SONATA ARCTICA – “Pariah’s child”
Pariah’s Child
With their eights album, SONATA ARCTICA go back to their roots and reanimate their totem animal, the wolf. SONATA ARCTICA changed their sound with every new album within the past years. “Pariah’s Child” is their eights longplayer and it leads back to the band’s first days. The keyboard is more cheerful and there are the typical SONATA ARCTICA riffs that missed on former albums. “Pariah’s Child’ is recorded and produced by the band itself and mixed by bassist Pasi Kauppinen.
Back to the roots
Also the title and the cover are a connection to the band’s beginning. Singer Tony Kakko: “I started to think how we’d in ways abandoned our ‘totem animal’, the wolf and all what comes with the territory. As the music on the album is bowing more towards the “old” Sonata, meaning more power metal style elements and wolves in many of the songs in one form or another, it was clear we need a wolf on the cover. An abandoned wolf. A pariah. Or Pariah’s child, actually. The new generation to bring the old logo back.”
The opener ‘The wolves die young’ is the best prove for this. The song is fast, cheerful and has pervasive keyboard tunes and snappy guitar riffs. Welcome back to the roots! The following ‘Running lights’ is half a ballad with funny keyboard accents in the background. ‘Take one breath’ and ‘Cloud factory’ are also songs to make traditional fans happy.
With ‘What did you do in the war, Dad’, SONATA ARCTICA become serious and melancholic. This truly is a power ballad with the goose-pimple factor and a very serious theme. A boy talks to his father about the war and the father admits that he does not want to talk about it. After the fast ‘Half a marathon man’ there comes the album’s funny title ‘X marks the spot’. A voice is telling a kind of weird story that does not seem to belong to the song. The refrain sung by Tony Kakko is one to sing along with and in the end the listener should take part in the song.
Ballads and orchestra
SONATA ARCTICA are also famous for their ballads, but ‘Love’ is not that powerful and strong. It’s a soft and romantic song with only voice and piano in the beginning and guitar in the end. ‘Love’ is slow and soulful, a bit like the band’s song ‘Shy’. The bouncer ‘Larger than life’ is very epic and Tony Kakko tells a story during the song like in ‘My dream is but a drop of fuel for a nightmare’. With the orchestra and it’s quiet parts, the song builds a bridge towards Sonata Arctica’s albums “Unia” and “The days of grays”.
“Pariah’s Child” gets more back to the roots than the former album “Stones grow her name”. SONATA ARCTICA use their old trademarks and carry them to a new level. Many of the songs will be great fun live.
Tracklist:
01. Wolves die young
02. Running lights
03. Take one breath
04. Cloud factory
05. Blood
06. What did you do in the war, Dad
07. Half a marathon man
08. X marks the spot
09. Love
10. Larger than life