ALBUM REVIEW: Acoustic Adventures – Volume One – Sonata Arctica
So-called acoustic albums can be hit and miss. Sometimes the music simply doesn’t lend itself to being stripped of its bombast and other times the arrangements are simply too far removed from what made the original number great. It’s rarely a case of the original material being lacking, but for every ALICE IN CHAINS Unplugged, there’s a HELLOWEEN Unarmed out there somewhere (there’s a reason Andi Deris himself has vocally distanced himself from that one). In the case of Finnish power metal stalwarts SONATA ARCTICA and Acoustic Adventures – Volume One, we have an album that thankfully sits in the former camp.
Perhaps that’s not that surprising, though. Over the course of two-plus decades, Tony Kakko and his band of morose melody makers have played around with the notion of what a “metal” band should be, organically shifting their sound from flat-out power metal to icy melodic rock and everything in-between. Despite some dramatic sonic shifts in that time though, SONATA ARCTICA have always had a definable constant in Kakko’s song-writing, with expertly crafted vocal melodies and piano lines leading the charge for whatever flavour of instrumentation is seen fit to follow. The focus of vocals and keys being at the fore allows SONATA ARCTICA to naturally modify themselves again, reinterpreting an almost career-spanning range of tracks into serene mixes of folk, pop and even occasional bluegrass, all the while still sounding exactly like SONATA ARCTICA, thanks to dense pianos, wintery synths and Kakko’s unmistakable voice.
On the note of material, it’s worth addressing the midsize elephant in the room. Two thirds of the song selections here are pulled from Unia onwards, often judgementally seen as a divisive turning point in SONATA ARCTICA’s discography. While that perception has lessened over time, those looking for early years’ classics will be sorely disappointed as Ecliptica goes wholly unrepresented. Yet, while it would be lovely to hear some of those numbers re-spun here, Acoustic Adventures doesn’t suffer for it. If anything, the tracklist choices made here invite older school fans to re-evaluate the more recent side of the band’s oeuvre, as their rearrangement allows a number of these songs to shine in ways they simply didn’t before.
Take a song like Alone In Heaven; always a solid number, but perhaps not necessarily top tier SONATA material. The version here is stripped back to acoustic guitars, classical pianos and gospel-infused synths and takes on all-round different quality, deftly swaying between menacing, upbeat and remorseful in equal measure. With its earworm of a chorus given more breathing room, it’s hard to argue this isn’t the definitive version of Alone In Heaven. Elsewhere on the album, Talviyö’s A Little Less Understanding and Unia’s Paid In Full are channelled through the guise of a pub back-room’s folk band, adding rustling drums, bumping basslines and even banjo accompaniments. While not overly significant changes, they both benefit surprisingly well from the underlying jig they now bear and prove a delight.
Unsurprisingly, the most dramatic changes come with some of the band’s heavier cuts. The love-spurned Don’t Say A Word has its crunchy guitars removed, allowing its dramatic piano line to take far more prominence. Bolstered by textures of strings, softened drums and rattling acoustic guitars, Don’t Say A Word changes from a fast paced shout to seething rage and works brilliantly. Less effective is the pseudo-bluegrass of Wolf & Raven which is arguably the album’s only real misfire. The song keeps its original tempo, with the spiralling lead guitar now transferred to piano, but the band feel slightly like they’re tripping over themselves to keep it lively. It’s a shame, as the musicianship is impressive, but something is simply lost on Wolf & Raven – still, it’s certainly improvement over the bonus track on Silence’s 2008 reissue!
Bar the very rare blip though, Acoustic Adventures is a consistently and seamless revitalisation of SONATA ARCTICA’s material. It can’t be understated that a huge part of this is simply down to the performance of the band across the album. The whole session feels more like a very polished live gig rather than something overly fiddled with in the studio. Even on songs where the arrangement changes are limited, there is a warmth and energy to the delivery on Acoustic Adventures that sparks new life in to the material. Stones Grow Her Name’s Tonight I Dance Alone is fairly faithful structurally, but replacing the guitar with piano and gospel synths transform it from an alt-rock version of TONI BRAXTON’s Un-Break My Heart to a power ballad proper. Similarly, modern SONATA ARCTICA deliver an expertly matured version of Talullah that lessens some of the cheesier pomp of the original in favour of transforming it into the prerequisite second act ballad of a Broadway show. In this acoustic setting, Kakko turns in one of the best vocal performances of his career, with the restrained instrumentation truly shining a spotlight on his naturally emotive and charismatic delivery.
Taken as a whole, Acoustic Adventures – Volume One is nothing short of an unexpected and extremely pleasant surprise, with these stripped-down versions showing how strong the underlying song-writing is across the band’s body of work. SONATA ARCTICA have produced a sterling example of what an acoustic album should be, and one that is suitably fitting for one of melodic metal’s most idiosyncratic bands. Not only will newer fans enjoy hearing expertly tweaked versions of songs they know well, but hopefully lapsed fans will discover something they’ve missed in the band’s recent history. Bring on Volume Two.
Rating: 8/10
Acoustic Adventures – Volume One is set for release on January 21st via Atomic Fire Records.
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