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+