It has been fifteen years since Sonata Arctica put out their debut album Ecliptica and they have come a long way since then, growing and maturing into the formidable outfit they are today. To celebrate the landmark occasion of Ecliptica‘s fifteenth anniversary, the band re-recorded and reworked it all, and have created quite the offering.
One of the first things that really strikes you about Ecliptica Revisited is the vocals; there is a lot more power behind them and there is very clear improvements in both the intonation and pronunciation of the lyrics, really showing how singer Tony has evolved over the course of the band’s career. Similarly, if you take a closer look at the instrumentation, everything is just much more polished and the band feel tighter and just more together, and it makes for a highly enjoyable listen as a result.
Indeed, one of the highlights is certainly Fullmoon and the instrumentation brings a breath of fresh air to the track. The reworked keyboard introduction works well, giving the song a different feel before it even properly gets going, and the guitar line is absolutely incredible. It is a real step up from the original part and you can tell it’s a different musician playing it because there’s a few stylistic changes which really switch things up in a good way.
As a whole, Ecliptica Revisited is a great listen and a lot of the songs have really stood the test of time – it’s like the band has taken the best parts of the original album and have added to them to create something even better. Sure, it’s still not their best album, but it’s a damn good offering to say the least!
8/10
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You can read our interview with bassist Pasi here and our review of Pariah’s Child here.
