Sonata Arctica

Winterheart's Wild

The cold wind sings...

Review Score:

(10/10)
This is my favorite Sonata Arctica album. I realized this after listening to it for about a week. There are some strings that go with this statement, however. I do think that the songs I like the most from this album are better than their older songs. But at the same time, this album is not all killer from start to finish. There are a couple of songs that seem to fall out of the chain of normally top-quality work from Tony, Jani and the boys. Since everyone's listening tastes are different, it won't do much good to list mine here - suffice to say: unless you're the type of person who likes everything all the time, you will like some songs on here more than others. Fortunately Winterheart's Guild spreads its stylistic variations around enough to satisfy fans of everything from heart-rending ballads to charging speed metal to more unusual, middle-of-the-road territory.

The thing that sets this band apart is their approach; their approach to power metal has always been different from other bands, but it has not evolved much in and of itself. That said, if you liked Ecliptica, you'll like this - they don't sound so frantic and the tempos are a little more under control, but the same penchant for melody and technical flair are here. Lyrically, Tony just keeps getting better and better. Jani was already shredding it up like crazy from Ecliptica, and there isn't much improvement here from there; he's just as good as he always has been.

Bottom line: Winterheart's Guild is not as consistent as Ecliptica, but its high points are no less than stellar.

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