SONATA ARCTICA singer Tony Kakko is featured in a new interview with Radio Metal discussing the band's new album, Stones Grow Her Name. An excerpt follows:

Q: What it striking with this album is that you kept the new elements you used on the previous two albums, but you also came back to a more simple and concise musical approach. Do you think the band had somehow lost the catchiness of the first albums, so you had to find it again?

A: "I think we went too far with the progressive style along the way. It was fun, it was like songwriter masturbating! (laughs) I wrote a lot of things that gave me the kicks and made me laugh and smile. I was intentionally trying to write songs that were a bit difficult to get a hang of. I wanted to add and combine surprising elements together, make the song difficult to listen to, even if that meant they were also difficult to play. I wanted to get away from that. During the last tour, when I slowly started writing new songs for this album, I had this text on my desktop that said: “K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple, Stupid!” I wanted to go back to the origins of the band. And I don’t mean Ecliptica, because even that was already a bit far from our origins. When we started the band in 1995, the whole thing was more rock. So Stones Grow Her Name is actually closer to the beginnings of the band than our first album, Ecliptica, was! It’s kind of funny."

Read the full interview at this location.

As previously reported, Stones Grow Her Name was released last week – and has already achieved gold status in their home country:

"Just received the news! Stones have grown gold in Finland. This is amazing! This is our ninth gold disc from Finland. Kiitos Suomi," says Tony Kakko.

In other news, tour dates in support of Stones Grow Her Name has been announced.

Tony Kakko adds: "We're extremely pleased to announce our first "Stone Grow Her Name World Tour" -dates. Europe, part 1. The fans have been asking for this for a long, long time and the cries have been heard. The tour starts from Warsaw, Poland. Yes! Finally! Twenty dates and more to come next year. So don't worry, if you can't find your country from the list. We'll be most likely coming in the neighbourhood on this World Tour“

Dates:

November

3 - Warsaw, Poland - Progresja
4 - Berlin, Germany - Columbiaclub
6 - Hamburg, Germany - Markthalle
7 - Cologne, Germany - Essigfabrik
8 - Antwerpen, Belgium - Trix
9 - Tilburg, Netherlands - 013
11 - Bochum, Germany - Zeche
12 - Aschaffenburg, Germany - Colos-Saal
13 - Lille, France - Le Splendid
14 - Paris, France - Bataclan
16 - Madrid, Spain - La Riviera
17 - Barcelona, Spain - Razzmatazz
19 - Lyon, France Le Transpordeur
20 - Stuttgart, Germany - LKA Longhorn
21 - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z7
22 - Milano, Italy - Alcatraz
24 - Pragure - Czech Republic - Winter Masters of Rock

27 Munich, Germany - Backstage Halle

Stones Grow Her Name is currently streaming at this location.