Sonata
Arctica is a Finnish power metal band
from the town of Kemi, Finland.
It was created as a hard rock band named Tricky Beans, later being changed
to Tricky Means and finally to Sonata Arctica, when they shifted to
power metal. They often include symphonic
metal elements, and their later releases contain several
elements typical of progressive
metal, as well. The current line-up consists of singer,
keyboardist and songwriter Tony Kakko,
guitarist Elias Viljanen, bass guitarist Pasi Kauppinen,
keyboardist and keytarist Henrik Klingenberg, and drummer Tommy Portimo.
All the musicians of the band's history except Portimo also acted as backing
vocalists.
During
their early career, they recorded three demos which
were never sent to a recording label. According to Kakko, the band's first name
was based on one of their early songs, which was "about a lady who was
tricky and I didn't really know what I was talking about. Their first show was
about to take place but they were still unnamed, so they had to come up with
something.
In
1997 the band changed their name to Tricky Means, and from that point until
1999 their style was thoroughly worked upon and ultimately was drastically
changed, acquiring a strong emphasis on the keyboard melodies and relying on an
easily distinguishable rhythm line maintained both by the bass and the guitar.
Vocalist Tony Kakko developed a clean singing style which relies both on falsetto and tenor voices. Kakko has
stated that the change of sound was influenced by fellow Finnish power metal
band Stratovarius. At that time, second
guitarist Marko Paasikoski left the band and Pentti Peura was fired. The band
finally changed their name to Sonata Arctica, because they thought they
wouldn't be able to sell metal albums with the previous name and also because
their first label asked them to do so. "Sonata Arctica" was
suggested by a friend of the band: "sonata" for the music and
"arctica" for their hometown (Kemi, in Northern Finland).
Adapted from www.wikipedia.com
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