The Ninth Hour Sonata Arctica 2016 Nuclear Blast Records Sonata Arctica are a Heavy Metal band from Finland who play a very symphonic and progressive form of Metal that is instantly identifiable as Sonata Arctica. Having moved further and further away from the original Power Metal sound that defined their first few releases, Sonata Arctica have now come into their own sound, Sonata Arctica are now easily their own animal. The Ninth Hour is Sonata Arctica’s 9th studio album and is the follow up to 2014’s fantastic Pariah’s Child. According to Sonata Arctica, The Ninth Hour contains biblical themes surrounding sacrifices made during the ninth hour, followed by the guilt and remorse felt from this. However, this theme is extended to the state of the world and the decisions made in 2016 that will make us who we are in the future. Stylistically, The Ninth Hour can draw similarities with Pariah’s Child and one of the reasons for this is the solid line-up held by Sonata Arctica over the last few years. Sonata Arctica is composed of Tony Kakko on the vocals, Elias Viljanen and Paso Kauppinen on the guitar and bass with Henrik Klingenberg playing keyboards, leaving Tommy Portimo on the drums. As usual, Sonata Arctica have decide to forsake a producer and do the job themselves. Obviously, this isn’t an issue with Sonata Arctica, they know exactly what they’re doing, what sound they want and as stated above, no one else sounds like Sonata Arctica as they flow between serious social commentary to songs that show a lighter side to the band. The Ninth Hour is heavy on the keyboards, as you would expect from Sonata Arctica, however, the keyboards do not swamp over the mix like in a Melodic Hard Rock release, it all fits perfectly together to make an album that is fun to listen to with orchestrations that are fantastically scored, if you’re a fan of Sonata Arctica, you know what you’re getting. The Ninth Hour begins in typical Sonata Arctica style with Closer to an Animal which sets the tone for the rest of the album dealing with our relationship with the world and in particular to that of nature. As mentioned above, the orchestrations are fantastic on The Ninth Hour, but it is not only this that is melodic, much of the rhythms featured are taken from Finnish folk music and traditional songs. This is mostly prominent in the second track Life, even with the songs particularly feel good clichéd lyrics. Easily the best track on The Ninth Hour is angry deconstruction of how Donald Trump will become the next President of the USA with Fairytale. Once more, Fairytale begins with some fantastic orchestration and it is a huge surprise that Life was chosen to be one of the singles from The Ninth Hour instead of Fairytale. Unfortunately for The Ninth Hour, the orchestrations are that beautiful that they overshadow the actual songs which unlike the previous album, stray into unmemorable and rather boring, the ballads in particular without the orchestrations would possibly be unlistenable. The Overton low whistle played by Troy Donockley of Nightwish practically saves We Are What We Are from being a borderline dirge. It was always going to be a difficult task to follow up Pariah’s Child and unfortunately, The Ninth Hour doesn’t quite hit the mark. However, the album does have some redeeming features, the heavier songs ooze with classic Sonata Arctica, such as Rise a Night and Fly, Navigate, Communicate and as stated above, the orchestrations are something to behold, but The Ninth Hour is far from Sonata Arctica’s best work. 6/10 Adam Life (Kakko)
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