that a song I've grown to like sounds a little different, that's a good sign. If what I read on the Twitter is any indication, the band worked their asses off for this EP, and it definitely shows. The EP is available on Bandcamp. Buyers can download the 128kbps MP3s for free, but quality snobs and people who want to support the band can name their own price (starting at $5.00 for the album and $1.00 for each track) to get the songs in a bunch of high-quality formats. I won't say what I paid, but it was a decent amount and it was worth every penny. EDIT 9/30: If you're so inclined, the EP is now available on iTunes for $5.94. Picture Me Broken has already broken out of the Bay Area; with this EP, I think they can break out into the world. A-

Album Retrospective: Ecliptica

now playing: A Wilhelm Scream - Get Mad, You Son of a Bitch

Imagine, if you will, that it's 1999. Cable internet is just starting to catch on; the Macarena already has. The populace is overcome by the impending terror of Y2K. Boy bands dominate the music scene. Grunge has all but disappeared, and metal may as well be a whisper. Then, from the wilds of Kemi-Tornio, Finland, bursts forth the most pure form of power metal heard since Stratovarius. Ripping guitar, pounding double bass, and soaring vocals come together in a trifecta of bombastic sound to take Nick Carter and Joey Fatone and Taylor Hanson by their heads and throw them from a twelfth-story window.

Did you get chills?

This is what Sonata Arctica's debut album, Ecliptica, did to the world. No it isn't; that's a lie. It's what I wish it would have done. But some of the things in that story are true! This is, in fact, a blast of pure power metal for your ears. Ecliptica comes from before Sonata had truly defined their sound, which is both good and bad. But let's start with the good.

With the exception of a few tracks that never quite made it, this album may as well be hit after hit after hit. "Blank File", "My Land", "8th Commandment", "Replica", "Kingdom for a Heart", "Fullmoon", and "Letter to Dana" have all seen regular rotation at live shows and in my CD player. For those counting, that's the first seven of the ten songs on the album. Ranging from love song to wolf song, from paranoid to overjoyed, from national anthem to video game anthem, these seven songs could easily make the album. (I can't tell you how many people only know "Kingdom" from searching "Kingdom Hearts" on YouTube.) The first wolf song, "Fullmoon", has become the band's flagship song; not counting Ari Koivunen's cover from Finnish idol, I have eleven separate versions of the track. It's been performed at every concert I've seen and I would wager every concert Sonata has ever performed. Powered by crowd callback sections and a dueling guitar/keyboard solo originally between guitarist Jani Liimatainen and multi-instrumentalist Tony Kakko, it's easy to see why this song has become so popular. "My Land" details the beauty of the Finnish countryside, and having been there, I can vouch for the description. "Letter to Dana" is possibly my second-favorite ballad, featuring guest instrumentation from flautist Raisa Aine. And "Replica" was one of the first songs I ever heard by the band; its guitar-heavy nature mixed with a short bass solo and powerful re-entry after the bridge made it an early favorite.

But what of the other three songs? "UnOpened" takes the time to showcase the instrumental chops that would become trademark. "Picturing the Past" is, admittedly, nothing special, but I'll get to that later. And finally, there is "Destruction Preventer", a seven-minute song about environmentalism interspersed with a fantastic backing band. However, most of note is the incredibly high note Kakko hits near the end -- while I'm not sure of the octave, I want to say it's a G5. At any rate, it should be largely impossible for someone with his range to hit, and yet he belts it out like it's nothing.

All right, I've covered the good; now let's get to the bad. Since this album is raw power metal, critics have compared it to Stratovarius unfavorably. Rather than finding their own sound, Sonata has been criticized for sounding too similar to their influences and not bringing anything particular new to the table. While I would disagree in certain places, on the whole, this is an accurate assessment. Those who aren't fans would call several of the songs downright interchangeable. I still believe this album was a very strong debut, especially given the scenario I opened this review with, but if Sonata had kept this same sound throughout their entire career, I doubt I would be as much of a fan as I am now. Fortunately, Sonata never stopped evolving, and they've already far eclipsed Ecliptica. A-

Album Retrospective: Silence

now playing: Cobra Starship ft. Travis McCoy - Kiss My Sass

Sonata Arctica's Silence, released in 2001, is the strongest sophomore album I've ever heard. Though their debut, Ecliptica, was incredibly powerful for a debut (especially considering the music scene in 1999), Silence is where the band really fell into their niche -- before, of course, completely redefining that niche in their later albums. Featuring keyboards from Mikko Härkin and guest vocals from Stratovarius' Timo Kotipelto, Silence strikes a fine balance between humor and sincerity, lightheartedness and terror, virtuosity and tranquility. Don't take my word for it; let's explore the album, shall we?

In what would become a trend at concerts, the album opens with "...Of Silence", a spoken word introduction that builds up and leads seamlessly into "Weballergy", a song about internet relationships. Songwriter Tony Kakko has said that this song was written as a sort of Take That to critics who told him that his lyrics weren't appropriate for heavy metal. "False News Travel Fast", though its title is grammatically ambiguous, features a call-and-response section during the bridge in between two solos and closes with a single line from Kotipelto, possibly foreshadowing Stratovarius keyboardist Jens Johansson's involvement on the next album. As we continue through the album, we run into "The End of This Chapter", the second song in the saga of Caleb, introduced in this album and elaborated upon in Reckoning Night, Unia, and The Days of Grays. Over the next seven minutes, Kakko hisses in English and French over grim, keyboard-laden instrumentation the tale of a stalker falling into a jealous rage, yelling "You should know by now that you are mine". I do not want to be in a dark alley with Tony Kakko after hearing this.

The next song is concert mainstay "Black Sheep", the story of a monstrous miller taken from a folk tale. Of special note is that this song appeared in Japan's Guitar Freaks 10th Mix and Drummania 9th Mix, two video games based on playing fake plastic guitar and fake plastic drums, respectively. Until I learned this, I think I underestimated the hold Sonata had on the Japanese market. Moving on, we come across a perpetual favorite of mine, "Land of the Free". Again, the bridge has a callback section, which I've only been able to participate in once, much to my dismay. The entire song, an anthem to freedom, is aided by driving double bass from Tommy Portimo, who I am pretty sure has legs of steel. Skipping ahead a bit, we go past "San Sebastian (Revisited)" and its trademark soaring vocals from Kakko to land on "Revontulet", a rare instrumental of just over 90 seconds showcasing the skill of Härkin and guitarist Jani Liimatainen. Following that is what I believe is Sonata's best ballad, "Tallulah", a soft, flowing song with just enough guitar to add power while being unobtrusive. And of course, I would be remiss not to mention "Wolf & Raven", which fits a number of descriptions: This album's most popular song; this album's wolf song; the most requested song at concerts; and possibly the heaviest song in Sonata's repertoire.

It should be obvious at this point that I hold Silence in very high regard. My criticisms, therefore, are fairly shallow, all things considered. There are a few lyrical problems (for example, "unless we try real hard" in "Land of the Free"), but that's scarcely bothersome enough to matter. I suppose the only major issue I have is that the album doesn't seem to have aged well. It sounds very much like a product of its time, even though its time was only eight years ago. Compared to future albums, it sounds flat and dull, and not even the recently issued re-master seems to fix that. Still, that isn't enough to dampen my opinion of the album significantly. I'm glad that Sonata Arctica has never stayed silent. A+

Album Retrospective: Winterheart's Guild

now playing: No Doubt - Spiderwebs

Now we're getting into the classic stuff. Released in 2003, Winterheart's Guild is a strange sort of album. This is not because nearly half the album is ballads, or because at ten tracks, it's one of Sonata Arctica's shortest albums to date. No, this is largely because Zelian Games has taken the title of the album and indeed many of the concepts therein and, with the blessing of the band, begun creating a video game. Winterheart's Guild looks promising, though at the moment it seems to be in development hell, as it were. Which is unfortunate, as the game is rumored to include at least one unreleased song from Sonata Arctica. Still, I have faith in Zelian Games, and perhaps when the technology arises to beam video games directly into our cerebral cortex, we'll be able to play Winterheart's Guild as we listen to Sonata's 15th or 20th studio album.

A man can dream.

Enough about the video game, though; let's get to the album. Winterheart's Guild is more keyboard-driven than the band's earlier two albums. This predicts a change in direction that would become more prominent on Unia, but when I first heard this album, I was a little confused. Up until Reckoning Night, the keyboard player in Sonata Arctica was a little like the drummer in Spinal Tap, only without the death. Their earlier demos and Ecliptica featured jack of all trades Tony Kakko on keyboards, while Silence had ex-Kenziner keyboardist Mikko Härkin. Winterheart's Guild has, if I may, four bitchin' keyboard solos that Kakko may not have been able to play on his own. So who better to play them than ex-Dio, ex-Rising Force, current Stratovarius keyboardist Jens Johansson? I can only imagine what a great moment this must have been for Sonata, whose earlier albums drew much of their inspiration from Stratovarius.

That inevitable rush of emotion transfers immediately into the album, which features high-energy staples like "Victoria's Secret" and "The Cage" (the wolf song and the perpetual big finish in live shows) interspersed with stark piano ballads like "The Misery" and "Draw Me". "Gravenimage", the second track and a personal favorite, ups the ante, starting out as a ballad and turning into an intense guitar-fest at the halfway mark. In the oft-overlooked "Champagne Bath", keyboards turn to marimbas during the bridge in a finger-breaking triple meter that really speaks to Johansson's virtuosity. All the while, drummer Tommy Portimo blasts out the double bass in eighth note triplets, Kakko brings the soaring vocals, and Jani Liimatainen uses just the right amount of guitar effects to keep everything interesting and tied together. There's even room for a few bars of solo from bassist Marko Paasikoski. I don't really understand why this song goes unappreciated more often than not, as it's a great example of the band as one unit at their best.

I wish I could say the same for some of the other songs. Despite Johansson's guest work, Winterheart's Guild has been my least favorite Sonata album for a while. "Broken", the second single, has become a main fixture at concerts, but for me, it treads the line between power ballad and power metal too carefully, never straying even a millimeter to one side or the other. I will say that the line "heaven's closed / hell's sold out / so I walk on earth" is one of the better things Kakko has written, but it's barely enough to make the song interesting. In contrast, "Silver Tongue" has excellent instrumentation, but I'm put off almost entirely by Kakko's poor diction and downright befuddling word choice ("call me Ishmael if it ain't a lie", for one). I'm not sure if this album is meant to be transitional material or not, but I can say I'm glad that the band has taken most of the good songs with them and left the rest to freeze to death. B-

Album Retrospective: Reckoning Night

now playing: Falconer - The Clarion Call

2005's Reckoning Night marked Sonata Arctica's first serious foray into the progressive elements that would later permeate their music. This was also the first album for keyboardist Henrik "Henkka" Klingenberg, who was selected for the position after a night of drinking -- a tradition he keeps up to this day. It also marked my first serious experience with the band: I'd listened to a few tracks, but Reckoning Night was the first full album I bought. As an introduction to the band, I think it works quite well. Songs like "My Selene" and "Wildfire" (both largely underappreciated, I think) hark back to an earlier, more definitively power metal sound that could be found on Silence or Ecliptica, while the nine-minute epic "White Pearl, Black Oceans..." is an excellent harbinger of the grandiosity to come. (As an aside, "My Selene" is of special note as the only song written by former guitarist Jani Liimatainen in his time with the band, thus ensuring, unfortunately, that the song will never be played live.)

Several songs on this album became fast favorites for me, and even now, four years later, there is only one song I feel slightly less emphatic about: The mid-tempo second track, "Blinded No More". It follows a typical structure, but doesn't seem to go anywhere. In fact, the only reason I listen to it anymore is for the snarling wolf at the end that leads into the next track, "Ain't Your Fairytale", the wolf song on this album. In fact, Sonata seems to have mastered the transition in here: The end of "Fairytale" goes perfectly into the calm instrumental "Reckoning Day, Reckoning Night...", which in turn segues seamlessly into the album's biggest single, "Don't Say A Word". The blaze of "Wildfire" is put out by the gently lapping waves that open "White Pearl". As a cohesive unit, this album works wonders. It is definitely meant to be listened to continuously.

Let's return to "Don't Say A Word", another grim, sinister tale from master wordsmith Tony Kakko. The song falls as part three of the saga of Caleb and Juliet (see Unia and The Days of Grays). Caleb has broken into Juliet's home and is lamenting all they could have had as he watches her sleep. She has no idea he is even there, and is gone before first light arrives. The morbid tale is interspersed with hissed Latin phrases from guest speaker Nik Van-Eckmann, one of Kakko's former teachers who also had a role in 2001's Silence. This song has become a staple of their live concerts, and rightfully so: It's incredibly energetic and the crowd loves it.

Unfortunately, I feel this comes at the cost of neglecting other equally fantastic songs. The closing ballad, "Shamandalie", gets occasional play at live shows, but I've only heard "White Pearl" once, and I had to go to Finland to get the opportunity. "Misplaced", the first track, and "Blinded" used to open every show, but now they've fallen to the wayside. Well over half the album, including the half-power, half-prog cautionary tale "The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Real Puppet", has never been played at any show I've been to, or (to my knowledge) at all. It makes me feel as thought the band isn't proud of what they've done here, which just isn't right. Sonata has every right to wave their flag high before sticking it in the ground. Reckoning Night is a strong, upstanding album that does power-prog right. A

Album Retrospective: Unia

now playing: Sonata Arctica - In the Dark

Sonata Arctica's fifth studio album, Unia ("Dreams"), dropped in May of 2007 and proved immediately divisive among American and Finnish fans alike. The album marked a potentially unsettling change of sound from power metal with progressive influences to what some billed as "pretentious" straight-up progressive metal. Additionally, the cover art debuted a new logo for the band; the previous one had remained unchanged for eight years. This would also be the last album original guitarist Jani Liimatainen would play on: Some complications involving the Finnish military arose, and the band decided to go on without him, taking Elias Viljanen in his place. Understandably, fans had several reasons to be displeased with this album.

I was not one of them. I distinctly remember calling "Good Enough is Good Enough", the closing track, "absolutely perfect". Featuring Tony Kakko on vocals, Henrik Klingenberg on piano, and a string quintet, the minimalistic ballad is a fantastic way to bring the listener down from the sheer sonic power of the rest of the album. The album opens immediately with a strong guitar riff in the vindictive "In Black and White", which would become the standard concert opener for the next two years (and, I would imagine, for some time to come). "Paid in Full", the first single, follows quickly as a ballad with an edge and a strong bass line. Before long, the album swings back into vindication with this album's wolf song, "It Won't Fade": The wolf pack described in the lyrics is a metaphor for the band, and the stray left of the litter is Liimatainen. It seems almost cruel to make him play guitar on this track, but emotion brings out the best playing in everyone, a point clearly made as Kakko switches between clean vocals and screaming over top of angry guitar lines and gentle piano.

As I mentioned in my review of The Days of Grays, "Juliet" is the conclusion of a story. Unia's sixth track, "Caleb", is the beginning, detailing the childhood of the stalker in a progressive, 4/4-to-6/8 crowd-pleaser with a guest choir and a spoken introduction. After that point, the album descends further and further into prog, culminating with "My Dream's But a Drop of Fuel For a Nightmare". The track is six minutes of deliberately nonsensical lyrics and instrumental virtuosity that builds from bass, piano, and vocals to a combination of instruments that can barely be enumerated. Sitting down and listening to the instrumental version of this track (a bonus track limited to the Japanese edition), I was blown away. This is my first response to anyone who claims that Sonata lost their touch with Unia.

However, for as impressive as many of the tracks are, some still don't quite settle well with me. "Under Your Tree", the main ballad of the album, has a melody too similar to "Victoria's Secret" (off Winterheart's Guild, 2003) for my liking and strikes me as downright boring. It's easily my least favorite Sonata song in their entire repertoire. I also feel that, in his effort to write something new, Kakko dropped the ball in "The Harvest", which uses the lyrics "once planted plastic grapes / the harvest of a lifetime / real bad wine" in complete sincerity. It's a shame, as the rest of the song is really quite good -- I've certainly never heard a metal band use a bouzouki before. I just can't get over those lines. Despite all that, Unia certainly isn't a bad album. I think the sensationalist reactions about the stylistic shift and all that were largely unjustified. I would, however, call the album weak. I believe they were trying to make a bold change in their genre and bit off more than they could chew. Fortunately, all the imperfections were ironed out with the release of The Days of Grays, and I (for one) welcome our new power-prog overlords. It goes to show that if you're going to dream, dream big. B

Album Review: The Days of Grays

now playing: Sonata Arctica - Deathaura

You know, for how much I talk about how awesome Finnish power metal is, this is the first official time Sonata Arctica's gotten a mention on this long-dead blog. What a way to kick things off again, huh? Sonata's sixth studio album, The Days of Grays (Nuclear Blast), hit shelves in America today and I am more than ready to give it the review it deserves. And you know what? Come back every day this week for another Sonata Arctica album review.

It's been two and a half years since Sonata Arctica's divisive and controversial fifth album, Unia. The band took the progressive elements they'd been experimenting with for a few years and kicked them into high gear, culminating in an avant-garde explosion of sound with calliope and Hammond organs joining the regular lineup of bass, guitar, keyboards, drums, and vocals. Fans were not particularly happy, but I can save that explanation for another day. The Days of Grays retains the progressive elements of Unia, but brings along a darker tone, something more sinister and not quite heard of from this band until now. While their previous albums have opened with loud, heavy, hard-hitting tracks, "Everything Fades to Gray" is stripped down to the barest elements with nothing more than piano and strings (and the occasional tympani for effect). Orchestration is heavy on this album all around, in fact; four of the 13 songs feature strings, while the Finland-exclusive two-disc version contains seven completely orchestrated songs.

Just as the listener is getting comfortable, in comes "Deathaura", an eight-minute, multi-part suite showcasing guest vocalist Johanna Kurkela's gentle entry and the band's trademark thunderous sound only seconds later. This is guitarist Elias Viljanen's first opportunity to shine, having been added the band shortly after the release of Unia, and I am proud to say he does not disappoint. From there, the album transitions to "The Last Amazing Grays", the requisite "wolf song" and the first single. Despite the grim feelings the orchestrated bridge may convey, the message remains hopeful. Immediately following is the second single and easily the happiest song on the album, "Flag in the Ground". I can already see crowds of people singing along to this song, a triumphant anthem for love and the future.

Skipping ahead to the second half of the album, "Juliet" reminds the listener that vocalist and songwriter Tony Kakko is a terrifying person. Meant to be the end of a story introduced in their second album, "Juliet" details a stalker, having finally found his love, poisoning himself and expecting her to do the same. When he discovers that she is still alive as death overtakes him, he promises to come back as a ghost and haunt her until the end of her days. "As If the World Wasn't Ending", a few tracks later, seems to take the quote "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" to heart. A man has inadvertently caused the end of the world and spends the song pleading to his love to pretend that they aren't going to die, to enjoy the time they have left together. A darker tone indeed.

Of course, ten years of music haven't dulled Sonata's sense of experimentation. "Zeroes" applies various vocal effects and takes a more political tone, both of which are rather unexpected from a band that's been billed by some as "gay wizard metal". The chorus of "The Dead Skin" mentions human dismemberment (albeit as a metaphor). And then there's "The Truth is Out There", which -- yes, Virginia -- involves alien abduction.

Overall, The Days of Grays is an inventive album and an interesting exploration of just how far one band can push the definition of power metal. My major criticism is the average length of the songs; I fear touring with Nightwish may have influenced the band for the worse. Nothing drags, to be sure, but I fear for the commercial success of the album when half the tracks come in over 4:30. But pithy criticisms aside! I'm glad to see they're putting Viljanen to good use, as he certainly has the chops. Bassist Marko Paasikoski is further up in the mix in nearly every track, which I appreciate as a bassist. It seems others appreciate it, as well: The album sold in excess of 15,000 copies in Finland on the first day of release, reaching gold status in what must be record time. The brightest colors might fade to gray, but at this rate, Sonata Arctica most certainly will not. A-

You can buy The Days of Grays from Sonata Arctica's website. The band is currently touring the USA and Canada with Dragonforce, so be sure to check out the tour schedule and pick up tickets to the show nearest you.