Guitar Heroes Album.

[OvSeth]

As many already know, our guitarist Jani Liimatainen has been absent from the line-up this spring and summer.
The reason was his messing around with his compulsory military/civil/prison duty, or rather,
complete failure to take care of it.

This matter, and everything that goes with it, caused a split between Jani and the other band members.
This split was impossible to mend without Jani's help and co-operation.

Therefore we would like to make known the following:
During fall of '06 and spring of '07, Jani's personal matters and actions drove us to a situation
where we had no option but to ask Jani to leave the band.

Jani was notified of this in May, and the separation was amicable. We wanted to give Jani the
chance to get his life together before making this public, which is why we didn't make this
announcement earlier. We wish Jani well on his chosen path.

"Show must go on", so, facing the facts, we hereby humbly announce that Elias Viljanen
is from this day forward a full and official member of Sonata Arctica.

Throughout this summer, on many occasions, Elias has shown himself to be able to fill
the big boots Jani left behind.

We hope our friends and our fans understand that this was the only choice left for us to make so
that our band could continue. Sonata Arctica has always been, and always will be, more than the
sum of its parts. The band has become for us a way of life, a lifeline that simply can not be cut off.

A long "Unia" -tour lies in front of us.
We extend Elias a warm welcome to the Sonata family, and we hope the fans will, too.
Sonata Arctica is whole again.

See you on the road!

Best regards,
~Tony, Tommy, Marko, and Henrik

Here you go.

 

[inhe]

^Thanks. I think it's quite sad that Finland still has compulsory military duty. Sweden's system is alot better, which basically means that if you don't want to, you don't have to.

 

[SteveMCsteve]

I can;t wait to hear roope's song

 

[gello]

fuck.. i fckin love jani wtf.. JANI WTF JANIIIIIII!!!!

still roope and alexi's part are gonna make me orgasm

 

[sad_but_tr00]

Jiri Jalkanen - has not played metal for ~20 yrs.
Jukka Tolonen - has never been a metal guitarist (does jazz, proge, classical etc.)
Markku Niiranen - has not been active for years.

So what if Jiri hasn't played metal for 20 years? Does that mean he couldn't now? I bet he still can play the old Stone-stuff.

So what if Markku hasn't been active for years? Nirri still pwns many of the guitarists on the album.

And so what if Jukka doesn't play metal? Does this album have to be necessarily metal all the way? Half of the people on the album I wouldn't call Guitar Heroes by far, but Jukka is another thing.

 

[Kekkonen's Parrot]

So what if Jiri hasn't played metal for 20 years? Does that mean he couldn't now? I bet he still can play the old Stone-stuff.

So what if Markku hasn't been active for years? Nirri still pwns many of the guitarists on the album.

And so what if Jukka doesn't play metal? Does this album have to be necessarily metal all the way? Half of the people on the album I wouldn't call Guitar Heroes by far, but Jukka is another thing.

I don't have answers to all your questions, except that the collection was indeed meant to be metal only from the beginning. Jiri or Markku playing would be very, very weird, because they haven't done anything metal for ages (not that I have anything against them). They might well refuse to play altogether.

I actually agree with you that all those people are not "Guitar Heroes", whatever that might mean. For example, I've never thought that Emppu Vuorinen was anything special, but Nightwish is huge and because of this, he gets so much publicity these days. And as I said earlier, all the guitarists were picked by the producer by his personal preferences, so we just have to live with it. Maybe there will be Guitar Heroes II some day with more guitarists

 

[inhe]

So what if Jiri hasn't played metal for 20 years? Does that mean he couldn't now? I bet he still can play the old Stone-stuff.

So what if Markku hasn't been active for years? Nirri still pwns many of the guitarists on the album.

And so what if Jukka doesn't play metal? Does this album have to be necessarily metal all the way? Half of the people on the album I wouldn't call Guitar Heroes by far, but Jukka is another thing.

Instead of just being happy that this comes out you have to find something to pick on?

You can't get everything, but when you do get something, you should be happy for it.

 

[sad_but_tr00]

Instead of just being happy that this comes out you have to find something to pick on?

You can't get everything, but when you do get something, you should be happy for it.

Eh. You can be happy about getting AIDS?

 

[Celeb]

Great, Im gonna definitely buy it when its released.

 

[Burbots]

A interview of Alexi of the album and other interesting stuff. Made by MTV3 and Alexi says the COB album will come in March.
(in finnish)
http://viihde.mtv3.fi/videot/index.shtml/uusimmat/musiikki/?2007/8/105769

 

[the phenom]

No Jani Liimatainen! Damnit!

 

[DeadlySinners]

This will be nuts!!
If it doesnt make it international.
I'll find it on eBay if its the last thing i do!

 

[AndreasS]

yeah can't wait I sooo want this one

 

[Muffin]

This sounds interesting! Pity Jari can't be there though

 

[AndreasS]

..but still....kickass line up really curious for the Roope track!

 

[Fetzer]

Long life to Keyboardist

 

[Gurby]

hmmm this album sounds good!!

 

[TrashedLost]

That album sound very awesome. I'm going to buy it, when it's released. I'm sure that album is very interesting and multifaceted. I'm glad about that they decided to do album like that.

 

[rayden_ad]

kind of sad that jari isn't participating :/

agreed.

 

[FearTheReaper]

kind of sad that jari isn't participating :/

I know dude,Hes so sick,what a fuckin great combination of Speed,Melody,Precison,Emotion and Composition tied into a human body that Jari Is.