SONATA ARCTICA To Release Re-Recorded 15th Anniversary Edition Of ‘Ecliptica’

Monday, 25th August 2014 By Dead Rhetoric

Finnish melodic metal heroes SONATA ARCTICA have been keeping themselves very busy lately. Having successfully released their eighth studio album Pariah’s Child this past April – which debuted at #1 in Finland and at #6 on the American Billboard Heatseekers chart – and poised to launch their world tour, band members found the time to re-record their defining 1999 debut album Ecliptica, known to many fans as SONATA’s flawless beginning fifteen years ago.

Keyboard player Henrik “Henkka” Klingenberg shares the back-story on how the project came to be: “When it first was suggested to us by our Japanese label that we’d re-record our debut album Ecliptica, it felt a bit weird, but somehow the idea grew on us. Being that only Tony [Kakko, vocalist] and Tommy [Portimo, drummer] played on the original one, we thought that it would be a fun thing to do, to give these great songs another run. We’re definitely not trying to re-write history: the original Ecliptica is the starting point of this band and a very special album with a certain feel of innocence and enthusiasm which cannot be recreated as such since we’re not teenagers anymore. Having said that, this new version is more of a tribute and an update on how these songs sound when played by our current line-up. We wanted to stay true to the original album as much as possible and not turn this into some weird re-arranged project where you couldn’t tell which song was being played. So here it is, the 15th Anniversary version of Ecliptica. Hope you enjoy it. We certainly had a good time digging into these songs and laying down the tracks.”

Ecliptica – Revisited: 15th Anniversary Edition will be released exclusively in North America via the Nuclear Blast USA Webshop. The track listing is:

1. Blank File
2. My Land
3. 8th Commandment
4. Replica
5. Kingdom For A Heart
6. Fullmoon
7. Letter To Dana
8. UnOpened
9. Picturing The Past
10. Destruction Preventer
BONUS TRACK
11. I Can’t Dance (GENESIS cover)