SONATA ARCTICA — Winterheart's Guild (review)

SONATA ARCTICA — Winterheart's Guild album cover Album · 2003 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
RuneWalsh2112
I've explored the band's three early albums in a reversed order due to my late gained appreciation for their music. It's not difficult to see the band that brought us "Reckoning Night" while listening to "Winterheart's Guild", the fast-paced songs are punchy and feature strong melodies while the slower material is easily some of the cheesiest ballads that you'll probably hear on any record. I guess that the biggest difference this time around comes from a guest spot by the Swedish power metal keyboardist Jens Johansson who not only added new instrumental prowess to the otherwise pretty stale song formats that Sonata Arctica had dug themselves into at this point of their career, but also pretty much single-handedly makes compositions like "The Cage" and "Silver Tongue" into the awesome experiences that they are.

One would assume that the departure of the keyboardist Mikko Härkin would have hurt the band a lot since most of their material is very keyboard-driven. The absence of an actual keyboard player is surprisingly not too noticeable since Tony Kakko does a decent job of playing on the less demanding songs while letting Jens Johansson handle the tougher, fast-paced, solos. It's actually these demanding solos that make this album one of the band's most memorable with tracks like "The Cage" and "Victoria's Secret" making up for otherwise a pretty predictable song blueprints. If you're a fan of Power Metal then chances are you're already well familiar with "Winterheart's Guild" since all of the first four Sonata Arctica albums feature solid songwriting and enough excitement in them to make fans of the genre rejoice. To me, this is easily the most significant album that the band have done right after "Reckoning Night" (or before, if you want to follow the chronological order).

***** star songs: The Cage (4:37)

**** star songs: Abandoned, Pleased, Brainwashed, Exploited (5:37) Gravenimage (6:58) Silver Tongue (3:58) The Misery (5:08) Victoria's Secret (4:43) Champagne Bath (3:57) Broken (5:18) The Ruins Of My Life (5:14)

*** star songs: Draw Me (9:26)
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