Finnish melodic metallers SONATA ARCTICA have set a March 28 release date for their new album, Pariah’s Child.
Comments SONATA ARCTICA vocalist Tony Kakko: “As always, it’s pretty hard coming up with a name for the new baby. I tried to approach it from many angles; how this is our eighth album and how easy it would be to abuse that fact. All the symbolism of figure eight, eternity and so on. But that just did not feel right, as it’s been done so many times. Then I started to think how we’d in ways abandoned our ‘totem animal,’ the wolf and all what comes with the territory.
“As the music on the album is bowing more towards the ‘old’ SONATA, meaning more power metal-style elements and wolves in many of the songs in one form or another, it was clear we need a wolf on the cover. An abandoned wolf. A pariah. Or pariah’s child, actually. The new generation to bring the old logo back.”
SONATA ARCTICA last August parted ways with bassist Marko Paasikoski and replaced him with Pasi Kauppinen (SILENT VOICES, ex-REQUIEM, WINTERBORN).
The band will launch a European headlining tour in support of Pariah’s Child on April 10 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Says SONATA ARCTICA keyboardist Henrik “Henkka” Klingenberg: “It’s been a while since we last toured Europe, so I’m very happy that we can announce our first tour with our new album.
“Since the album will be out in March 2014, we don’t want to waste any time but will head out for a full European tour.
“The whole band is really looking forward to play some new songs for you and introduce our new bass player, Pasi, for all our fans. He’s a monster live, you’ll see.”
