Sonata Arctica
Ecliptica

THE REVIEW

In this review, my task is to praise the group Sonata Arctica, who have written this album that, in my opinion, is the most beautiful they have ever made.

The only problem is that it is their first album, and reading this statement might stand out as an insult to this group. But it is not so; the magnificence of this Finnish band that plays Epic Metal lies precisely in their debut in the music market with an album that doesn't really have a single song that can be defined as "filler" or "for padding." In fact, during their live concerts (which, truth be told, are never quite what one expects after listening to their CDs), they continue to play a lot of songs that are still from their first album, from 1999. And it couldn't be otherwise, after pulling hats out with songs like "Full moon", "My land", "8th commandment", "Letter to Dana", "Kingdom for a Heart", "UnOpened", which are masterpieces and now foundational pieces of their music.

After this album, it was difficult to return to the market with an album reaching the heights of the first. In fact, to establish themselves and create a new album in the meantime, they came up with the idea of "Successor," an album with the major hits from the concerts in which they became the supporting band for Stratovarius, enriched with some covers of other bands. From the second album (which I also find amazing) onwards, they never reached the level of completeness as in the first, but they always delivered high-level gems like "Black sheep", "Last drop falls", "The cage", "Victoria's secret", "My Selene", "Draw me" and many others that have established them as one of the most important and listened to bands in the Epic/Power Metal field.

My advice is to listen to this group both in terms of virtuosity and their ballads, as they manage to make the lyrics perceivable just by listening to the music. They are a manifesto of completeness and coherence between lyrics and music.