SONATA ARCTICA — Winterheart's Guild (review)

SONATA ARCTICA — Winterheart's Guild album cover Album · 2003 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Winterheart's Guild" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Finnish power metal act Sonata Arctica. The album was released through Spinefarm Records in March 2003. It´s the successor to "Silence" from 2001 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as keyboard player Mikko Harkin has left, after a relatively short stint with the band. He has not been replaced here, and lead vocalist Tony Kakko therefore handles most of the keyboards on the album, although Swedish sessions musician Jens Johansson also contribute, playing the more demanding keyboard parts.

The material on "Winterheart's Guild" pretty much continue down the melodic same Euro power metal road that Sonata Arctica also travelled on their first two albums. The keyboards are a little more dominant in places and as Sonata Arctica aren´t satisfied with stagnating they also add new sounds and songwriting ideas to their style, too keep things fresh and interesting for the fans. Highligths to my ears are the charming and playful "Champagne Bath" and the absolutely gorgeous, epic, and brillitantly melodic "Broken". The closing power ballad "Draw Me" is also a strong track, although it closes with nearly 4 minutes of annoying silence. I never understood why artists would do such a thing, and it quite frankly pisses me off...

...oh well...thankfully the remaining tracks on the album are also of a high quality as "Winterheart's Guild" also features a clear, powerful, and detailed sound production, and strong musicianship, 4 minutes of annoying silence at the end of the album aren´t going to ruin my day or my perception of the album, and "Winterheart's Guild" definitely deserves a lot of praise. Sonata Arctica are not only skilled musicians, they are also brilliant composers, and there are moments of absolute bliss on this album that only few artists will ever come close to achieving, so a 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.
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