Natalie
sonata arctica
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Sonata Arctica was formed in 1996 on the edge of the world, in the northern Finnish town of Kemi. Originally formed as Tricky Beans, they released few demos and as they got the contract they had to change their name. In 1999 the band recorded a new demo "FullMoon" in Tico Tico Studios located in their hometown, Kemi. At the time of recording the line-up consisted of: Tony (vocals/keys), Jani (guitars), Tommy (drums), and Janne (bass). This new demo was the first exploration for the band in heavy metal waters. The band's trademark sound of fast, melodic and keyboard oriented heavy metal with clear, high vocals was born. As fate would have it, and with help from Ahti Kortelainen of Tico Tico Studios, the "FullMoon" demo found its way to the premier metal label of Finland, Spinefarm. At the same time Tricky Beans became Sonata Arctica. Summer of 1999 brought us the first single from Sonata Arctica, "UnOpened". The title song was instantaneously included in the Metalliliitto 1999 compilation CD. Two tracks from the single, UnOpened and Mary-Lou marked the arrival of SA to the power metal community. During the first mix/pressing of the UnOpened single, Track 1, UnOpened, was unintentionally slowed down. The mistake was discovered shortly after the first batch of discs was sent to music stores. The entire first pressing was recalled. Approximately 200 copies from that first run were sold and are now considered rare collectors items. 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". Both were covers of originals. Soon after the release of Ecliptica, the band's keyboardist, Tony Kakko, decided to concentrate more on singing, as opposed to trying to sing and play keyboards at the same time. Mikko Härkin (ex-Kenziner) joined the band to relieve Tony from keys and to allow the frontman to roam the stage. It introduced a new capability for Sonata Arctica - to have two keyboard players play simultaneously. Their rise to fame continued through the end of 1999 and beginning of 2000. Soon after the release of Ecliptica, Sonata Arctica was chosen as the support band for Stratovarius' European Tour, beating over 32 other bands from 15 different record companies. The tour started in April of 2000 with Stratovarius and Rhapsody on the road. It lasted for two months, during which Sonata played over 30 gigs in 10 countries, traveling thousands of kilometres. This successful tour was followed by the release of the new mini-CD Successor. This new disc included two previously unreleased tracks, two cover tracks for upcoming tribute albums, some live tracks from Provinssi Rock and one edited track from Ecliptica. In a small line-up change, Janne Kivilahti made a decision to part with the band due to personal reasons. Janne's last gig took place in Kemi on 30th June in the summer of 2000. Janne was replaced by Marko Paasikoski, who happened to be one of the founding members of Tricky Beans. 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 new millennium is also treating the Sonata beans well. In the spring of 2001 Sonata Arctica opened two gigs for Alice Cooper, Dio and Ratt (in Oulu and Helsinki) in Monsters of the Millennium 2001 tour. The band worked on the second full-length album from autumn of 2000 through the winter of 2001. Again, all the songs were composed by the band's vocalist Tony Kakko. The first single from the album, "Wolf & Raven", was released in May '01. The album was scheduled for an initial release in Japan in June, other territories following shortly after. The band also played its first four concerts in Japan in September 2001. 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. Then the band headed towards Japan in September. After the Japanese tour, Sonata Arctica toured Europe as a support act for the band Gamma Ray along with Vanishing Point as special guests. During the 5 weeks on the road, the band played in a total of 12 countries with 28 shows. The tour ended with a show in Helsinki, Finland to the delight of the Finnish fans in November. While touring, the second single from the album Silence, "Last Drop Falls", was released. The song got aired in the domestic radio stations, gathering even more popularity for the band. Three weeks after the European tour, it was time for the second leg of the Finnish tour. Thirteen gigs were played across Finland. They then played four shows in Brazil and two more in Chile. The next release was the live album "Songs Of Silence". It was recorded in Tokyo, September 4th, 2001. The European and Asian editions had completely different artwork, both made by Janne "ToxicAngel" Pitkänen who also became the exclusive artist for the following Sonata Arctica releases. The Asian version was released in March while the other parts of the world got their live album in July/August. After the last show of the Silence tour, Jörisrock 2002, Mikko Härkin decided to leave the band due to personal reasons. The band announced their search for the new keyboard player and got a huge amount of applications from all around the world. Two of the candidates, both well-known and highly skillful keyboardists from Finland, were asked to travel to Kemi for the audition. Since the capabilities of the players were already known among the band, the choosing of the new member was a bit extraordinary - the band wanted a player who could fit not only musically but also mentally to the band, so they dragged the applicants one-by-one to the bar. After spending a night in a bar with the candidates, the band voted for Henrik Klingenberg. Henrik had been playing in various metal bands like Silent Voices and Requiem about a decade or so. The third studio, album entitled "Winterheart's Guild", was recorded in the meantime, without the new keyboard player. A fellow mate of the band, Jens Johansson of Stratovarius, offered his helping hand and the band naturally was really pleased to get a world class keyboard player as a guest for their new album. Jens played solos for four songs while Tony handled most of the keyboard duties. Henrik's first appearance with Sonata Arctica was held on February 21st, 2003 in Tornio. The second show with the new line-up was held at the Tavastia club. In Japan, Winterheart's Guild was released soon afterwards. The band hit the road and traveled to Japan and played eight sold-out gigs there. The first single of Winterheart's Guild was "Victoria's Secret". During the first week, the single hit #2 position on the official Finnish charts. The first position was taken over by Darude's new single which was released at the same time. During the next two weeks, Victoria's Secret seized the first position. Though the previous single "Last Drop Falls" was a hit in Finland, it never rose higher than #3 on the charts during its four months on them. The domestic success continued after Winterheart's Guild was released in Finland. During its debutant week it peaked at #3. The album stayed five weeks on the top 10. After an album release, they started on the first leg of the Finnish tour. Eight successive shows in Finland were followed by four more in France. The festival season was opened with S
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