Finland is a country with very high living standards which produces a lot of technology. Finland also produces loads of heavy metal bands some of them are very famous like Stratovarius and others trying to be, like Sonata Arctica. I’ve never been a big fan of the Finnish power metal, but right now we are dealing with the new album of Sonata Arctica with the obvious title “The Ninth Hour” since it is their ninth release. Listening the first tracks (“Life”, “Fairytale”) of “The ninth hour” Sonata Arctica seems to me like the grew a distance from the melodic power metal that was accustomed to us. More keyboards, more light weight compositions which can be a pleasant listen, but does not leave anything to our mind in the end. The tracks following leave us with the same feeling and I think this is one of the weakest albums for the Finns. With some more spins the tracks “Rise A Night” which is the fastest and heaviest track of the album, “Life” and “We Are What We Are” stand out as the strongest songs of the album. Those who are fond of the “fairytale” hard rock that was established by Nightwish but with male vocals can invest without fear.
