After 'The Ninth Hour' which was for me a good surprise in 2016 (see here), the Finns of 'Sonata Arctica' released a new album 'Talvyiö' which continue in the way traced by the last opus that is to say a much more melodic and less powerful metal and we feel this inflection throughout the 11 tracks and even if the first composition 'Message from the Sun' has fast and powerful passages , choruses come to soften the whole. With 'Whirliwind', even if the guitar riffs are still present, the style is much closer to melodic rock, especially since the chorus enters quite easily in the head, and 'Cold' moves away from the metal and is a real hit that could be on the top of a top 50 and that confirms us that 'Tony Kakko' still has this talent for melodies that captive immediately. Overall, keyboards take more space compared to guitars and this is confirmed in titles like 'Storm the Armada', 'Who Failes the Most', 'Deamon's Cage' or the melodic jewel 'A Little Less Understanding'. The quieter moments offer two ballads with an aerial 'The Last of the Lambs' and 'The Garden' which closes the album and which takes us in their world of Nordic tales, a little in the atmosphere that could have released 'The Life and Times of Scrooge' of the keyboardist ‘Tuomas Holopainen' from 'Nightwish' (see here). We can also note the energetic and instrumental with Celtic sonorities 'Ismo' s Got Good Reactors' and 'The Raven Still Flies' which also recalls that' Tony Kakko 'also knows how to compose beautiful progressive pieces. In summary, with 'Talvyiö', Finns of 'Sonata Arctica', even if some titles are quite direct and accessible, released a more sought-after album than the previous ones and relatively far from the power of metal with quality compositions that unfold gradually over the course of listening... | |
