I want to like Sonata Arctica's newer material, I really do. Unfortunately it is just not happening for me. It is extremely disappointing because I rank Silence as one of my all time favorite power metal albums, if not my favorite. The combination of speed metal and power metal along with some amazingly catchy songs and some surprisingly heart-wrenching ballads keeps me coming back for more over and over again. But that feeling is absent from their more recent material. It's unfortunate.
Unia was the first album that really let me down. I skipped the next one and then decided based on the hype that this was the band's best album in years to give them another chance. I will probably not be giving them another shot after this one.
The album starts off fine, with a decent fast-paced song in "Only the Broken Hearts". From that point on though the band descends into radio-friendly modern rock tracks with very few highlights. Among the lowlights in "Shitload of Money" with its ridiculous lyrics. "Cinderblox" is interesting, with its banjo melody, and the two "Wildfire" tracks have their moments. The rest of the stuff is just too stale and boring.
This is pretty much it for Sonata Arctica as far as I am concerned. I will likely not be checking out anything else.
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