Finnish melodic metal quintet SONATA ARCTICA will release its ninth album, titled "The Ninth Hour", on October 7 via Nuclear Blast. Once again, the CD was produced by SONATA ARCTICA themselves and mixed by Pasi Kauppinen to create a typical yet refreshing sound that defines the spirit of the band in the year 2016. The lyric video for the album's first single, "Closer To An Animal", can be seen below. "'Closer To An Animal' was a song that our vocalist Tony [Kakko] sent to the studio somewhere around the middle of the sessions with the words: 'This will be the album opener,'" keyboardist Henkka Klingenberg recalls. "After checking out the demo, we all just had to agree. "I would say that musically this is a 'metal-meets-'80s type of song. "We wanted this as the first single, since it gives quite a clear picture of what you can expect on the upcoming album, or at least some of it. "I'm really looking forward to opening the shows on the next world tour with this track!" "The Ninth Hour" track listing: 01. Closer To An Animal 02. Life 03. Fairytale 04. We Are What We Are 05. Till Death's Done Us Apart 06. Among The Shooting Stars 07. Rise A Night 08. Fly, Navigate, Communicate 09. Candle Lawns 10. White Pearl, Black Oceans Part II – "By The Grace Of The Ocean" 11. On The Faultline (Closure To An Animal) After a North American tour with their friends from NIGHTWISH plus many headline shows around the globe, the band was once again able to take a look at the entire world as it is at the moment — on the edge of a possible armageddon. This spirit is reflected in the artwork of "The Ninth Hour". "The artwork of our ninth studio album, 'The Ninth Hour', depicts a future utopian landscape on the background," Tony said. "Nature and human technologies are in balance. In the middle we have an hour glass contraption with a knob for us to meddle with. The right-hand side cup represents the nature side with no humans left, on the left we have the human dystopia after we have destroyed Nature. The idea I had was, that turning the knob will tilt the hour glass in one direction or another, and the other cup will slowly empty and that future will be erased. Biblically we are expected to repent and sacrifice on 'The Ninth Hour'… to dive right back to a more mundane reality, it's a fact that we are currently living in critical, historical times. Our decisions will define the future. Not only ours as a race, but the future of this entire planet. We need to make sacrifices and in many cases we will repent our already made choices." Right after the summer festival season and the release of "The Ninth Hour", the band will embark on a European tour together with their labelmates TWILIGHT FORCE to present the new songs to their fans.
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