SONATA ARCTICA´S HISTORY

Our own thing was speed at a certain point, years and years back, but we´ve gone back to where we started in some ways, which was more rock/hardrock/heavyrock/ pop/whattafuckever and mixed in all kinds of elements from different areas of music we enjoy.” Tony Kakko, 2009

Sonata Arctica was born in 1996 on the edge of the world, in the northern Finnish town of Kemi. Summer of 1999 brought us the first single from Sonata Arctica, "UnOpened" and Autumn of 1999 marked the release of the very first full-length album, "Ecliptica". Initially released in Finland, other countries quickly followed. Widely successful, Ecliptica opened doors for Sonata Arctica to participate in two tribute records. ´I Want Out´ for a Helloween tribute album "Keepers of Jericho" and ´Still Loving You´ for a Scorpions tribute, "A Tribute to the Scorpions" were both kick-ass versions of originals.

Quick rise to fame continued through the end of 1999 and beginning of 2000. Soon after the release of Ecliptica, Sonata Arctica was chosen as support band for Stratovarius´ European Tour, winning over 32 other bands from 15 different record companies. The tour started in April of 2000 with Strato and Rhapsody on the road. It lasted for two months, during which Sonata played over 30 gigs in 10 countries, traveling thousands of kilometers.

Year 2000 brought not only a big tour, new mini-CD, and a small line-up change, but also media recognition. Sonata was chosen as a candidate for "the best new-comer band" by the Finnish Recording Industry Association in their annual Awards Gala, Emma. The latter half of 2001 was very busy for the band. In July a Finnish tour kicked off along with separate gigs (including Wacken Open Air in Germany) in Europe.

Needless to say, all of the major metal-releasing record companies were begging Sonata Arctica to join their ranks. After negotiations Sonata Arctica were signed to Nuclear Blast.

In 2004, the recording session featured also Henrik who added fresh spices to the soup, later on called "Reckoning Night". After over three months of hard work, the recordings were finally completed. The album was mixed and mastered in the famous Finnvox Studios. The release dates were fixed to the beginning of October. A headline tour was supposed to follow the release of Reckoning Night, but the band got an once-in-a-lifetime invitation from Nightwish to join their European tour as a special guest. The band opted in - Sonata Arctica toured Europe with Nightwish in arenas with capacities up to 12 000 people! During the tour band also played a handful of headliner shows over Europe.

The fifth studio album of Sonata Arctica was called "Unia". The album was released in May 2007. Before the release of the album a single entitled "Paid In Full" was released in Finland, Germany and Japan. The single hit the #1 position in the official Finnish charts, sticked to second place the following week and stayed in the national top ten until "Unia" was released a month later!

Now, in 2009 the band´s recorded their newest masterpiece called “The Days Of Grays”, an epic record full of traditional Sonata trademarks as well as new tunes and tones; to put it quite simple, it´s become an amazingly good album which once more shows the power of Sonata Arctica as they have proved their uniqueness by writing complex, straight-forward yet very catchy music. The artwork was done by Toxicangel, who already worked with bands such as Nightwish.

“The Days Of Grays” is about a lot of death and difficult subject. The necessary gray areas. F´d up relationships etc. It also offers a view to some aspects of this world thru my eyes and naturally some ...well, stories. Just stories, no different than any other fiction piece you may find, with some historic spices.” Says mastermind Tony Kakko.


With six gold discs and one DVD award and multiple sold-out tours Sonata Arctica has got its hands tightly attached to the history of Finnish metal music - and more will definately be achieved in the future!

The band is to hit the road in Europe in Fall 2009 again!