Frequently Asked Questions 2.0 (last updated: 12.4.08)

[hekse]

This board

Who's the crew?
Why do some people here have those special ranks below their names and what do they mean?
What are the parameters for the crew to lock certain topics?
Why are posts/topics in other languages than English (or Finnish in the Suomi section) forbidden/why aren't there subforums for different languages?
What sorts of avatars/banners can I choose?
How do I upload and use an avatar?
How do I upload and use a picture in my profile?
How can I add a signature to my profile?


Sonata Arctica in general

When will SA come to [insert country here]?
What's the meaning of "Sonata Arctica"?
Who created the logo and the cover artworks?
What songs does the band play live / what's the set list for the forthcoming tour?


The Band

What is the current line-up of Sonata Arctica?
Who left the band on its way?
Which other musicians/people can be heard in SA's works?
To which other works did/do SA members/ex members contribute?
What kind of keytar does Henkka play live?


SA's Music in general

When the next live DVD/album will be released?
Are there any songs like bonustracks which don’t appear on the normal albums?
Did SA really cover Over The Hills And Far Away? (Real covers and fakes)
What is Silent Jealousy? Is it a song of Sonata Arctica? And where is it to be found?
Why do the Japanese people usually get those cool bonustracks and the rest of the world doesn't?
What videos/music clips do exist?
What is with this album called "Deliverance"?


lyrics, tabs

Where can I find the lyrics?
Who is Dana?
What about Shamandalie?
Where can I find SA's tabs? (both guitar and keyboards)


Merchandise/other stuff

Where can I get Unopened Single, Live at Provinssirock and Only Way You Can?
What is a bootleg?
Where can I find SA-shirts?
What about records or picture discs?
Where can I get demos?

The albums: ECLIPTICA

Who is Dana? (again)

SILENCE

What's the meaning of Revontulet?
What is said at the end of Silence?
What Black Sheep is about?


WINTERHEART'S GUILD

Why did SA call their 2003 album "Winterheart's Guild" and what's the meaning of the cover?
What is said at the end of Winterheart's Guild?

RECKONING NIGHT

There is a short period of silence in the intro of "Misplaced" - is my copy of Reckoning Night broken or scratched?
What does Shamandalie mean? (again)
There is a strange song on my Reckoning Night version that isn't listed at the back of my CD. Is that the Japan-bonustrack "Wrecking The Sphere?" (+ additional information about "Wrecking The Sphere")
What is said in the hidden bonus track "Jam"?

UNIA

Who's the voice saying "The Enemy" on To Create A Warlike Feel?
What's said in the beginning of Caleb? Who's providing the female voice?
What is this strange noise at the end of Good Enough Is Good Enough (or: at the end of the album)?

Help with Finnish

What's the meaning of the things written on the sleeves of the Silence/Winterheart's Guild longsleeves?
What's the meaning of Revontulet? (again)
What is said at the end of Winterheart's Guild? (again)
What's the meaning of Takatalvi?
What is said in the hidden bonus track "Jam"?



Since this section is closed, please PM me or write a mail if you have a correction or want to have something added. Thanks to all who helped me to create this and also to those who will help me to keep it up to date!

[hekse]

who's the crew?

At the moment the team of the site/forum consists of the following persons:
- Silence, webmaster and administrator of the forum
- Malva, super moderator of the forum
- Dethroned, super moderator of the forum
- Nightwolf, moderator of the English section of the forum
- Uli, moderator of the English section of the forum
- Sakura, moderator of the English section of the forum
- SoulEdge, moderator of the Finnish section of the forum

[hekse]

Why are posts/topics in other languages than English (or Finnish in the Suomi section) forbidden/why aren't there subforums for different languages?

1. If you found your way to the official Sonata Arctica page and even managed to register, then you're able to use the English language enough to "survive" in our forum, even if your posts may content some mistakes -but no one really cares about them.

2. If we would allow topics in other languages, we (means: the admins/mods) wouldn't know if someone wrote something against the rules (like offending, illegal, pornographic or disgusting things), because we don't know all languages. And if we would open subforums for other languages, we would have to choose which ones and then other people would complain why their language isn't among them.

3. We should be one community and share all interesting stuff/discussions, not split the group in different parts. I have a lot of experiences with other forums, so I do know that people tend to post only in their native language if they're allowed to/if they have the possibility.

[hekse]

What sorts of avatars/banners can I choose?

Generally you can choose nearly everything as avatar/banner, that match the following criteria:
If you want to upload something as avatar, mind that it only works for images that aren't bigger than 50x50 pixels. If you link an image from another page, it shouldn't be bigger than 100x100 pixels (and a banner not bigger than 100x600 pixels) - all other ones will be deleted. Also we'll delete animated .gifs or pictures with pornographic, illegal or insulting content.

[hekse]

When will SA come to [insert country here]?

There aren't any official tour dates except for those which can be found in the tour section of the official site. So go and check if your city/country is amongst them, if not - we can't help you, sorry. The tour list will be updated as soon as new gigs are confirmed. Due to the nature of the music business, tours often get announced by promoters and booking agencies before they're 100% agreed on. If you can't see a show in the list, it's NOT confirmed, regardless of what you've been told.
Mind: the band itself cannot decide where they will play, if you want them to play in your country because there isn't any date in the tour section, you should contact a local promotion agency to book them. The begging here does NOT help to get the band to play at your city/country.

[hekse]

Who created the logo and the cover artworks?

Janne Pitkänen, who’s also known as “Toxicangel”, does almost all cover artworks. You can see more of his works here.

[hekse]

What is the current line-up of Sonata Arctica?

Tony Kakko - vocals
Elias Viljanen - guitars
Marko Paasikoski - bass
Henrik (Henkka) Klingenberg - keyboards
Tommy Portimo - drums

by the way: even if his name doesn't look like the average Finnish name, Henkka's still a "real" Finn!

[hekse]

Who left the band on its way?

Their first bass player was called Pentti Peura (1996-1997), he played bass in the demoband-days (Marko played the guitar back then).
Janne Kivilahti used to play the bass on Ecliptica and Successor (~2000) before Marko returned to the band to play the bass.
Mikko Härkin entered the band when Tony Kakko decided to concentrate on singing, he was SA's keyboardplayer on some songs of Successor and the whole Silence album (1999 - 2002).
Jani Liimatainen (guitarist) and Sonata Arctica parted their ways in 2007.

[hekse]

Which other musicians/people can be heard in SA's works?

- The flute in Letter To Dana (Ecliptica) is played by Raisa Aine

- Timo Kotipelto (Stratovarius, Kotipelto) sings the last line of False News Travel Fast

- the spoken parts of Silence (in ...of Silence, The End Of This Chapter, Last Drop Falls and The Power Of One) and Reckoning Night (in Don't Say A Word, Wildfire and White Pearl, Black Oceans) are by Nik Van-Eckmann

- The female voice in The End Of This Chapter (Silence) is by Renay Gonzalez

- Jens Johansson (Stratovarius) played the keysolos of The Cage, Silver Tongue, Victoria's Secret and Champagne Bath on Winterheart's Guild

- On Don't Say a Word, White Pearl, Black Oceans and Wildfire the male voice provided by Nik Van Eckmann

- String quintet on Good Enough Is Good Enough (Unia): Tuomas Airola - cello, Elar Kuiv - violin, Kati Niemelä - violin/viola, Anna-Leena Kangas - viola, Oskari Hannula - double bass

- Acoustic guitars, bouzouki, chromaharp, Kavaquinho & Q-chord on
They Follow, Under Your Tree, The Harvest, It Won't Fade and Fly With the Black Swan by Peter Engberg

- Vocals in Finnish on To Create a Warlike Feel - Jarkko Martikainen

- The lady in the beginning of Caleb - Milla V.

- "whatevergod..." on Caleb and "just passion and rage" on In Black and White are performed by Starbuck

[hekse]

To which other works did/do SA members/ex members contribute?

Current members:

- Tony appears on the "From Wishes To Eternity"-DVD of Nightwish, where he sang "Beauty And The Beast live on stage. Besides he can be heard on Nightwish's "Over The Hills And Far Away"-album, in the remake of "Astral Romance" and also on Eternal Tears Of Sorrow's "Before The Bleeding Sun" (backing vocals) and on the song "Wasted Time" on Heavenly's fourth album "Virus". He has a small lead in Timo Rautiainen's album "Sarvivuori", on a song called Hiljaisen Talven Lapsi (Child Of Silent Winter) and in addition he does the backing vocals on that specific song too. He also sings 2 songs ("Me käymme joulun viettohon" and "Pieni rumpali") on the Finnish x-mas compilation Raskaampaa Joulua released in 2006. Furthermore he is part of cover band Northern Kings (with Marco Hietala, J. Ahola and J-P Leppäluoto) which have released their debut album "Reborn" in 2007. He also has guest appearance in a US-based band called Odin's Court.

- Henrik played his keys on "Chapters Of Tragedy", "Infernal", "Building Up The Apathy" (Silent Voices), "The Arrival" and "Mask of Damnation" (Requiem). He sings on "Alcohol Anthems" and "Hair of the Dog" (Mental Care Foundation). Furthermore he played a keyboard solo on Altaria's "The Dying Flame" on their "The Fallen Empire" album and hammonds on Winterborn's "Lovehunter" on their debut album "Cold Reality". Henrik has also been playing a few live shows with Isäntä Meidän. Henrik and Jani have a common death metal project called Graveyard Shift.

- Elias also has a solo-project 'Elias Viljanen & Evil Spirit' and plays in two other bands called Mess and Arched.

Ex-members:

- Jani used to be guitarist of the hard rock/metal band Altaria and can be heard on the albums "Invitation" and "Divinity". He also played the guitar solo on "Revenge" on Celesty's "Reign Of Elements" album and a guitar solo to Human Temple's debut album "Insomnia" for a song called "Animal". He also has a project with Henrik called Graveyard Shift, and his own project called Sydänpuu. Nowadays he plays in Dream Asylum and has been touring with Paul Di'Anno (ex-Iron Maiden).

- Mikko Harkin can be heard on Timo Kotipelto's solo album "Waiting For The Dawn" on tracks 1, 4 and 11 and on "The Prophecies" by Kenziner, where he played before he joined SA. After SA he played in his new band Wingdom. He also plays in Random Eyes. After departing Wingdom, he plays in Mehida.

[hekse]

Are there any songs like bonustracks which don’t appear on the normal albums?

There are many different versions of each album, ie. Finnish / European / Russian / Asian / North American / South American (multiple versions) so the list might not be complete.

bonustracks:
- "Mary-Lou" on Ecliptica
- "UnOpened", "FullMoon", "8th Commandment", "Letter To Dana" and "Kingdom For A Heart" (all live) on Successor
- "Respect The Wilderness" on Silence (appears also on Songs Of Silence-live)
- "The Rest Of The Sun Belongs To Me" on Winterheart's Guild
- "Wrecking The Sphere" on Reckoning Night
- "To Create A Warlike Feel" in Finnish version plus Nuclear Blast double LP and special 7" hard-cover edition of Unia
- Out In The Fields (Gary Moore cover) in Nuclear Blast special 7" hard-cover edition, Nuclear Blast double LP and US, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese versions of Unia
- My Dream's But A Fuel For A Nightmare (Instrumental version) in Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese versions of Unia
- They Follow in Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese versions of Unia

b-sides:
- "Mary-Lou" on UnOpened
- "PeaceMaker" on Wolf & Raven
- "Die With Your Boots On" and "Mary-Lou" (acoustic) on Last Drop Falls
- "Fade To Black" on Victoria's Secret
- "Dream Thieves" and "The Gun" on Broken
- "Ain't Your Fairytale", "World In My Eyes" (Depeche Mode cover) and "Two Minds, One Soul" (Vanishing Point cover) on Don't Say A Word
- "Out In The Fields" on Paid In Full

- Orientation contains the same as Last Drop Falls + "The Wind Beneath My Wings" and an interview
- Takatalvi contains all songs from Successor except FullMoon and the livesongs, therefore the b-side tracks of Broken ("Dream Thieves" and "The Gun") and Victoria's Secret ("Fade To Black") and the Broken - live clip

[hekse]

Did SA really cover Over The Hills And Far Away?

No, the filesharing software lies! Same goes for nearly all other songs which aren't mentioned at the official site but nevertheless can be found at one of the filesharing programs. That song that is named "Sonata Arctica - Over The Hills And Far Away" is a cover-version played by Thyrfing (Tony did some backing vocals for Nightwish's Over The Hills And Far Away - cover though).

Other songs that might appear at filesharing programs could be some of these:
"Stronger Than All" - by Hammerfall
"Images Of The Past" - by Kenziner
"Forest Of Unicorns" and "Beyond The Gates Of Infinity" - by Rhapsody
"Last September" and "Rock Box" - by Marty Friedman
"Thor (The Thundergod)" and "Gate of Fear" - by Zonata
"In Between" - by Lost Horizon
"Crying" - by Soul Sailor
"Blessed Are You" - by Iced Earth

"Daylight" should be a real Sonata Arctica song, whose real name is "Sing In Silence".

The songs they actually covered are:

"Still Loving You" - by Scorpions (on Successor, Takatalvi)
"I Want Out" - by Helloween (on Successor, Takatalvi)
"Die With Your Boots On" - by Iron Maiden (on Orientation, Last Drop Falls CDS)
"The Wind Beneath My Wings" - by Bette Midler (on Orientation)
"Fade To Black" - by Metallica (on Victoria's Secret CDS, Takatalvi)
"World In My Eyes" - by Depeche Mode (on Don't Say A Word)
"Two Minds, One Soul" - by Vanishing Point (on Don't Say A Word)
"Out In The Fields" - by Gary Moore & Phill Lynott (on Paid In Full CDS)

These can be found on records as you can see and in addition, they have played some songs live like:

"Crash & Burn" - by Yngwie Malmsteen
"Silent Jealousy" - by X Japan

Additionally, Sonata Arctica DID play Black Diamond (with and originally by Stratovarius) during their last gig on their first European Tour in 2000. Nowadays there seem to be lots of videos on youtube.com insisting the material is from the Tricky Means (or Tricky Beans) era - the information is false. The clip is from the above-mentioned tour with Rhapsody and Stratovarius, which can easily be verified seeing a) Mikko Härkin (joined the band after Ecliptica was released, before the European tour) holding the camera, b) Janne Kivilahti on bass (was no member of Tricky Beans) and c) Stratovarius drummer Jörg Michael can be seen with Tommy on the drum set and the most important reason d) the excerpt is originally taken from Stratovarius' Infinite Visions DVD shot during their 'Infinite' tour (SA as their support act)...

[hekse]

Where can I find the lyrics?

Nearly all lyrics can be found in the booklet of each album, at the official site or at one of the several fansites like sonataarctica.net or Citylite. Another site worth visiting is darklyrics.

[hekse]

Who is Dana?

Dana is Mary-Lou, Mary-Lou is Tallulah and Tallulah is Victoria. Dana is nobody or could be everybody, it's just a figure out of Tony's imagination! The name "Dana" was inspired by a character of the X-File movies, but has nothing to do with her.

[hekse]

What about Shamandalie?

Shamandalie in fact is a made-up name, it consists of the words "sham - and - a - lie". Tony just left out the blanks and the result looks like a girl's name.

[hekse]

Where can I find SA's tabs?

Check out MySongBook or www.sonataarctica.net, there they should be given - of course you'll need the program GUITAR PRO to open them. By the way: mostly they include the keytabs as well.

You can also check out this topic if you have further questions. There might be some people here to help you.

[hekse]

Where can I get Unopened Single, Live at Provinssirock and Only Way You Can?

- Unopened is, like all other singles, only published in Finland, but now very rare and seem to be sold out. Check ebay for it, but beware - it's damn expensive!
- (according to Scandal:) Live At Provinssirock is a promo CD from France, where ppl got it who bought Silence at Virgin Megastore, and it's limited to 2500 copies. You can also search for the Southamerican version of Successor, it contains 7 songs from Provinssirock.
- Only Way You Can is a bootleg, so you shouldn't pay any money for it. But nevertheless it's worth listening.


What is a bootleg?

A bootleg is an illegal record of a live-concert.

[hekse]

Where can I find SA-shirts?

At concerts shirts are sold - but if you aren't able to visit them, your source number one would be the Official Sonata Arctica Webshop. Furthermore have a look at Nuclear Blast (German, also English/French-speaking), Art Worx (German site, also English-speaking), More Music (Finnish site, also English-speaking), Recordshop X/Levykauppa Äx (Finnish site, also English-speaking), Hellsinki Rock Shop (Finnish site, also English-speaking) and you could also check eBay, but beware of bootlegged material there. It's not guaranteed you get official merchandise there.

[hekse]

What about records or picture discs?

- Ecliptica was released in three versions: normal black vinyl (limited to 750), picture disc (500 copies) and a special blue vinyl edition (250 copies)
- Successor and Silence have picture discs (both limited to 500)
- Reckoning Night is to be found in stores as white vinyl edition (limited to 1000 copies)
- Unia can be found as an orange/multi-colored Double-vinyl (also limited to 1000 copies)

[hekse]

Why did SA call their 2003 album "Winterheart's Guild" and what's the meaning of the cover?

On the cover you can see 4 persons - one for each season. The two persons in the front are Autumn and Winter, and Autumn gives the power, the spectre of all seasons, to Winter, because that's the strongest season in Finland. In the booklet itself you can see the (that time) four guys in form of the seasons, so they are the... Winterheart's Guild.