Sonata Arctica – "Clear Cold Beyond"
Does this count as a comeback album?
Like with too many other bands, I haven't followed Sonata Arctica for a considerable time now. While 2009's "The Days of Grays" featured some of the band's strongest melodies, they'd already begun veering a bit too far away from their power metal route with 2007's more pseudo-proggy "Unia". And the newer stuff seemed to be somewhat of an alternation between more experimenting in the same direction, and, on the other hand, more classic rock-based songwriting. As far as I understand, their previous LP was an attempt at making a downright stadium hard rock album, and it had, apparently, not gone down well.
Anyway, they're back. Back, as in largely back in the style of those first four albums which tend to be any band's most revered ones. Well, at least it seems that's how "The Clear Cold Beyond" has been marketed.
However, we're dealing more with a split-LP kinda deal: Side 1 contains the bulk of the band's traditional power metal elements, and side 2 contains the bulk of that curious mix of more experimental and more classic rock-oriented material from their last 15-20 years.
Interestingly, perhaps, I prefer side 2. Granted, we're off to a wonderful start with opener and first single "First in Line", melodic uptempo as we know and love framing a melody that manages to be wistful and grandiose at the same time – never hysterical like some other power metal bands. And follow-up "California" is even faster. Aw yeah, baby; give it to me faster and harder. You know how I like it.
However, not many minutes pass by before the band's millstone shows itself. Songwriting-wise, vocalist and mastermind Tony Kakko has always tended to bite off a bit more than he can chew, which often entails a lot of irregular tonal key deviations and modulations galore – often too many for the songs' own good.
Some of the melodies feel like ongoing runs of sixteenth notes with no necessary relation to the previous ones; going out the other ear as soon as they enter one. While the uptempo drive is infectious, there are simply too many variations and too few hooks for me to not lose a bit of engagement along the way.
Side 2, then, features the most memorable highlights. The bombastic, almost polka-like "Angel Defiled" features a harpsichord theme in muscly surroundings sounding like an old Soviet drinking song. The vocal lines are metrically consistent, the melody tangible – and it's a welcome pleasure. This also goes for the slow, tender "The Best Things", sounding like one of the more heartfelt moments on "The Days of Grays". This is the level of creative dynamics we're dealing with here.
There's a lot of creativity going on here, and I'll gladly be among the first ones to applaud the fact that SA are looking back to the material that put them on big stages in the first place.
"Teardrops", not the best song, but probably the most
original one, is based on a triplet meter, but the drums are
playing in fours, both half and normal time. And here's also a little harpsichord theme, only this time elusive and whimsical.
And then there's "A Monster Only You Can See", starting like a slow, clean waltz, but crescendoing into a gigantic, axe-chopping 6/4 stadium banger with immense drums and choirs, sounding like newer Avantasia on a good day. With those chorus breaks and neat little lead themes, this is the one that's gonna be stuck in your head. And it might even have been the superior tune this time around, had it not been for this tiny, but fatal lyrical misstep...
Friends are near
We are here
We still carry all those
Things you believed in
ASSHOLE!
We have bent the rules
We have lied
Loved and known, you'll rise again
Friends will do all this for you
Yeah, notice that? You got this gigantic tune in one of the most captivating and easiest recognizable songs on the entire album, and there's that one dumb word outta left field detracting way too much from the whole thing. I'm not the only one who's gotten thrown off by this, and this is not the first time I'm talking about how detrimental awkward lyrics can be.
Anyway. On the whole, there's a lot of creativity going on here. And I'll gladly be among the first ones to applaud the fact that SA are looking back to the material that put them on big stages in the first place. So overall, while Tony Kakko might retrieve a significant part of SA's lost potential by streamlining his melodies not the least of all, it's impossible to end up with anything short of a good album here. In fact, a bit better than that.
Rating: 4.5 out of 6
Genre: Power metal
Release date: 8/3/2024
Label: Atomic Fire
Producer: Karmila, Forsbäck et al.