I Have a Right

Seriously, am I missing something with this cover? Foot fetishists should be pleased, at least...

Well, everyone's favorite Finnish power metal band is back, but are they back to doing straight-up power metal or are they sticking with the progressive tendencies of "Unia" and "The Days of Grace?" Well, they've met an odd medium, but don't expect power/prog in the vein of Pagan's Mind or anything. It's about 60% prog, 40% power, and that power percentage is mostly in the lyrics, and even those have a proggy twist to them. (whoo, alliteration)

But genres schmenres, does it SOUND good? Well... Honestly, no. The chorus is covered in the most sappy, saccharine, schmaltzy keyboards in Sonata Arctica's discography. (I am all about alliteration today, ain't I?) I mean, I can deal with cheesy keyboards, it's part of being a power-metalhead. But the chorus takes up over half the song! The songs starts off with the chorus, for crying out loud! And the chorus is catchy, but in a poppy way, with an all-too-obvious concert-sing-along aesthetic. This song is nothing more than an audience pumper at concerts. Sonata Arctica have a ton of those in their discography already, but they're all a million times more fun than this. Also, the subject of free will and rights has been done near ad nauseum in music (and of course, Rush did it best, mixing commercial appeal with melody, smart lyrics and technical proficiency). Sonata Arctica does none of that here. Way underneath the highly-mixed keyboards, you can hear something that's supposed to resemble a guitar riff, but it does nothing but power chords with the occasional chuggy pseudo-thrash triplets.

Okay, so a keyboard-driven melody, that's not so bad, right? Here's the thing, though, the melody isn't keyboard OR guitar-driven. The song is so dependent on that chorus to get anywhere, the instrumentation is entirely an afterthought. Yes, even the keyboards, which are usually the most prominent instrument on any Sonata Arctica song, are drowned under that goddamn chorus. And it's not even that good a chorus. It's really repetitive and just drills itself into your head until you succumb to the pressure and say, "All right, you're catchy!"

I could harp all day about how mediocre this track is, but I'm not gonna let it hinder my possible enjoyment of "Stones Grow Her Name." I'm going to hope and pray that Sonata Arctica just released this single to appease some contractual obligation they have with Nuclear Blast and cross my fingers that the new album is a pleasant mixture of their power metal past (not one, but two sequels to the song "Wildfire" from the Reckoning Night album!) with some proggy elements thrown in. Oh, and a song "Shitload of Money."

Wait, what?