Sonata Arctica, Stones Grow Her Name (2012)

Tracklist:

1. Only the Broken Hearts (Make you Beautiful)
2. Shitload O’ Money
3. Losing My Insanity
4. Somewhere Close to You
5. I Have a Right
6. Alone in Heaven
7. The Day
8. Cinderblox
9. Don’t Be Mean
10. Wildfire, Part II: One with the Mountain
11. Wildfire, Part III: Wildfire Town, Population: 0
12. Tonight I Dance Alone (Bonus Track)

Sonata Arctica are the sort of band that you might expect find making coffee in your kitchen the morning after a heavy night.  Since their formation in the mid-90s, they have released a hatful of albums, establishing their own distinct sound through a blend of power metal, operatic, and synth pop influences.  And, having grown into metal alongside their music, it’s fair to say that the band are one of the few whose next album I always eagerly await.  If you’re familiar with their work, you’ll know what to expect: rich synths, heavy guitars, constant interchanges between fast, intricate and slow, plodding harmonies, and, above all, wild melodies in all departments.

Inevitably, it’s all here in.  Opening with a booming combination of organs and deep, crunching power chords, the album rattles through a few of the band’s own well-worn clichés.  But I couldn’t help feeling a bit lost after listening through for the first few times.  In an interview earlier this year, keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg suggested “The first 9 tracks [of Stones Grow Her Name] could all have been chosen as singles”.  My first response would have been that, if they’d suggested making them all singles, the band’s management might well have had something to say on the matter.  Few tracks were immediately distinguishable from the rest, and fewer still were immediate hits.

Part of the problem must surely lie in a somewhat one-track approach to their music.  Sonata Arctica rarely seem to experiment with new rhythms or time signatures, and while the winding alleys they lead their chord sequences down would be adventurous by the standards of most bands, they feature so commonly that they just don’t inspire the surprise and admiration they probably deserve.  Compared to their last album, The Days of Grays, which opened with an 8-minute metal symphony, Stones Grow Her Name has less obvious variation: sounds – whether strings, pianos, or raw sythns – are back to the unabashedly synthetic quality that have helped define Sonata Arctica. 

That’s certainly not to say the album has no attractive aesthetics.  Blistering guitar solos cut lightning streaks through tracks 3, Losing My Insanity, and 8, Cinderblox; keys are a real highlight, displaying an array of sounds, from the glittering to the deep and mellow, in tracks 5, 7, and 9; and chords, particularly in songs such as track 3, Losing My Insanity, and 4, Somewhere Close To You, work around a powerful mixture of deep, bassey sounds and original, inventive progressions.  But very often, this all seems hauntingly familiar.  Sonata Arctica have never struggled to build these sorts of musical textures, but Stones Grow Her Name fails to reach some of the band’s own highest standards, with the graceful broken chords and complex background riffs of previous albums lacking.  Regardless of how settled they are in their style, some of their use of the most plastic of synths can feel, at best, safe; at worst, they’re stale and lazy.  And it probably doesn’t help present a picture of rich variety that, until tracks 10 and 11, every song falls roughly within a 3 ½ - 4 ½ minute time bracket.

In fact, it seems there’s more than meets the eye.  Judging by song names alone – Only the Broken Hearts, Losing My Insanity, Wildfire nos. II and III – we’d have been forgiven for thinking Sonata Arctica had opted for the eclectic mix of love ballads and dark fairytales that helped define their earlier records.  And overall, this is a pretty varied album.  Throughout, there’s enough change between styles – from the hot and heavy (see tracks 1, 2, and 8), to the emotional ballads which help bow the record out (see tracks 9 and 12) – to keep everything refreshing throughout.  This is certainly helped by the band’s ability to produce original and innovative musical themes for every song.

But there’s even deeper importance to this record.  Stones Grow Her Name is an album very much of its time, and a large group of songs also challenge a number of controversial and contemporary issues.  The album is at its strongest when delivering Sonata Arctica’s social commentaries, which feature prominently in their single, I Have a Right, as their excellent music video portrays.

However, two morally-guided songs, in particular, stand out above the rest, both in terms of musical quality and lyrical interest.  The first of these is track 7, The Day, which tells a story of financial ruin well familiar to the world of today.  The opening lines offer a contrasting scene of worldly beauty – “Sea full of diamonds, good morning new day” – amid unfolding personal tragedy – “The company will lay off 5000 souls today” – played out through an earnest and encouraging backdrop of striding guitars and a fluttering piano in major key.  This is cut short by a juddering change to choppy power chords and plodding melodic rhythms, as the song turns to grim realities: “I’m adrift on vast oceans, can you feel me?/I will not see you again, even if I live through”.  And when the chorus re-enters, it’s chords have changed into minor key, reflecting the new mood of loss: “…all the worlds, bound to fade”.  In fact, this turn is a short interlude in a song which challenges economic injustice through personal beauty and common humanity, and the track bows out with an extended nostalgic glance at the pleasures of a world torn from the grasp of an innocent and undeserving victim.  To a backing of heavy, sustained guitar chords and the same optimistic, sparkling keys which opened the song, past glories are remembered: “We built this world together, we lived in here together/And shared the fun together, bore the sorrows, all together”.

The second song of real merit is Wildfire, Part: II.  The first Wildfire was a song that featured on Sonata Arctica’s 2004 album, Reckoning Night, telling a story of vengeance which forces one unlucky family out of their home and reduces their equally unfortunate town to smouldering ashes.  Slipped in on the album inlay, just above the lyrics to Wildfire II, is a short note which makes the link between the two, telling of the return of “a man, not quite a man, yet not quite a beast”, to “join with his family, the nature.”  The lyrics play out the struggle, as the returning exile rediscovers his homeland – “This place is me, my skin, blood and bones” – and challenges his old tormentors – “You cast me out, all for one, family”.

But, as with The Day, Wildfire II seems very much a product of 2012, perhaps even more than it is a sequel to its 2004 namesake.  These days, notions of homeland and belonging have been forced back into the public arena by the recent rise of nationalist sentiment across Europe.  Allusions are made throughout the song to the same corrupting, insular perspectives that are both cause and effect of this nationalist mentality.  As the returning man faces those who cast him out, he tells them “You were scared.  You all were”.  Other, loosely veiled warnings follow, in particular that the “riddles” the residents tell their children “teach them to fear/But if anything, they teach them to hate”.

There’s another side to this story.  The returning “man” of Wildfire II is a none-too clean individual, with a distinctly sinister air that is evident from his first contribution, a dark, gravely “Hello”.  His lines reveal a messianic conception of his own return, which will lead the bewildered and instinctively rebellious masses to their revolutionary liberation: “Rebuilding the fire, the flames are arising/I am the flint and the kindler they need”.  And while the album’s explanatory note sees the returning character in similarly historical terms, another perspective on the matter is given through what seems to be a separate voice (although one that’s also played out by Tony Kakko’s vocals).  This, instead, sees the returning exile as a man of manic and paranoid delusions: “Build a wall on the hill and write a book out of fear/You are out of your mind, blind, your love’s the killing kind”.

It’s surely worth mentioning that Europe has, in the past year or so, witnessed the “return” of its own self-proclaimed messiah, touting a philosophy of the homeland, in the form of the Norwegian, Anders Breivik.  Breivik, who detonated two bombs in Oslo before gunning down 69 teenagers on the island of Utoya, holed up in the countryside – perhaps the proverbial “mountain”? – whilst preparing his attacks, which were inspired by an updated racial theory – “a book out of fear”?  Certainly, there are parallels, in as much as Breivik fits the stereotypical profile of the fanatical right-wing extremist, “out of his mind” and “blind”.  But there are deeper reasons to suggest he might have inspired this “man, not quite a man, yet not quite a beast”.  Proclaiming allegiance with Europe’s “native” population, Breivik’s “love” was very much “the killing kind”, as his actions ultimately demonstrated.  The massacre was, perhaps, the most traumatic event in Norway’s collective memory since the end of the second world war.  Yet it was more than just an act of barbarity.  In killing “his nation’s” young, Breivik was committing an act comparable to infanticide – literally, killing his own children – in the name of protecting their future.  In this sense, he fits the bill for Wildfire II: “Then aim a gun at your son to keep him safe from us”.  Even if Breivik is not the explicit model for this sinister returnee, in this post-Utoya world, there is enough to suggest he played on Sonata Arctica’s poetic consciousness.

All of this leaves me a bit torn.  Overall, Stones Grow Her Name can’t be considered a classic.  Musically, despite the use of some well-loved trademarks and predictably excellent musical execution throughout, Sonata Arctica have not been able to match their very best.  The album certainly leaves a less intricate shadow than some of its predecessors.  But there’s still a lot to provoke keen interest, especially if you’re up for some challenging and emotionally-charged social analysis.  Verdict: not a rare gem, but, in the long-run, worth having in your collection.

Production: 3/5
Lyrics: 4/5
Album Cohesion: 4/5
Music: 7/10

Percentage Score: 72/100


http://www.sonataarctica.info/site07/