Sonata Arctica keeps on evolving, album after album the sound changes, and “The ninth hour” proves it. The last work of the Finnish band is going to split the opinion of fans and media, this is not an easy listening album and needs time to be assimilated.

“Closer to an Animal” is the first single extract, this melodic song keeps intact the line that Sonata Arctica has taken with “Unia”. The second single “Life”, from which has been released also a video-clip, is pretty catchy and the keyboards and guitar solos are brilliant.

Tracks like “Fairytale” and “Till Death’s Done us Apart” are powerful musical compositions that remind the old works of the band. The flute gives that something more to “We Are What We Are” a beautiful touching ballad.

The longest track is “White Pearl,Black Oceans Part II”, with its 10 minutes, I had expectations for this song, but unfortunately it is not able to enter the heart as the part I. “Rise a Night” is the most powerfull song and the only one which can be liked from all the fans because it mixes the old sound with the new in a good way.

As I said, this isn’t an easy listening album but it’s wrong judge it just from the first listen, the sound is more slow compared to the previous albums but this is the evolution that Sonata Arctica has started long time ago.
What to say about this album? Performance is excellent, production is sublime and the voice of Tony Kakko has never been so theatrical and communicative before.