Frequently Asked Questions 2.0 (last updated: 12.4.08)

[hekse]

What is said at the end of Winterheart's Guild?

One day a bird flew into the studio, and a guy tries to get it out. Finally he succeeds, so Tony says that he should win an award from Greenpeace ("Ansaitsetteko greenpeacen") - the guy answers: "Yeah, a bird meal!" (-"Lintupaistin") Then, after the silence, Henkka says "Mä oon Henkka ja mä tulin nyt." -> I'm Henkka and I come now.

[hekse]

There is a short period of silence in the intro of "Misplaced" - is my copy of Reckoning Night broken or scratched?

No, it isn't, this "gap" is intended.

[hekse]

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")

No, it's not. It's just the normal hidden track SA use to have on every album. It's a "Jam" session recorded spontaneously and so the guys decided to put it on the album. "Wrecking The Sphere" is a real song, though, which only is available on the Japanese edition of Reckoning Night, so you have to order it if you don't live there.

Often the two songs are mixed up, especially since there is a mistake on freedb data.

How could this happen?

If you rip a CD, most programms look for data from freedb, in case someone has submitted the data for the same CD already. If someone submitted wrong data there once, you automatically receive wrong information. This happened to the "Jam" song.

Check freedb's information on Reckoning Night here - this entry includes wrong information whereas this entry *click* is correct. If you check this here *click* you will see that there are lots of different entries on freedb.

Things like these happen if some person once submits incorrent information and this can lead to our little problem here. Not to forget to mention what can happen on P2P-Networks.

Last but not least an easy way how you can distinguish between the two songs.


JAM - is an instrumental song. No real song, as mentioned above, and it lasts: 2:51 minutes. If you have a CD with 11 tracks, then no. 11 is the JAM track. If you have a CD with 12 tracks (which is the Japanese edition), then no. 12 is the JAM track.

WRECKING THE SPHERE - is a 'real' song, you can find the lyrics either in the booklet of the Japanese edition or on the website. This song lasts: 7:02 minutes. If you have a CD with 12 tracks, it's track no. 11.

[hekse]

What's the meaning of the things written on the sleeves of the Silence/Winterheart's Guild longsleeves?

Silence: left side is "Kiljaisuus" which is a wordplay and consists of the words "Kiljaisu" (which means "scream") and "Hiljaisuus" ("silence"). right side is "Kempura Perkele". Friend Dethroned says that Kempura is a name and Perkele should be well-known (if not, feel free to PM any of our Finnish Peacemakers, I'm sure they're willing to explain) - obviously this is a sort of inside joke.


Winterheart's Guild: "Päätää riisiin" = "Put your head on rice" - [+ 'Don't Ask'] and "Vasen" (means "left") + "Oikea" (means "right")

[hekse]

What's the meaning of Revontulet?

Revontulet is the Finnish expression for northern lights/aurora borealis.

[hekse]

What's the meaning of Takatalvi?

You can find this explanation by Tony in the Takatalvi booklet. But for those that don't have it: 'Takatalvi is a Finnish word, meaning (as it says in dictionary) "cold spell in spring", a short moment when it suddenly gets colder and often we get a new snow cover on the landscape for a day or even for only few hours; he thought this would in a way describe this little compilation very well. All songs are old and suddenly "brought back" like "Takatalvi".'

[NightWolf]

What is said in the hidden bonus track "Jam"?

Here is the conversation, translated into English:

"Should it roll?"
"Tape is rolling"
"You are too old"
"You are too old?"

"Best flamenco"
"Best flamenco what?"
"Best flamenco is very good"
"It was there in a hotel's lobby"

"Where is Paasikoski?"
"I can't see him"
"Where is Marko?"
"He's still lost after that April Fools gag"
"But this song has no bass anyway"

"Doesn't have any keyboards either"
"Well well"
"Ok let's start"
"I'm so nervous"
"Just calm down"
"Yes"

Whee
Hey
"_???_"

Hey

Hey
Whoo
Wohoo
Hey
Hey
Allright
"Don't f******g break that!"

[hekse]

Why do the Japanese people usually get those cool bonustracks and the rest of the world doesn't?

Actually there are two reasons:

1. CDs are really expensive over there, so they have to try to avoid that the Japanese people buy the cheaper import CDs then, which would let the Japanese CD market break down. So the albums usually get some cool features to make the ppl there buy their own CDs.

2. Sonata Arctica are very successful in Japan, even more successful than Nightwish - and that for a quite long period, especially compared to the time that Sonata Arctica exists so far. So to quote what our forummember Scandal once said about this matter: when you bow to someone, you naturally show your ass to another one.

[hekse]

What videos/music clips do exist?

There are just 4 official video clips of Sonata Arctica:
- Wolf And Raven (story-based clip), song taken from SILENCE
clip appears for example on the limited French edition of SILENCE, the EP Orientation, the DVD Monsters Of Metal Vol.1 and the Spinefarm Metal DVD
- Broken (live footage), song taken from WINTERHEART'S GUILD
clip appears on the Japanese EP Takatalvi
- Don't Say A Word (performing video), song taken from RECKONING NIGHT
clip appears on the DVD Monsters Of Metal Vol.3
- Paid In Full (performing video), song taken from UNIA.
- Flag In The Ground (performing video/story-based clip), song taken from THE DAYS OF GRAYS

All others are bootleg videos.

There is also (yet unreleased) documentary film called "Songs From The North Or Something", screened twice in Finnish film festivals so far.

[hekse]

Why do some people here have those special ranks below their names and what do they mean?

We have 4 different categories of users, so to speak. Most of the users have no special rank and therefore no special title, and the other ones carry these titles under their nicknames:
- 11th Commandment: The admins of this board.
- Destruction Preventer: Those are the moderators. Although we have different moderators for the different sections, all of them have the same title.
- Peacemaker: Those people don't have any special rights or abilities, it's just that they showed themselves as being exemplary users.
- Band Member: This title should be clear.

If you want to see who here is mod/admin, you can check the "crew"-entry.

[hekse]

What is Silent Jealousy? Is it a song of Sonata Arctica? And where is it to be found?

Silent Jealousy originally is a song by a band called X Japan. Sonata Arctica played a short excerpt from it in a show in Japan during the tour promoting the Silence-album - to be precise in the show the day after they recorded their live-album Songs Of Silence (which means the 5th September of 2001 - because the live album was recorded at 4th September). Somebody recorded this show as well and spread it as bootleg under the name of "Only Way You Can".

[hekse]

What's the meaning of "Sonata Arctica"?

The name consists of two parts:
sonata = a music(al) part: dictionary.com says "A composition for one or more solo instruments, one of which is usually a keyboard instrument, usually consisting of three or four independent movements varying in key, mood, and tempo."
arctica = the pole/arctic area in the northern parts of Scandinavia

[hekse]

What are the parameters for the crew to lock certain topics?

This should not be necessary because those things are quite obvious, but regular occurrences made me write this: When we lock a topic, there are certain reasons for us to do it. These are in very brief words:

If a topic is against the rules -> lock, eventually immediate deletion.
If the topic question is answered in the FAQ -> lock.
If the topic will lead to listing and spam -> lock.
If a similar topic already exists -> lock.
If a topic is pretty pointless -> lock.

So as you can see, we don't lock topics to tease you or to show off our power or something. We do it because we're there for those things. But, and please mind that: we're human beings. We can do mistakes. And if we do, please don't flame or insult us but send us a PM or a mail in which you may ask why we locked your topic. Maybe we will reconsider our decision then - or we'll explain again what made us lock the topic.

[NightWolf]

How do I upload and use an avatar?

Go to your profile (click on the -icon above), there you can choose if you want to upload an image to this server (max. 50x50 pixels) or upload it somewhere else (like www.imageshack.us or www.xs.to ), then you're allowed to have a maximum image size of 100x100 pixels - and make sure that it doesn't "move", since animated .gifs as avatars aren't allowed. That's it!

[hekse]

What is said at the end of Silence ?

Nik Van-Eckmann, the guy who did the spoken parts on Silence and Reckoning Night, says at the end of The Power Of One: "And I f******g touched the mic, hold on."

[hekse]

How do I upload and use a picture in my profile?

First of all: this little gimmick was installed just for pics of yourself! If you want to share other pics with us, you should use these as avatars. So as you can imagine now: every image with something else on it than your pretty face will be deleted by us (which of course also includes animated .gifs and stuff)!
Then the technical stuff: Generally the uploading works in the same way as the uploading of avatars. You're allowed to use pics with a maximum size of 400x400 pixels and 190kb - doesn't matter if you upload it to the SA server, link or upload it from another server.

[Dethroned]

Where can I get the demos?

Nowhere. The original demo cassettes were released in very small amounts if at all. They are virtually impossible to find anywhere, even from Finland. In an extremely rare case of one being available in e.g. a web auction site, the price will definately skyrocket. Some old demo songs have though been remade for the later releases:
- Find A Gun: Broken (single), Takatalvi (EP); as "The Gun"
- Letter To Dana: Ecliptica
- Shy: Successor (EP), Takatalvi (EP)
- PeaceMaker: Wolf & Raven (single)
- Tallulah: Silence
- Mary-Lou: UnOpened (single)
- UnOpened: UnOpened (single), Ecliptica
- 8th Commandment: Ecliptica
- FullMoon: Ecliptica
- Addict: Silence; as "Sing in Silence" (partially)
- BlackOut: The Days of Grays; as "Flag In The Ground" (only parts of the melodies, not the lyrics)

Thanks to Scandal (and others) for writing this.

[Dethroned]

What Black Sheep is about?

The song is based on a Finnish novel "Ulvova mylläri" (1981) by Arto Paasilinna, one of the most well-known Finnish authors. The title can be translated as "The Howling Miller", but the book itself isn't available in English - but in e.g. Finnish, French, Italian, Swedish, German, Spanish and Dutch.

There's also a play and a tv movie (in Finnish) based on the novel: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084839/
A short summary/review: http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~rtp1/nordic/literature/paasilinna.html

[Silence]

What kind of keytar does Henkka use live?

None! "Keytar" is completely another instrument, made by Keytar Inc. and it has nothing to do with the portable keyboard Henrik uses. You should not mix up these two different kind of instruments nor use the wrong terms while talking about a basic portable keyboard. Portable keyboards are available from many different manufacturers, while the 'Keytar' is made by Keytar Inc.

[Silence]

How can I add a signature to my profile?

You need to have at least 10 posts to add a signature in a signature-field that will appear in your profile. We added this feature to avoid illegal advertisement from spambots or users that are not seriously interested in discussion. If we see new users with 10 spam posts just in order to enable the signature function, we will delete those posts and the users will be warned.