Sonata Recommendations

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lars316

Member
Jan 22, 2004
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Hey everyone, this may sound crazy, but I don't know much about Sonata Arctica. The only thing I have heard from SA was a cover of Metallica's Fade to Black and they changed the up-tempo, heavier portion of the song and made it melodic (My rule of thumb: Never weaken a cover song, always maintain or increase heaviness). Anyways, I want to listen to more SA to get a feel before Progpower, so which album do I start with? Thanks for any help you can give.

P.S. If this is a repeat thread please direct me to the right one
 
You can't go wrong with their greatest hits CD "The Collection". This is how I got into them and got their discography days later. I enjoy Ecliptica and Silence the most.
 
I really love Sonata and in my opinion you can't go wrong with any of them. I'll go ahead and agree with most here and say to start out with Ecliptica and Silence.
 
Ecliptica was with a very different band than now though. The songs are so different than how they play live now that they actually redid a couple on the collection. Silence is the classic, if you want one cd. If you want two, go for Reckoning Night.
 
shreddy said:
I kinda prefer the earlier keyboardist than the others, well of course the disc with Jens Johansson isnt all that bad :)
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Yeah, Toni actually did keys on the first two releases. It's kinda funny that they got the keyboardist from the band that they were openly emulating to record session keys on their third album.

As far as recommendations go, Ecliptica is probably the funnest to listen to (My Land, FullMoon, Replica) although "The Cage" from Winterheart's Guild is awesome live. It's all high quality stuff.

You could lay them out, close your eyes, have someone mix them up and you pick one at random. That one'll be just as good as if you picked one deliberately, IMO.

Later,
Dave
 
Not that I have any other Sonata CDs than this one, but I randomly found the live album "For the Sake of Revenge" in FYE and it's splendid. Decent sound for a live recording, amazing energy, and the classics that they'll be likely to play are on it.
 
mtndewqueen88 said:
Not that I have any other Sonata CDs than this one, but I randomly found the live album "For the Sake of Revenge" in FYE and it's splendid. Decent sound for a live recording, amazing energy, and the classics that they'll be likely to play are on it.
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That's the one I was going to recommend. Of the studio albums, "Ecliptica" is by far my favorite (one of my favorite progressive metal albums of all time, in fact - "Replica," man, "Replica"), but "For the Sake of Revenge" is a great crash course.

As for cover songs, one reason that SA has shot to my list of favorite bands in this vein is their cover of Iron Maiden's "Die With Your Boots On." Maiden is the band that got me into music beyond being another radio rock listening drone, and "Die With Your Boots On" is one of my all-time favorite songs by any band. If you cover that song, you better bring something fresh to the table and they delivered the goods. Speaking of which, I think I'll start a thread...
 
All their releases are great... :kickass: :kickass: :kickass: :kickass:

Here's my order

1 Winter Hearts Guild
2 Silence
3 Reckoning Night
4 Ecliptica

Their 2 live cds are awesome too.
For the Sake Of Revenge is a great Live DVD/CD combo.:headbang:
 
I say Reckoning Night. The song White Pearl, Black Oceans from that album is simply the greatest power metal song ever, in my book.

After reading many threads like this, there seems to generally be two schools of thought on "which album to check out first" (although oddly, this thread didn't quite shake out this way):

1. Get Reckoning Night (their fourth album). This is where I stand. This is their newest album. I hear a lot of people suggest this one as the best. I suspect most of those people are in my boat: I got into the band with their last two albums (Winterheart's Guild was third).

2. Get either of the first two albums (Ecliptica or Silence). I find that generally, anyone who has been into the band since the beginning says that the first two are stellar and the last two, while good, are nowhere near as good. I disagree, but it's a very popular sentiment.
 
I have followed the band for a few years now. I am definitely in the early material boat. Ecliptica and Silence are better bets than Reckoning Night and Winterheart's Guild. I still like the past 2 albums, but they just don't come close to having memorable songs like the first 2.
 
I say Reckoning Night. The song White Pearl, Black Oceans from that album is simply the greatest power metal song ever, in my book.
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I couldn't agree more with that. I'm addicted to that song like crack right now.
 
I think I agree with most of the posts on here, as "Ecliptica" and "Silence" are my personal favorites, and "Silence" was the first album of theirs that I bought and made me fall in love with them instantly. "Winterheart's Guild" is excellent, too! The only one I don't find myself listening to too much is "Reckoning Night."
 
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