The Finnish band Sonata Artica was founded in 1996; until 2006 they released 4 studio albums and 2 live albums. In 2003 Sonata Artica signed a record deal with Nuclear Blast. With their first album at Nuclear Blast (Reckoning Night) the band became an instant success; and because of this, they were invited to support Night Wish on their European tour. Back to the present: with the release of Unia the band holds another strong trump card. This new album can’t be put into just one musical category, it varies from symphonic rock to progressive metal. Every time you listen to Unia, you’ll hear something new; this is a cd that allows the repeat button to be used continuously. Both the musical variation and the record’s outstanding production and sound make the album a metal ‘dream’, which is the translation of the Finnish word ‘unia’.

Unia contains mostly metal songs with progressive and symphonic influences. Sometimes you‘ll hear Evergrey type riffs, then again progressive metal songs; but there are also symphonic metal parts dressed up with piano playing.

The songs ‘In Black and White’, ‘The Harvest’ and ‘Caleb’ are metal oriented, but ‘It won’t Fade’ and ‘Fly with the Black Swan’ lean more towards the progressive metal from their Scandinavian colleagues of Beyond Twilight. Of course there are also some slow tempo songs on there: ‘The World’s Forgotten, The World’s Forbidden”, ‘Good Enough is Good Enough’. In spite of the multitude of different influences and styles, all songs are still very much Sonata Artica. They never lose their own identity, and that is definitely a strong point of this album.

Unia is a great album that is a must for every progressive collection. Sonata Artica isn’t afraid of musical adventures, and they succeeded in making a terrific album that is well suited for any open-minded music fan. Unia is definitely going to occupy a high place in my top 10 of 2007.