Sonata Arctica

Sonata Arctica
Sonata Arctica is a name of a power metal band of Finland. The band hails from the town of Kemi, and originally formed in the year of 1996.

Their later works have a clear show of a progressive metal. The band was formed by Tony Kakko, Jani Liimatainen, Marko Paasikoski, Tommy Portimo and Pentti Peura.

The first name of the band was Tricky Beans, and they used to play hard rock instead of the power metal, which had really put them in front of the fame and fortune. They had recorded three demos, at the start of their career, but they never sent those to any recording label.

The band had changed their name to Tricky Means, in the year of 1997, and they kept the same style till the year of 1999, but after that they had an overall change in the kind of music, they used to believe.

The music in the later period had a clear emphasis on the keyboard melodies and they used to rely on an easily distinguishable rhythm line, which was maintained both by the bass and the guitar. The lead vocalist, named Tony Kakko, had developed a clean singing style which relies both on falsetto and tenor voices.

Tony has given the credit of change to a fellow Finnish power metal band Stratovarius. In the year of 1999, the band had recorded a demo entitled FullMoon in Kemi's Tico Tico Studios; it was in fact their first real metal recording.

They had sent the demo to the Spinefarm Records by means of a friend, which was easily acknowledged and a recording deal was signed, it was the time of the change of the bands name to Sonata Arctica.

Sonata Arctica's first single, entitled UnOpened was released in the later part of the same year in Finland. It had reached to the Finnish Top 20 sales chart on the week of its release and. Right after that a time had come, when the band had closed deals with labels from around the world, before the release of their debut album.

Their debut album titled Ecliptica had appeared on the music scene by the end of 1999, and it had a worldwide release, obtaining rave critics from the specialized press.

It was a time for Tony Kakko, to decide to focus only on singing and began looking for a new keyboard player for Sonata Arctica; Mikko H?rkin had bben hird by the band at last.

The arrival of the year of 2000 had some new beginnings for Sonata Arctica, as it was chosen to support the well known power metal band Stratovarius throughout their European tour. Marko Paasikoski had returned to the band to play bass in the wake of Janne Kivilahti's departure after the tour.

The band had focused on composing and recording their next album in the later part of 2000 and the beginning of 2001. Their next album entitled Silence, was released in the June of 2001.

There was an extensive tour, waiting for them, right after the release, which had included concerts throughout Europe and Japan. Sonata Arctica had made its first entry into to America, in the year of 2002. They had the shows in Brazil and Chile as well. The musicians from the band still believe it to be their best tour, till date.