Source: Blabbermouth.net
Finnish melodic metallers SONATA ARCTICA will release their eighth studio album, “Pariah’s Child”, on March 28 via Nuclear Blast. The cover artwork for the CD can be seen below.
“Pariah’s Child” track listing:
01. The Wolves Die Young
02. Running Lights
03. Take One Breath
04. Cloud Factory
05. Blood
06. What Did You Do In The War, Dad?
07. Half A Marathon Man
08. X Marks The Spot
09. Love
10. Larger Than Life
Comments SONATA ARCTICA vocalist Tony Kakko: “There are some instant SONATA ‘greatest-hits’ songs there, which feels good.
“I think we reached the result we had in mind, each of us in our own field.
“We went on to create the next SONATA ARCTICA power metalesque album and I think we achieved it adequately.
“I have to say that I had drifted pretty far away from those ‘days of thunder,’ that speedy, happy-go-lucky attitude.
“I was happy to notice this style can still make me smile. It’s good. Music has to do that to me. It also shows the other older songs in a totally new light for me.
“I can now understand and appreciate why the fans enjoy what we did in the early days.”
Regarding the new CD title and cover artwork, Kakko said: “As always, it’s pretty hard coming up with a name for the new baby. I tried to approach it from many angles; how this is our eighth album and how easy it would be to abuse that fact. All the symbolism of figure eight, eternity and so on. But that just did not feel right, as it’s been done so many times. Then I started to think how we’d in ways abandoned our ‘totem animal,’ the wolf and all what comes with the territory.
“As the music on the album is bowing more towards the ‘old’ SONATA, meaning more power metal-style elements and wolves in many of the songs in one form or another, it was clear we need a wolf on the cover. An abandoned wolf. A pariah. Or pariah’s child, actually. The new generation to bring the old logo back.”
SONATA ARCTICA last August parted ways with bassist Marko Paasikoski and replaced him with Pasi Kauppinen (SILENT VOICES, ex-REQUIEM, WINTERBORN).
The band will launch a European headlining tour in support of “Pariah’s Child” on April 10 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
SONATA ARTICA‘s latest album, “Stones Grow Her Name”, was released in Europe on May 18, 2012 and in North America on May 22, 2012 via Nuclear Blast Records.
“Stones Grow Her Name” sold around 2,100 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 9 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.
