It has been a very busy 2014 for Sonata Arctica. April saw the release of their eighth full-length album with Pariah’s Child and they are currently in the midst of their longest North American trek supporting the album. There is more up the Finns’ sleeve however as October sees the release of Ecliptica Revisited, a rerecording of the band’s 1999 debut album; an idea that originated from Sonata’s Japanese label, Avalon.

“They were like (the Japanese label) ‘maybe you should rerecord the first album’ and we were like ‘no, why?’” states keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg.  “We started to think about it and when you realize three of the guys aren’t on that first album, I said it should be a decision by Tony (Kakko, vocalist) and Tommy (Portimo, drummer) because it’s their history and their first album so from my point of view we’re not going to rewrite history anyway; I like the songs and I have no problem rerecording good songs so it was like ‘why not?’”

As for the actual recording of the songs, the band was told to keep it as close to the original as possible, but there were some subtle changes made as they had to lower the key because Kakko can’t hit those extremely high notes anymore and a click track wasn’t used in the original recording as well so the tempos were “going all over the place” as Klingenberg points out.

Guitarist Elias Vijanen remarks about rerecording Ecliptica: “I took the challenge because I know and everybody knows that Jani (Liimatainen, former guitarist) was loved as the guitarist of Sonata.” As for putting his own spin on the classic tracks, he says, "here and there, I basically did the solos as they were, but I put in my own stuff.”

For Klingenberg, the keyboards seemed to be a challenge as Kakko tickled the ivories on the original album: “I tried to update the keyboard sounds somewhat and played most of Tony’s stuff. There were some solos that I just couldn’t do from an emotional standpoint, but there is a lot of cool keyboard stuff in there.”

Regarding the actual album as a whole the band looks at it as more of a side project and a statement of how the band is presently rather than a significant addition to the discography.

Now the age old question: fans are usually skeptical when a band rerecords their material, why should fans buy this?

 

Klingenberg states bluntly: “I don’t know if you should. It’s just a different take on the same songs. The feeling is different of course because we are older and it’s different dudes doing it. If you first fell in love with Ecliptica then you might hate this one, but you might look at it as another side of the coin.”

Vijanen adds: “I think the album sounds like we sound nowadays as a band and shows where the band is now.”

Seeing as the Finns were able to reacquaint themselves with the debut album, Klingenberg and Vijanen think it might affect the recording of the next album and that it was important to see where the band started. Klingenberg gained a new perspective on the band.

“I learned more about what the band should be about and how it should sound because we are still trying to figure that out. That is what we did with Pariah’s Child when we were working on it, we asked ourselves ‘What is Sonata Arctica and how should it sound?’ and if you ask ten different people you might get ten different answers.”

The guys think that Pariah’s Child is more of what Sonata Arctica should be as Klingenberg thinks their 2012 album Stones Grow Here Name is a good album, but isn’t sure if it is a great Sonata album as it maybe had too much hard rock, but Vijanen likes the songs on the previous album.

It was definitely eyebrow raising when Sonata brought back their original logo for Pariah’s Child. The logo, with a more pronounced “S” and “A” was adorned on their early albums and had been missing in action since it last appeared on 2004’s Reckoning Night. Will the logo stick around?

“I think so” remarks the keyboard player, “unless we start making some really weird music. I think we’re back on track or at least in the ballpark of where we should be.”

Sonata is not done with new releases this year as this writer heard it through the grapevine (actually the Sonata Arctica Facebook page) that some kind of book was being released. All the information was in Finnish so naturally I had to prod the guys for some info on the book as the Finnish version is being released in the next couple of months.

 

 

 

They explained that the book tells the story of Sonata Arctica and every member was interviewed for the book. It will also contain a short story from Kakko, pages with a collage of pictures, and a SA releases list. It will also be translated to English and a North American release should come next year.

Even though their latest album is only a few months old, is there any new music on the horizon or being looked at?

Klingenberg answers: “There was a whole bunch of good stuff left off of Pariah’s Child. Tony had a bunch of demos that we didn’t start to work on and didn’t fit that atmosphere. Knowing him, I’m sure he has a lot of weird music; it’s just about finding the right songs from that pile and agreeing on those ones and hammering them down.”