History Music / SonataArctica

* VillianProtagonist: The subject of the Wildfire story.

* LyricalDissonance: They often pair grim lyrics with upbeat music, at least until Reckoning Night.

* NewSoundAlbum: In their 2007 album "Unia," the band nearly abandoned traditional power metal altogether and experimented with art rock elements.

** With the release of "Stones Grow Her Name", the band changed towards a more straightforward hard rock sound.

* EpicRocking: Each album typically has one very long, complicated song. Examples include "Destruction Preventer", "The Power of One", "White Pearl, Black Oceans...", "Deathaura", and "My Dream's But a Drop of Fuel for a Nightmare". It's only 6:13, but it's certainly among the most progressive songs they've ever done.

* UpdatedRerelease: Done so far for ''Ecliptica'', ''Silence'', and ''Takatalvi''

In 2006, the band found they had a problem: Jani still hadn't finished his civil service, which is mandatory in Finland, and couldn't leave the country, so Elias Viljanen replaced him for the tour. As if this didn't annoy the fans enough, Sonata Arctica decided they were completely and utterly bored of power metal. ''Unia'' came out in 2007, and was a rather sudden switch to progressive metal. Some fans loved it, some hated it. Elias permanently replaced Jani as the guitarist shortly after. In 2009, ''The Days of Grays'' came out, and got reactions as mixed as ''Unia'' did. Another live DVD was recorded in April of 2011 in Oulu, Finland, and released later that year.

* GreenAesop: "Respect the Wilderness", "Wrecking the Sphere." Which are both Japanese bonus tracks, incidentally... Are they trying to say something about the Japanese?
** [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped To the Japanese]], more likely.

In 2006, the band found they had a problem: Jani still hadn't finished his civil service, which is mandatory in Finland, and couldn't leave the country, so Elias Viljanen replaced him for the tour. As if this didn't annoy the fans enough, Sonata Arctica decided they were completely and utterly bored of power metal. ''Unia'' came out in 2007, and was a rather sudden switch to progressive metal. Some fans loved it, some hated it. Elias permanently replaced Jani as the guitarist shortly after. In 2009, ''The Days of Grays'' came out, and got reactions as mixed as ''Unia'' did. Another live DVD will be recorded in April of 2011 in Oulu, Finland, and released eventually.

* Stones Grow Her Name (April 2012)

* LyricalDissonance: They often pair grim lyrics with upbeat music.

* HeHadItComing: Inverted in "Don't Say A Word". Caleb feels perfectly justified in raping and killing Juliet. It's her fault anyway... (Kind of a subversion, really. In "Juliet," you find out she didn't actually die.)

* DeathBySex: In "White Pearl, Black Oceans...".

* GreenAesop: "Respect the Wilderness", "Wrecking the Sphere". Which are both Japanese bonus tracks, incidentally... Are they trying to say something about the Japanese?

Just remember: 1. Wolves, not dragons. 2. [[BlatantLies They Are Not Power Metal.]] 3. The lyrics are not personal stories. Not even those that really really sound like they are.

* DeadpanSnarker: Henrik (keyboardist) is known to snark and roll eyes at his band mates antics

* GreenAesop: "Respect the Wilderness", "Wrecking the Sphere".
** Which are both Japanese bonus tracks, incidentally... Are they trying to say something about the Japanese?
*** [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped To the Japanese]], more likely.
* HeHadItComing: Inverted in "Don't Say A Word", in which a man kills his wife for cheating on him. (Kind of a subversion, really. In "Juliet," you find out she didn't actually die.)
** Actually Juliet isn't Caleb's wife, and she isn't cheating on him because, as explained in The End of this Chapter, they are not together. It still applies though, because Caleb feels perfectly justified in raping and killing her. It's her fault anyway...

* WordSaladLyrics: "My Dream's But a Drop of Fuel for a Nightmare"
** Which makes perfect sense, considering it's describing a nightmare.
** This also comes up in a number of their other songs, such as ''The Harvest''.

* ColdWar: "Destruction Preventer" is a song about the guy in charge of launching retaliation nukes in case the other side fires them first. This may be an allusion to Stanislav Petrov, a russian colonel in charge of thier nukes that got false readings on his radar caused by a sun glare. [[spoiler:The lyrics imply he launches them after seeing a 'light in the sky'.]]