By now, most metal music fans should be familiar with Sonata Arctica, as they have been the face of Finnish power metal since the mid 2000’s.  However, their shift in direction has had more than one fan scratching their heads, none more so than on their latest album The Days of Grays.  Naturally, some fans are wondering if Sonata Arctica has lost their way.  On their latest album Stones Grow Her Name, the Sonata magic is rekindled, merging the old with the new.

One of the very first things that the listener will notice on Stones Grow Her Name is the speed in which some of the songs are played, a marked improvement from both The Days of Grays and Unia, both of which showed predominantly slower tempo songs.  The overall tempo gets established with the opener “Only the Broken Hearts (Make You Beautiful)” and carries itself through songs such as “Shitload O’ Money” and “Somewhere Close to You.”  That isn’t to say there aren’t some slower songs on the album, as “The Day” and “Alone in Heaven” indicate.  The slower songs on the current album succeed where the venture into slowness has failed in recent years is due to the amount of emotion within the songs, particularly on songs such as “Alone in Heaven” and the first single off the album “I Have a Right.”  If you’ve followed Sonata Arctica for a while then you know what to expect in terms of lyrics, and certainly Stones Grow Her Name carries on this tradition well.  In terms of the ability to catch onto the songs fairly quick, it succeeds in that regard.  By now, I am sure there are a few older Sonata Arctica fans that are wondering if they’ll ever go back to the “Play at Ludicrous Speed” levels, and though that was what got them on the map, it has been the ability to control that speed that has them remaining near the top.  This has never more been evident than on Stones Grow Her Name, which seemingly shows the band closer to perfection than before.

Sonata Arctica is no stranger when it comes to high praise and harsh criticism.  What has kept them relevant is their ability to balance between the two elements and maintain their identity in their music.  Stones Grow Her Name is possibly their best album since Reckoning Night, with a better balance between the fast songs and ballads, as well as their ability to invoke emotion within the lyrics.  Long time fans and newer fans alike will not be disappointed by Stones Grow Her Name.

TRACK LISTING

1.  Only the Broken Hearts
     (Make You Beautiful)
2.  Shitload O’ Money
3.  Losing My Insanity
4.  Somewhere Close to You
5.  I Have a Right
6.  Alone in Heaven
7.  The Day
8.  Cinderblox
9.  Don’t Be Mean
10.  Wildfire Part II -
       One with the Mountain
11.  Wildfire Part III -
        Wildfire Town Population 0

Total playing time:  53:13

Release Date: May 18th, 2012
Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Sonata Arctica - Stones Grow Her Name

Reviewer: Peter

May 5, 2012

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