After so much wait “Reckoning Night” , the new album of Sonata Arctica, is out, in spite of the northern origin one of the warmest power bands of the period. Masterpiece or delusion? The critics divided this time. Awaiting for your opinion, we offer you a further element of judgement with this short talk with Tony Kakko (voice) and Jani Liimatainen (guitar).

Hi guys, let’s talk about “Reckoning Night”: how were the new songs born?

Tony: There’s been a big background work during the years we have been inactive, I had many ideas but preferred to proceed cautious. Among those songs there was “Shamandalie”. Jani: Yeah, “Shamandalie”, “Blinded no More” and much before “Don’t Say a Word”. Tony: It’s been all much easier in comparison with “Winterheart’s Guild” because I did not take care of keyboards by myself, even if a big hand had been given by Jens (Johansson, Stratovarius NdA) back then, Henrik (Klingenberg, keyboard player) made a very great work

I noticed some influence from progressive and hard rock music. Do you agree?

Tony: Yeah, this album is much heavier but also more progressive than the previous ones. I thought the same thing when we heard it again after the final mixing.

What does “Reckoning Night” stand for? Why such a title?

Tony: It’s been an album without a title for a very long time, then one day I took the dictionary in my hand and opened it casually, and the first word it happened to read was “reckoning”. I asked Jani if he liked that, and he agreed…then another word popped up in mind, “night”…and so the title “Reckoning Night” was out…nice, isn’t it? Jani: It’s a bizarre story, but that’s totally true.

Why did you choose “Don’t Say a Word” as opening single?

Tony: Do you want to know the truth? It was the single song we had ready completed. Then it revealed great as single, with the right vibe, a perfect single in my opinion…

…Another way to say “Silence”…

Tony: Ahahah, that’s true! I did not mind that before!

What are your relationships with Nuclear Blast like?

Jani: Excellent, we were eager to make the quality jump…though also before things were going quite well. We had been contacted by Century Media too, but finally we went for Nuclear Blast. I think it’s been the right choice.

How do you consider your previous albums now?

Jani: “Ecliptica” has been the first, very fast but too immature, “Silence” has got different songs, it is an album that follows its own way, it’s got not a single path, while “Winterheart…” is the most technical album we’ve made, for sure better than the previous two, in my opinion. Tony: It’s like they’re all sons of mine, I cannot judge.

What do you think of the modern metal scene?

Tony: Too exploited, there are too many bands with little originality, with double bass drums and sharpened vocals storming down.

What kind of music do you listen to usually?

Tony: Everything, from black metal to classical music. Jani: I like a bit of all. From Frank Zappa, great master, to Nora Jones, very valid.

Diego Colombo