Line #32 Music/SonataArctica


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/05_6.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: Henrik Klingenberg, Elias Viljanen, Tony Kakko, Tommy Portimo and Pasi Kauppinen]]
3
4	A progressive PowerMetal band from Finland formed in 1996. They were originally called Tricky Beans and played hard rock. In 1997, they changed their name to Tricky Means. Then they moved on to traditional fast power metal in the style of bands like Stratovarius, and recorded ''Ecliptica''. "Tricky Means" did not seem like an appropriate name for a power metal band, so they changed their name to Sonata Arctica.
5
6	In 2000, Mikko Härkin joined as the keyboardist, bassist Janne Kivilahti left and ex-guitarist Marko Paasikoski returned to play bass; that lineup released ''Silence'' the following year. Mikko left in 2002, and the band's next album ''Winterheart's Guild'' was recorded with assistance from [[Music/{{Stratovarius}} Jens Johansson]]. Auditions for a new keyboardist narrowed down to two potential choices, and [[IntoxicationEnsues after lots of drinks,]] Henrik Klingenberg was chosen for the spot. Their next album, ''Reckoning Night'', was released in 2004, showing signs of influence from progressive metal. In 2005, a live DVD, ''For the Sake of Revenge'', was recorded in Japan.
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8	Problems arose in 2006: guitarist Jani Liimatainen still hadn't finished his mandatory civil service, and couldn't leave the country, so Elias Viljanen filled in for the tour. In 2007, ''Unia'' came out with a sudden switch to progressive metal, and Elias permanently replaced Jani as the guitarist shortly after. Two years later, ''The Days of Grays'' was released, with the band experimenting with symphonic metal. Another live DVD was recorded in April 2011 in Oulu, Finland, and released in November of that year. In May 2012, the band released ''Stones Grow Her Name'', a throwback to their hard-rocking days as Tricky Means.
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10	In August 2013, Marko, apparently burned out from touring, left the band and was replaced by Henrik's Silent Voices bandmate Pasi Kauppinen. Their eighth album, ''Pariah's Child'', followed in March 2014, and is a little closer to traditional power metal, but not without the band's now trademark idiosyncrasies and experimentation. ''The Ninth Hour'' came out two years later, and continued the previous album's sound.
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12	An Action-RPG named ''Winterheart's Guild'' based on the band is being developed by Zelian Games. It's currently in DevelopmentHell due to Zelian Games concentrating more on ''[=xOrbic=]'', which will form the foundation of the ''Winterheart's Guild'' game. No release date has been announced as of yet, but a playable demo was shown at E3 2007. The band members themselves will be the player characters and the game's soundtrack will be provided by the band. It is confirmed that the game will contain at least one new, unreleased Sonata Arctica song.
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14	Just remember: 1. Wolves, not dragons. 2. The lyrics are not personal stories. Not even those that really really sound like they are.
15
16	Members:
17	* Vocals: Tony Kakko (1996-present)
18	* Guitar: Elias Viljanen (2007-present)
19	* Bass: Pasi Kauppinen (2013-present)
20	* Drums: Tommy Portimo (1996-present)
21	* Keyboard: Henrik Klingenberg (2003-present)
22
23	Former Members:
24	* Guitar: Jani Liimatainen (1996-2007)
25	* Bass: Pentti Peura (1996-1998), Janne Kivilahti (1998-2000)
26	* Keyboard: Mikko Härkin (2000-2002)
27	* Bass: Marko Paasikoski (2000-2013, but played guitar from 1996 to 1997)
28
29	Studio Discography:
30	* ''Ecliptica'' (1999)
31	* ''Silence'' (2001)
32	* ''Winterheart's Guild'' (2003)
33	* ''Reckoning Night'' (2004)
34	* ''Unia'' (2007)
35	* ''The Days of Grays'' (2009)
36	* ''Stones Grow Her Name'' (2012)
37	* ''Pariah's Child'' (2014)
38	* ''The Ninth Hour'' (2016)
39	* ''Talviyö''[[note]]Finnish for "Winter Night"[[/note]] (2019)
40	* ''Clear Cold Beyond'' (2024)
41	----
42	!!This band may exhibit the following tropes:
43
44	[[foldercontrol]]
45
46	[[folder:Band tropes]]
47	* ChronologicalAlbumTitle: ''The Ninth Hour''
48	* DarkerAndEdgier: Sonata Arctica's lyrical themes have always been dark, but over time the sound has been changing to be more fitting to the lyrics.
49	* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: Firm believers of it.
50	* EpicRocking: Each album typically has one very long, complicated song. Examples include "Destruction Preventer", "The Power of One", "White Pearl, Black Oceans...", "Gravenimage", "Deathaura", "Wildfire" (Parts II and III), "Larger than Life", and "My Dream's But a Drop of Fuel for a Nightmare". It's only 6:13, but it's certainly among the most progressive songs they've ever done.
51	** Goes up to eleven when they add epic, rocking, ''banjos'' to their latest album ''Stone Grow Her Name''.
52	* HeavyMithril
53	* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: Done for at least a few of their albums.
54	* LyricalDissonance: They often pair grim lyrics with upbeat music, at least until ''Reckoning Night.''
55	* MetalScream: Tony Kakko does some high-pitched ones.
56	* NewSoundAlbum: In their 2007 album ''Unia,'' the band nearly abandoned traditional power metal altogether and experimented with art rock elements.
57	** Also, ''Stones Grow Her Name'', meant to be a throwback to the band's hard rock roots. It's a drastic difference from their previous album, ''The Days of Grays.''
58	* SopranoAndGravel: Tony's high voice probably doesn't count as "gravel," but ''The Days of Grays'' features two songs where he shares vocal duties with Johanna Kurkela.
59	[[/folder]]
60
61	[[folder:Song tropes]]
62	* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: "Tallulah". The name is usually pronounced Ta-LOO-la, with the stress on the second syllable, but Tony Kakko pronounces it in a Finnish way, with the accent on the first syllable.
63	* ActionGirl: If "Juliet" is to be believed, then she is most certainly one.
64	* AnimalMotifs: Wolves are a defining theme for the band.
65	* AntiLoveSong:
66	** The Caleb Saga, a series of songs about a man and a woman who fall apart ("The End of This Chapter"), leading to a violent rampage from the man ("Don't Say a Word") and the man's suicide ("Juliet"). Also there's two prequels to it, called "Caleb" and "Till Death's Done Us Apart".
67	** There's also "Blinded No More".
68	--> Love is just a little death\
69	Between two little lives\
70	Nothing more
71	* AntiHero: The subject of "Peacemaker." The song basically gives a definition of one.
72	* BarredFromTheAfterlife: A one-line reference in ''Broken'': "Heaven's closed, Hell's sold out."
73	* BilingualBonus:
74	** In "Zeroes", there's the line "because it's not my ass, per se, on the line". "Perse" is Finnish for ass. Also an IncrediblyLamePun.
75	** Also, "Unia" is Finnish for "Dreams".
76	** The name of their third EP, ''Takatalvi'', is a Finnish word literally meaning "backwinter", i.e. a cold spell in the spring. This is a short period of time when it suddenly gets colder and often snow will cover the landscape for a couple of days or even for only a few hours.
77	** "Revontulet" is Finnish for "aurora".
78	* BookEnds: ''The Days of Grays'' begins with a truncated instrumental of "Everything Fades to Gray" and finishes proper with its full vocal version, not counting bonus tracks.
79	* BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting: "I Have a Right".
80	-->Father, there's a little flower\
81	Beautiful and different, all alone, all alone\
82	Is it so, Dad? I'm not supposed to\
83	Make the world anew, and be like you? Am I you?\
84	[...]\
85	You made it clear right from the start\
86	I am to take your sour heart within, one sad day\
87	But I will never teach my son\
88	Embittered history, tried and true, 'cause I'm not you!
89	* BreakupSong: "Tallulah", "Last Drop Falls", "The Dead Skin", "Paid In Full" ...there's a lot of them.
90	* CallBack: "Shy" contains the line "You can't be acting like my Dana", referencing the song "Letter to Dana" and the character of Dana O'Hara. It may even be a continuation of that song.
91	* TheCameo: [[Music/{{Stratovarius}} Timo Kotipelto]], singing the last line of "False News Travel Fast".
92	* ChildhoodFriendRomance: "Love", from ''Pariah's Child''. Surprising for Tony's lyrics, as it ''doesn't'' end with bittersweet tone.
93	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: The subject of "It Won't Fade".
94	* UsefulNotes/ColdWar: "Destruction Preventer" is a song about the guy in charge of launching retaliation nukes in case the other side fires them first. This may be an allusion to Stanislav Petrov, a russian colonel in charge of their nukes that got false readings on his radar caused by a sun glare. [[spoiler:The lyrics imply he launches them after seeing a 'light in the sky'.]]
95	* DeadAllAlong: The final verse of "Replica" implies this.
96	* DeathByWomanScorned: Inverted in "Don't Say A Word". Caleb feels perfectly justified in raping and killing Juliet. It's her fault anyway... (Kind of a subversion, really. In "Juliet," you find out she didn't actually die.)
97	* DealWithTheDevil: "Fly With the Black Swan."
98	* DiesWideOpen: [[spoiler: Caleb apparently dies this way, because Juliet manually closes his eyes in the last line of the song named after her.]]
99	* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: The point of "Dream Thieves."
100	* DrivenToSuicide: "White Pearl, Black Oceans...", "Draw Me", "The Ruins Of My Life", "My Selene"
101	* DrowningMySorrows: "As if the World Wasn't Ending", "Tonight I Dance Alone"
102	* EnemyWithin: "Abandoned, Pleased, Brainwashed, Exploited" recites the following line:
103	-->"You are one with your foe."
104	* EverythingIsOnline: If one takes "Blank File" more literally.
105	* FalseReassurance: From "Fly With the Black Swan:"
106	-->Don't worry, I've done this before. / It'll hurt like hell, and leave you sore.
107	* FluffyCloudHeaven: Deconstructed in "Alone in Heaven."
108	-->Heaven\
109	What the Hell would I do\
110	In that place with out you?
111	* GenreMashup: "Cinderblox" combines country and metal. Somehow, it works.
112	* GreenAesop: "Respect the Wilderness", "Wrecking the Sphere." Which are both Japanese bonus tracks, incidentally... Are they trying to say something about the Japanese, or perhaps to the Japanese?
113	** "Wildfire: Part III," a tale of greedy industrialists destroying a pristine land terminated in a volcanic eruption laying waste to the city, complete with a quote from David Attenborough at the end.
114	** "We Are What We Are" from ''The Ninth Hour'' is another one.
115	--->We could save our world, but we are what we are\
116	We should love our Earth, but we are what we are\
117	It takes care of our loved ones, but we are what we are
118	** "Fairytale" has shades of this. Though it's mainly about the 2016 US election, and elections in general, it subtly accuses politicians of not giving a fuck about the environment, and Americans of denying climate change.
119	-->Choose me, I will pour more fish in the sea.
120	* IDieFree: The end of "The Power of One"
121	* LonelyAtTheTop: The actor in "Larger Than Life", until he retires and starts a family of his own.
122	* LotusEaterMachine: "My Dream's but a Drop of Fuel for a Nightmare" and possibly "My Selene"
123	* LoveMakesYouEvil: "The End of This Chapter"
124	** The entire Caleb/Juliet story is about this.
125	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Caleb may or may not be supernatural, (The song "Juliet" implies this) but Juliet is just a normal woman- [[spoiler: and she kills him.]]
126	* MindScrew: The bizarre whispered robot voice at the end of "Wildfire: Part III." It's a quote from David Attenborough giving a GreenAesop. ItMakesSenseInContext.
127	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The lighthouse-keeper's reaction to the fate of the ''White Pearl'' in "White Pearl, Black Oceans..."
128	* NatureMetal:
129	** "In My Eyes You're a Giant" is about the relationship between a wolf and his owner, told from the perspective of the wolf.
130	** Several of their songs are told from the perspective of wolves, such as "It Won't Fade" and "The Cage".
131	* NotQuiteDead: "Juliet"
132	* ObsessionSong: "The End of This Chapter" and "Don't Say A Word," part of a four-part story spread across various albums. "Caleb" is the stalker's backstory, while the aforementioned "Juliet" appears to be the end of the story.
133	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: [[OnceAnEpisode Every album has at least one song related to wolves]], except for ''Stones Grow Her Name''.
134	* PowerBallad: "Last Drop Falls", "Tallulah", "Draw Me", "Shamandalie"... a lot of these.
135	* ProtestSong: "Fairytale" seems to be this, with many a {{Take That}} to Donald Trump.
136	* PrecisionFStrike: From "Dream Thieves":
137	--> Why should I be there for you!? '''Fuck off and get a life!!!'''
138	** "Dream Thieves" is notable in that it's the ''only'' instance (two, actually) of an f-bomb in Sonata's lyrics.
139	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "The Harvest" - "Wind is a thief, lonelier than me, and it DOES! NOT! WANT! ME! IN HERE!"
140	** "Deathaura" - "I. AM. TRU... LY. THE. ONE. Behind it all..."
141	* PuppetPermutation: "The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Real Puppet".
142	* PyrrhicVictory: Mentioned in "Destruction Preventer":
143	--> Now tell me, who won here tonight?
144	--> The price of winning worthless fights
145	* RoaringRampageofRevenge: "Wildfire."
146	* RougeAnglesOfSatin: Some of the official lyrics on their website contain a few spelling mistakes, highlighting the fact that English is not their first language. In "Abandoned, Pleased, Brainwashed, Exploited" they use "look through your fingers" to mean "condone", which checks out idiomatically in the Nordic languages, but less so in English.
147	* SequelSong: "By the Grace of the Ocean" is this to "White Pearl, Black Oceans".
148	* SexSignalsDeath: In "White Pearl, Black Oceans," although it takes a while. The keeper of the lighthouse goes into town and has an affair with a woman he meets, leading to the light going out and the ''White Pearl'' going down with all hands. The shame of this leads to the keeper going mad and jumping from the lighthouse to his death.
149	** Subverted as of ''The Ninth Hour'' album, with "White Pearl, Black Oceans Part 2 - By the Grace of the Ocean". Not only did he survive, but he found someone to love and ran away to start a new life together.
150	--->Oh pain, float like a flower\
151	The darkest sea refusing me
152	* ShellShockedVeteran: "Replica", "What Did You Do In The War, Dad?".
153	* SiameseTwinSongs: While not so in the studio albums, the band would commonly play "Replica", "My Land" and "Black Sheep" back-to-back in live shows.
154	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The song's name on the ''Ecliptica'' album is written as "Fullmoon", one word. In the liner notes for ''The Collection'', however, Tony Kakko writes "Or 'Full Moon'," and mentions that the writing of it as one word was an error on his behalf.
155	* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: "Replica", "My Land".
156	* StalkerWithACrush: "The End of This Chapter", "Shy" (although "Shy" is significantly more sympathetic to the stalker's emotions than most examples of this trope, following someone home still just isn't normal).
157	* TheStinger: Most of their albums have something tucked after the final track.
158	** ''Ecliptica'' ends with a higher-pitched reprise of the intro to "Letter to Dana".
159	** ''Silence'' finishes with an outtake of the narrator, a minute after "The Power of One".
160	** ''Winterheart's Guild'' has some studio chatter after "Draw Me".
161	** ''Reckoning Night'' has the hidden track "Jam", where the band jams on a silly flamenco tune.[[labelnote:*]]'''Do not''' confuse with the Japanese bonus track "Wrecking the Sphere".[[/labelnote]]
162	** ''Unia'': 20 seconds after "Good Enough is Good Enough" ends, its ending starts up again, this time with Tony making sheep noises and then {{Corpsing}}.
163	** ''The Ninth Hour'' has some ominous chimes briefly play after the ending of "On the Faultline (Closure to an Animal)".
164	* TakeThat: "It Won't Fade" is a long, semi-veiled rant to former guitarist Jani Limatainen's irresponsible behavior just before his departure.
165	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: "As if the World Wasn't Ending," "Destruction Preventer"
166	* TogetherInDeath / YouAreWorthHell: "Deathaura" is about a girl who is accused of witchcraft and is burnt at the stake. The boy finally points himself as the one responsible of the misfortunes that she had supposedly brought upon the village.
167	* TragicMonster: "Wolf & Raven", made far more evident and heartbreaking in the 2008 Remake.
168	* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: In Shamandalie.
169	* UnpluggedVersion: Of "Letter to Dana", "Mary Lou" and "Shy" in ''Live in Finland''.
170	* UnstoppableRage / WhosLaughingNow: "Wildfire"
171	* UpdatedRerelease: Done so far for ''Ecliptica'', ''Silence'', and ''Takatalvi''.
172	* VigilanteMan: The titular protagonist of "Peacemaker" is this.
173	* VillainProtagonist: The subject of the Wildfire story.
174	* WhereIWasBornAndRazed: "Wildfire" again.
175	* WordSaladLyrics: "My Dream's But a Drop of Fuel for a Nightmare" ([[JustifiedTrope a song describing a nightmare]]), "The Harvest", and others.
176	* {{Xenofiction}}: "In My Eyes, You're a Giant" is likely a song about a dog, and how it perceives its owner.
177	** Given the subject matter, it may also be a wolf.
178	* XtremeKoolLetterz: "Cinderblox".
179	[[/folder]]

Context Music / SonataArctica