Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Cvetličarna MediaPark / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 26.02.2011
Attendance: 600
Who’d have thought Sonata Arctica would one day become such a beloved name in power metal. These days they appeal especially to the youngest fans of softer musical realms, or anyone who’s only just getting into the softer sound. Anyone who follows the melodic path and digs into it soon runs into Finnish bands like Lordi, Nightwish and Children Of Bodom (each miles away from the others stylistically, but just as popular) and eventually into Sonata Arctica too. The guys are seriously melodic and are in fact the softest version of power metal on the planet today, one that still keeps enough guitar edge for the riffs to sound “fat,” with a dose of obscurity and theatrical drama to make it count as metal. Adding to that metal approach is, of course, the “double-stomping bass drum barrage” that almost no proper Finnish power metal band can do without.
More than eleven years ago, when they first played stages around Europe, back then alongside their gurus Stratovarius (Rhapsody Of Fire was on the bill too), and a year later, in October 2001 to be exact, when they were running around with Gamma Ray, Sonata Arctica trembled on stage in terror like willows shivering in a raging river. Today their tours, covering the whole world, can last two years. Even the latest chapter, built around the well-received new album “The Days Of Grays,” which came out in autumn 2009, isn’t much different. Sonata Arctica has now headed out on the second “round” of the European leg of the world tour promoting that album. After the first part of the Euro tour they hit Asia, Australia and Oceania, North America twice, dropped into South America along the way, played the European festivals again in 2010, and now they’re finally back on the old continent, with the tour wrapping up in a series of shows on home turf.
Interestingly, the band gave the opening slot to the rather generic Italian act 4th Dimension. Sonata Arctica has a lot of friends in Italy. 4th Dimension, meanwhile, are closely tied to the members of Labyrinth, who helped them produce their upcoming studio debut “The White Path Of Rebirth,” which even features original Labyrinth singer Fabio Tordiglione, better known as Fabio Lione, the first voice of Rhapsody Of Fire. The quintet of Andrea Bicego (vocals), Talete Fusaro (keyboards), Michele Segafredo (guitar), Massimiliano Forte (drums) and Stefano Pinaroli (bass) warmed up the crowd and basically replayed things we’ve heard before. The same thing bands like Vision Divine and Labyrinth put together at the turn of the nineties into the new millennium. In other words, the Italian answer to the phalanx from the North commanded by Stratovarius. Which is why, sadly, 4th Dimension can’t possibly be interesting in musical terms. Only absolute beginners who’ve barely started listening to power metal can truly adore them. And the boys definitely hit the stage with great optimism, since this is their very first European tour, one that will enviably fill their pit, thanks to the name of the tour’s headliner. Anyway, this generic rehashing of the melodic tradition, stuffed with symphonic pomp in the arrangements and clean melodic vocals, somehow got the crowd properly involved, which only proved that the audience this time was truly wet behind the ears and poorly schooled in metal. Still, the view of a full pit was hugely encouraging for the band, and they didn’t hide their cheerful mood. 4th Dimension wrapped up their set successfully. They play nicely, but they bore you, because they simply lack insight and any noticeable “devilish” sparks.
Labyrinth must absolutely not be thrown into the same basket as 4th Dimension, because if fate had shuffled the cards a little differently over the past decade, Sonata Arctica could easily be opening for Labyrinth today! The sextet surprised us right at the start, since guitarist Andrea Cantarelli stayed home. So Labyrinth presented themselves to the crowd as a quintet, with the excellent Roberto Tiranti in command on vocals again, a sort of Italian version of Geoff Tate (Queensryche). Tiranti still ranks among the top league of vocalists in Italian and Euro power metal alike. On his left stood Olaf Thorsen (born Carlo Andrea Magnani) with a seven-string guitar, who recently reactivated his other band, Vision Divine, too. The devilish guitar stuntman stunned everyone with his skills, as expected, and Labyrinth lifted the whole concert to a higher level, mainly thanks to a much better, energetic and explosive rhythm section that fired up the guitar riffs and Tiranti’s excellent singing, so their set felt like night and day compared to the opening band. The sound was also much, much better than the “muddy” mess during 4th Dimension, though you got the best of it if you went to enjoy the show up on the balcony. Labyrinth, whom some of you may have caught before Iron Maiden last August near Palmanova (Codroipo), are presenting their seventh studio album “Return to Heaven Denied Pt. II: A Midnight Autumn’s Dream,” released last year, on this tour. So they kicked off the show with the first track from the new album, The Shooting Star. Even though most of the crowd didn’t know the band, there was a handful of older fans in the hall who had actually come primarily for Labyrinth. Why? Labyrinth already had almost three albums out when Sonata Arctica released their debut. The album “Sons Of Thunder” is still considered the best record of Labyrinth’s career. These guys are no pushovers, and they’re certainly no unknown name in the metal world. In 2001 they went on an extensive promo tour for “Sons Of Thunder” all across Europe, opening for Blaze Bayley and Helloween. So they’ve got serious mileage behind them, and it shows in the exceptional confidence and authority of their stage delivery. The band surprised with the second song, which comes from their debut “No Limits” (1995), a record of wavering but decent quality, when they struck up In The Shade, one of the album’s better tracks. They built the show up with seasoned skill through New Horizons from the album “Return To Heaven Denied” (1998)! The new album got the most airtime, and with the fresh tracks A Chance and Sailors Of Time the band confirmed that they enjoy the new material on stage and pointed out that they’ve released yet another record worth a listen from every fan of melody in metal. Labyrinth bid farewell to the hall with one more “Return To Heaven Denied” track! With the wound-up Moonlight, which closed out a solid and tight set in which the excellent Roberto Tiranti once again fascinated above all! His voice fired off some explosively clean and melodic vocal salvos aimed at extremely high registers, enviable to anyone! Sadly, the guys ignored the album “Sons Of Thunder” completely during the set, which slightly spoiled the impression, but otherwise there’s no reason to go nitpicking. Labyrinth remain a byword for high quality and keep maturing like good old wine.
And Sonata Arctica? The hall filled up solely for them. Excitement! They created the typical atmosphere for this kind of audience, which didn’t quite result in the screaming, tearful outbursts of euphoria from a few days earlier, when Apocalyptica “sawed away” at the same venue, but it didn’t miss by much.
Sonata Arctica played the show on routine. In a way that confirmed what I experienced in Milan in November 2009 and in Graz in February 2010! Sonata Arctica delivers confidence, compactness, concision. They lean on the experience they’ve gained from touring intensely. Of course, when you feel nothing more than sheer routine, you have to wonder whether it’s the result of too many shows, which dull the feeling that fires you up in doing what you love most? There’s surely some truth in that. Sonata Arctica is oversaturated.
The repertoire offered a similar setlist. Slightly shuffled, with 8th Commandment from the debut album on the previous tour’s setlist replaced by The Misery, which proved an excellent addition, as it’s one of the better tracks from “The Winterheart’s Guilde” (2003). The mood jumped when Replica was, as expected, followed by Blank File, also from the band’s debut. By nailing the verses, the crowd saved singer Tony a nice chunk of energy, loudly backing him in unison singing. Full Moon, still one of the band’s most popular songs, put the fans’ loyalty to the test, and it only confirms how strong a debut “Ecliptica” (1999) is.
The sound? The balcony came out ahead again. The floor basically dictated that you stand closer to the mixing desk to get the balanced sound picture our ears expect. Up front, Tony Kakko was poorly audible, but the crossfire between the guitar and keyboard solos worked equally well, effective throughout and performed at a high level. Sonata Arctica can hardly go wrong here. The musicians are simply cut from top-quality dough, there are no hide-and-seek games among them, and the story they had to deliver has already been delivered many times in this stage lineup. Elias Viljanen is an important factor who brought coherence, trust and an unshaken look of strength back to the team after Jani Liimatainen’s lightning-fast departure!
The song The Dead Skin, which Sonata Arctica played in Slovakia as well as in Hungary the following day, was cut from the setlist. Why? We can only guess. One hour and twenty minutes, and not a minute more. These men haven’t been around so long that they’d feel the burden of the years and have to shorten their shows “due to frailty” to the running time of the physically exhausted Blackie Lawless and his W.A.S.P., a band that has been on the scene almost two decades longer than Sonata Arctica. A short set certainly doesn’t count in their favor. I should mention that at the Milan show, which followed Ljubljana, Sonata Arctica included an acoustic set in the first encore, something we in Ljubljana didn’t get. Simply put, Sonata Arctica deliberately saved its energy in Ljubljana. Maybe even a bit too deliberately. Anyway. The crowd found plenty of reasons to completely switch off and enjoy themselves as their heroes strung together the favorite songs. As far as the setlist goes, there’s really nothing to complain about, except that it’s short. Cvetličarna stewed in steam through the whole show and it came close to reaching the ideal microclimate for a Finnish sauna. With a bit of imagination, it actually did. The third show of the new tour still brought a rested and healthy Tony to the stage, who sang the repertoire at the required level. Over the years the man’s voice has dropped a bit, let’s say matured and “thickened,” so he has to adapt to his current vocal range so he doesn’t embarrass himself in the highest registers. Still, Tony’s performance in Ljubljana was a mile away from the sorry picture of a worn-out voice we witnessed on 25.11.2009 in Milan, at the band’s show there.
A very good concert, a quality performance, but with a lot of routine and a character that didn’t create the feeling of real hunger and fire the band had at the start of the millennium. Sadly. We’ll either have to get used to that, or strictly choose only the best of the best from the concert offer. If only to soften the blows to our wallets, caused by the dizzying rise in concert ticket prices these days. The price of a ticket to see Sonata Arctica in Slovenia doesn’t fall into that category, as it’s still easy on the pocket!
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1.Intro/Everything Fades To Gray
2.Flag In The Ground
3.The Last Amazing Grays
4.Juliet
5.Replica
6.Blank File
7.As If The World Wasn’t Ending
8.Paid in Full
9.Victoria’s Secret
10.FullMoon
11.The Misery
12.Guitar/Keyboard Showoff
13.In Black and White
—encore—
14.Caleb
15.Don’t Say A Word
16.Vodka / Everything Fades To Gray
LABYRINTH:
1.The Shooting Star
2.In the Shade
3.New Horizons
4.A Chance
5.Sailors of Time
6.Moonlight
Photo Gallery
