SONATA ARCTICA - Stones Grow Her Name
- Thread starter KingsGene
- Start date
Sir Exar Kun
Member
I really like the single, but still have great reservations about the album. The direction on the last two albums just hasn't worked well for me, like many others. Tony has developed a very unique style of songwriting, that somehow just isn't clicking for me on a regular basis.
I think the single blows but thankfully there is other tunes on the album that sound MUCH better.
DuchessOfDork
Member
- Feb 9, 2009
- 2,235
- 1
- 36
Thank goodness. This song did not grab me like their older songs used to. Very repetative, the chorus just isn't catchy.. and I don't know, but the song's entire message just seems cheesy in a bad way. Like something a 15 year old who was bullied might have written.
I hope the rest of the album is better, because I have heard good things.
DuchessOfDork
Member
- Feb 9, 2009
- 2,235
- 1
- 36
So......
Here's the important question..........
What's going on with Tony's hair, nowadays? Because he's clearly dying it and it feels like a trainwreck.
Here's the important question..........
What's going on with Tony's hair, nowadays? Because he's clearly dying it and it feels like a trainwreck.
AngraRULES
Member
Agreed that some songs are a lot stronger, but this is far from Sonata's prime though...
BTW what did you think of Cinderblox?
Sonata goes bluegrass?
DuchessOfDork
Member
- Feb 9, 2009
- 2,235
- 1
- 36
AgreBTW what did you think of Cinderblox?
Looks like this one's gonna be another iTunes purchase.
It's a mid-life crisis. They probably can't afford a corvette like suburban dads. I don't think it's as gross as John Petrucci's Linkin Park phase during the Octavarium era
spag
I am a leaf on the wind
I used to love SA, but this sucks. I'll give some other tracks a listen, but this is likely a pass for me like the last several albums.
I don't know about you guys, but I like the song. Probably not the greatest SA song ever, but better than most of the songs on the past two albums.
Oblivion Ocean
Member
The song has started to grow on me. Plus this review has me more optimistic. They basically describe the album as a cross between older anthemic stuff and the newer prog stuff.
http://www.dangerdog.com/2012-music-reviews/sonata-arctica-stones-grow-her-name.php
http://www.dangerdog.com/2012-music-reviews/sonata-arctica-stones-grow-her-name.php
Oblivion Ocean
Member
I am surprised more people are not talking about this album.
SA are at that weird place in the career of "power/prog" metal band. They were at the point where you have put out a 3-5 successful albums and need to decide what to do next. Many bands in this genre and metal overall just decide to keep doing the same thing over and over (Sabaton, Hammerfall, Dark Tranquility, Amon Amarth). This can have mixed results, with some bands I am willing to tolerate them doing ever so slight variations on their core sound, while most of the time it bores me. Or the band can decide to try to depart. This again can have mixed results, which is true even in the case of SA (I grew to love Unia, but just could never get into Days of Gray). This can particularly be dangerous for a band in the power genre since many fans (a generalization, I know) tend to either be very meat and potatoes, stuck in a previous decade or just plain narrow in their tastes. Well SA decided to change it up again. In some ways they are reigning in the experimentation and prog elements of the last two albums and bringing back some of the more simple catchy elements of the past. Yet, this is still a progression of their sound since they are experimenting with some more straightforward song structures (Shitload of Money) and with different sounds (Cinderblox). Plus you have the truly epic Wildfire parts 2 & 3.
While I would not quite put it up with their classic material, I do like it quite a bit (I have been listening to it a ton since I got it). I am glad to see this band moving forward and trying new things while not abandoning the things that made me love the band in the first place. Is it going to please everyone? probably not, especially those fans that will never get over the fact that they are never going to write Ecliptica again.
SA are at that weird place in the career of "power/prog" metal band. They were at the point where you have put out a 3-5 successful albums and need to decide what to do next. Many bands in this genre and metal overall just decide to keep doing the same thing over and over (Sabaton, Hammerfall, Dark Tranquility, Amon Amarth). This can have mixed results, with some bands I am willing to tolerate them doing ever so slight variations on their core sound, while most of the time it bores me. Or the band can decide to try to depart. This again can have mixed results, which is true even in the case of SA (I grew to love Unia, but just could never get into Days of Gray). This can particularly be dangerous for a band in the power genre since many fans (a generalization, I know) tend to either be very meat and potatoes, stuck in a previous decade or just plain narrow in their tastes. Well SA decided to change it up again. In some ways they are reigning in the experimentation and prog elements of the last two albums and bringing back some of the more simple catchy elements of the past. Yet, this is still a progression of their sound since they are experimenting with some more straightforward song structures (Shitload of Money) and with different sounds (Cinderblox). Plus you have the truly epic Wildfire parts 2 & 3.
While I would not quite put it up with their classic material, I do like it quite a bit (I have been listening to it a ton since I got it). I am glad to see this band moving forward and trying new things while not abandoning the things that made me love the band in the first place. Is it going to please everyone? probably not, especially those fans that will never get over the fact that they are never going to write Ecliptica again.
spag
I am a leaf on the wind
I was bored the other day, so gave it another listen. I really couldn't make it through the whole album. I can listen to Days Of Gray at least.
AngraRULES
Member
Sir Exar Kun
Member
I think this is a pretty damn good description of how I feel about it. "Unia" does nothing at all for me, and only a few tracks on "Days of Gray" work for me, but I'm enjoying almost all of the new album. Most of the songs are memorable, albeit still a far cry from the first four albums. It's definitely better than I had expected!
dtguitarfan
Prog Lover
Oh, expand your horizons people! From the viewpoint of a prog fan who likes some power metal now and then: this might just be their best album to date. The reason some people don't like it: it doesn't sound exactly like everything else they've done - Sonata Arctica are branching out, and some fans just want them to stay in the place they were before. But if the did, people would say "boring - nothing new here."
Similar threads
