On March 28th in Europe, and April 1st in North America, the new album from Finnish melodic metallers SONATA ARCTICA, entitled Pariah’s Child, will be released via Nuclear Blast.

Today, the band releases the second single from the album, ‘Cloud Factory’, via iTunes and Amazon. A lyric video for the track can be seen below:

Commented vocalist/keyboardist Tony Kakko: “It has some kind of an ear-worm factor. It's not a bad thing to have in a single. A story about how dad already sees his young son going to work in the same factory he still goes and where his dad and dad's dad went before him, and how that pleasantly vicious circle never ends.”

Pariah’s Child is the band’s eight studio album and the follow up to their successful Stones Grow Her Name. The artwork and tracklisting follow:

'The Wolves Die Young'

'Running Lights'

'Take One Breath'

'Cloud Factory'

'Blood'

'What Did You Do In The War, Dad?'

'Half A Marathon Man'

'X Marks The Spot'

'Love'

'Larger Than Life'

'The Wolves Die Young':

Tony Kakko offers his thoughts on the album title and the artwork: “As always it's pretty hard coming up with a name for the new baby. I tried to approach it from many angles; how this is our 8th album and how easy it would be to abuse that fact. All the symbolism of figure eight, eternity and so on. But that just did not feel right as it's been done so many times. Then I started to think how we'd in ways abandoned our "totem animal", the wolf and all what comes with the territory. As the music on the album is bowing more towards the "old" Sonata, meaning more power metal style elements and wolves in many of the songs in one form or another, it was clear we need a wolf on the cover. An abandoned wolf. A pariah. Or Pariah's child, actually. The new generation to bring the old logo back.”

Kakko adds: “There are some instant Sonata Greatest-Hits songs there, which feels good. I think we reached the result we had in mind, each of us in our own field. We went on to create the next Sonata Arctica power metalesque album and I think we achieved it adequately. I have to say that I had drifted pretty far away from those 'days of thunder', that speedy happy go lucky attitude. I was happy to notice this style can still make me smile. It's good. Music has to do that to me. It also shows the other older songs in a totally new light for me. I can now understand and appreciate why the fans enjoy what we did in the early days.”

Celebrating their 15th year in existence, Sonata Arctica have announced their 2014 North American tour in support of Pariah’s Child. The 33-show trek launches in Teaneck, New Jersey on September 3rd, hits nine Canadian cities, and wraps up in Tampa, Florida on October 15th. Dutch symphonic metallers DELAIN will be direct support; XANDRIA from Germany will open each night.

Sonata Arctica keyboard player Henrik “Henkka” Klingenberg checks in from the frozen tundras of Finland with a special message for North American fans: “It's been what seems like an eternity since we last did a proper tour in the States and Canada, which makes this so much more anticipated, at least for us. After a lot of ‘if’s, ‘but’s, and what have you, we can finally announce a proper North American Tour as part of our Pariah's Child World Tour. In September and October we'll be coming over for a full tour with our friends in Delain and Xandria, hitting both new and familiar places all across the US and Canada. As it's been 15 years since Sonata released the first album [1999’s Ecliptica], we'll bring out some older stuff that haven't been played in a while along with the best tracks from our latest album Pariah's Child. Join our celebration or stay at home and listen to your friends brag about it later. Either way, we're gonna have an amazing time and kick some major ass at these shows!!!”

The Pariah's Child World Tour will mark the North American on-stage debut of Sonata Arctica’s new bass player, Pasi Kauppinen (SILENT VOICES, ex-REQUIEM, WINTERBORN), who replaced long-time band member Marko Paasikoski this past summer.

Tour dates:

September

3 - Mexicali Live - Teaneck, NJ
4 - Stage 48 - New York, NY
5 - The Trocadero - Philadelphia, PA
6 - The Palladium - Worcester, MA
8 - Club Soda - Montreal, QC
9 - Imperial de Quebec - Montreal, QC
10 - Mavericks - Ottawa, ON
11 - MOD Club - Toronto, ON
13 - Soundstage - Baltimore, MD
14 - Altar Bar - Pittsburgh, PA
16 - Agora Ballroom - Cleveland, OH
17 - Mojoes - Joliet, IL
19 - Park Theater - Winnipeg, MB
20 - The Exchange - Regina, SK
21 - Starlite Ballroom - Edmonton, AB
22 - The Republik - Calgary, AB
24 - The Venue - Vancouver, B.C.
25 - El Corazon - Seattle, WA
26 - Hawthorne Theater - Portland, OR
28 - The Grand Ballroom at the Regency - San Francisco, CA
29 - House of Blues - West Hollywood, CA
30 - The Grove - Anaheim, CA

October

1 - Club Red - Tempe, AZ
4 - Bluebird Theater - Denver, CO
5 - Granada - Lawrence, KS
7 - Tricky Falls - El Paso, TX
8 - Backstage Live - San Antonio, TX
9 - Trees - Dallas, TX
10 - Scout Bar - Houston, TX
12 - Diamond Pub & Billiards - Louisville, KY
13 - The Masquerade - Atlanta, GA
14 - House of Blues - Lake Buena Vista, FL
15 - Orpheum –Tampa, FL

The band will tour Russia in November during their Pariah's Child World Tour. In addition to that they will also visit the Ukraine and Belarus for the first time.

Tour dates:

November

2 - Volta - Moscow, Russia
3 - Premio Centre - Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
5 - Bingo - Kiev, Ukraine
6 - Re:public - Minsk, Belarus
8 - Avrora - St. Petersburg, Russia

Tickets are available here.