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Sonata Arctica - Ecliptica results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
HBJDubs (10)
Raetsel_Lapin (14)
Janus5k (16)
ZeroSignal (16)
Arti (18)
FoolFantastic (18)
TheArkOfTurus (18)
Great_Paul (22)
neonreaper (22)
Steiner (22)
hotdogturtle (28)
Johnbobb (28)
Seanchan (32)

General Album Comments

Janus5k: one of my favorite albums

Steiner: oh HELL yeah. greatest power metal album of all time

Seanchan: Been a number of years since I've heard this album. I think I talked about this a little when it was nominated, but I was a big fan of Sonata Arctica back during college. I stopped listening to them after Unia, but their albums before that got a lot of rotation.

There's a lot to like about this album, and the general power metal sound. It's fast and frenetic, operatic at points, and just generally big and bombastic. I'm still not sure a lot of these songs lyrically make any sense but at the same time, I don't think it really matters too much.

FoolFantastic: This type of metal is never my jam but I didn't mind this album.

HBJDubs: Incredible album, and one that is very difficult to rank at the top. The top 5 have all been #1 at some point and I'm sure it'll shuffle around again. Kingdom For A Heart and FullMoon were the two songs that got me into power metal, so they'll always have a special place in my heart. But man, the breakdown followed by Kakko screaming the one line near the end of Destruction Preventer is just so good; that part hit me the hardest with this listen so I'm giving the song its due and putting it at #1.

Johnbobb: first impression: this album kinda fuckin rules

Arti: Like Seanchan above, I mostly listened to this album a lot during college, and a lot less these days. I tend to like Sonata Arctica's later albums to this one in particular, but I still feel that it's their third best, behind The Days of Grays and Pariah's Child. It's funny that my listening to Sonata Arctica all started because of an abridged series of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, which used FullMoon in their opening sequence.

HBJDubs: I actually have four of their albums ranked ahead of Ecliptica, but this was my power metal origin plus I felt there was a good chance to have a variety of #1 rankings. I was disappointed by Pariah's Child, but I do like having a fellow The Days Of Grays fan Arti, as that is my favorite album of theirs!

Janus5k: It's very weird listening to the original version of this album when I'm far more familiar with the 15th Anniversary Edition. Overall I think I prefer the enhanced production of the new version, but a couple of songs like Replica and especially My Land work better when they're not being as strict with tempo. In any case, this is one of my favorite albums; while I like a good bit of their newer stuff, it tends to be Too Slow for me whereas this is a pretty good balance. Plus, while I don't often go for power metal ballads, Letter to Dana is a contender for my favorite one ever - Tony Kakko is an incredible vocalist and it really shows there.

Seanchan: Just going to go ahead and mark myself down for highest deviation ahead of time... This is a really great, fun to listen to album...except for Letter to Dana, which I remember skipping a lot back in the day. For me, the 2nd half is a bit stronger than the 1st...outside of the previously mentioned song.

I had to listen to a bit of the 15th Anniversary Edition too, which is apparently a complete re-recording! It's...different? It's more refined, controlled, and produced; lacking in that rawness (both in vocals and instrumentation) that's been seared into my memory from the original release. In a way it's only natural that this would be the result, as 15 years of performing and refining your craft are going to do that. Obviously I prefer the original, but that's only natural as well!

hotdogturtle: Sonata Arctica is a group who I've heard of by name only and knew nothing about (not even genre), so this was my true first experience with them. I can say that this was an enjoyable album.

neonreaper: one of power metals signature albums. Really enjoyed revisiting it!