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Winterheart's Guild
''Winterheart's Guild'' is the third studio album by the power metal band Sonata Arctica. It was released in 2003 through Spinefarm Records. In a 2014 interview, vocalist, keyboardist and songwriter Tony Kakko said inspiration for writing "The Ruins of My Life" came from the film ''Braveheart''. In 2019, he would refer to the album's recording process as a "nightmare" because he only had "two or three" songs ready when the band went in the studio. Reception ''Loudwire'' named the album at eleventh in their list "Top 25 Power Metal Albums of All Time." ''Metal Hammer'' also included it in their 2016 list of 10 essential power metal albums. Track listing Personnel * Tony Kakko – vocals, keyboards * Jani Liimatainen – guitar * Marko Paasikoski – bass guitar * Tommy Portimo – drums * Jens Johansson – keyboard solos on "The Cage", "Silver Tongue", "Victoria's Secret" and "Champagne Bath" Technical personnel *Recorded by Ahti Kortelainen at Tico Tico Studios in September ...
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Sonata Arctica
Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, Finland. Created as a hard rock band named Tricky Beans, they later changed to Tricky Means and finally to Sonata Arctica, when they shifted to power metal. The current lineup consists of drummer Tommy Portimo, lead singer Tony Kakko, keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg, guitarist Elias Viljanen and bassist Pasi Kauppinen. All the musicians of the band's history except Portimo also acted as backing vocalists. As of 2022, the band has released ten full-length albums (three via Spinefarm Records and seven via Nuclear Blast), their most recent being ''Talviyö'' on September 6, 2019. Biography Formation and early years (1996–1999) The band was founded by drummer Tommy Portimo and guitarists Jani Liimatainen and Marko Paasikoski in Kemi. At the end of 1995, lead vocalist Tony Kakko was added and bassist Pentti Peura joined in early 1996. Originally named Tricky Beans, they played hard rock rather than the power metal ...
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Keyboard Instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos. Other keyboard instruments include celestas, which are struck idiophones operated by a keyboard, and carillons, which are usually housed in bell towers or belfries of churches or municipal buildings. Today, the term ''keyboard'' often refers to keyboard-style synthesizers. Under the fingers of a sensitive performer, the keyboard may also be used to control dynamics, phrasing, shading, articulation, and other elements of expression—depending on the design and inherent capabilities of the instrument. Another important use of the word ''keyboard'' is in historical musicology, where it means an instrument whose identity cannot be firmly established. Particularly in the 18th century, the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the early ...
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Sonata Arctica Albums
Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cantare'', "to sing"), a piece ''sung''. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until the Classical era, when it took on increasing importance. Sonata is a vague term, with varying meanings depending on the context and time period. By the early 19th century, it came to represent a principle of composing large-scale works. It was applied to most instrumental genres and regarded—alongside the fugue—as one of two fundamental methods of organizing, interpreting and analyzing concert music. Though the musical style of sonatas has changed since the Classical era, most 20th- and 21st-century sonatas still maintain the same structure. The term sonatina, pl. ''sonatine'', the diminutive form of sonata, is ofte ...
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Oricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc. was originally set up as a subsidiary of Original Confidence and took over the latter's Oricon record charts in April 2002. The charts are compiled from data drawn from some 39,700 retail outlets (as of April 2011) and provide sales rankings of music CDs, DVDs, electronic games, and other entertainment products based on weekly tabulations. Results are announced every Tuesday and published in ''Oricon Style'' by subsidiary Oricon Entertainment Inc. The group also lists panel survey-based popularity ratings for television commercials on its official website. Oricon started publishing Combined Chart, which includes CD sales, digital sales, and streaming together, on December 19, 2 ...
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Finnvox Studios
Finnvox Studios is a recording studio located in Pitäjänmäki, Helsinki, Finland. It was founded by Erkki Ertesuo, Kurt Juuranto and Lejos Inc. in 1965 and is the longest running studio recording facility in Finland. The original multi-track recording equipment and continuous technical updates of the studio machines and acoustics soon made Finnvox the most sought after studio in the country. Finnish artists which recorded at Finnvox in the 1970s include Rauli Somerjoki, M. A. Numminen and their bands, Wigwam, Agit-prop and many others. Up until the 1990s, Finnvox also operated a vinyl record mastering and pressing facility, which was later converted in new studio rooms and in a mixing and recording room for film and TV productions. Currently, Finnvox occupy 2000 square feet and has nine studio rooms, five of which are used for recording and mixing, three for mastering and editing and one for film and TV productions. Finnvox Studios maintained for five decades their importance i ...
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Jens Johansson
Jens Ola Johansson (born 2 November 1963 in Stockholm) is a Swedish keyboardist and pianist who currently plays in the Finnish power metal band Stratovarius and Ritchie Blackmore's rock project Rainbow. He is notable for his high-speed neoclassical and fusion style. Biography Johansson is son of Swedish jazz pianist Jan Johansson and brother of Ex-HammerFall drummer Anders Johansson. He is highly influenced by classic rock keyboardists like Don Airey, Eddie Jobson and Jon Lord. In 1982, the classically trained Johansson left the jazz fusion band Slem and joined the Swedish metal band Silver Mountain, which also included Anders. In 1983 he left Sweden for California and joined guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen as a member of his band, Rising Force. Numerous records and world tours ensued and he stayed with Yngwie until 1989. Johansson also played with the band Dio between 1989 and 1990. Like Anders, he began an ongoing collaboration with Jonas Hellborg in 1989 which has resulted i ...
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Drum Kit
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player ( drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks, one in each hand, and uses their feet to operate a foot-controlled hi-hat and bass drum pedal. A standard kit may contain: * A snare drum, mounted on a stand * A bass drum, played with a beater moved by a foot-operated pedal * One or more tom-toms, including rack toms and/or floor toms * One or more cymbals, including a ride cymbal and crash cymbal * Hi-hat cymbals, a pair of cymbals that can be manipulated by a foot-operated pedal The drum kit is a part of the standard rhythm section and is used in many types of popular and traditional music styles, ranging from rock and pop to blues and jazz. __TOC__ History Early development Before the development of the drum set, drums and cymbals used in military and orchestral m ...
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Tommy Portimo
Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, Finland. Created as a hard rock band named Tricky Beans, they later changed to Tricky Means and finally to Sonata Arctica, when they shifted to power metal. The current lineup consists of drummer Tommy Portimo, lead singer Tony Kakko, keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg, guitarist Elias Viljanen and bassist Pasi Kauppinen. All the musicians of the band's history except Portimo also acted as backing vocalists. As of 2022, the band has released ten full-length albums (three via Spinefarm Records and seven via Nuclear Blast), their most recent being ''Talviyö'' on September 6, 2019. Biography Formation and early years (1996–1999) The band was founded by drummer Tommy Portimo and guitarists Jani Liimatainen and Marko Paasikoski in Kemi. At the end of 1995, lead vocalist Tony Kakko was added and bassist Pentti Peura joined in early 1996. Originally named Tricky Beans, they played hard rock rather than the power metal w ...
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Bass Guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and typically four to six strings or courses. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music. The four-string bass is usually tuned the same as the double bass, which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest-pitched strings of a guitar (typically E, A, D, and G). It is played primarily with the fingers or thumb, or with a pick. To be heard at normal performance volumes, electric basses require external amplification. Terminology According to the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', an "Electric bass guitar sa Guitar, usually with four heavy strings tuned E1'–A1'–D2–G2." It also defines ''bass'' as "Bass (iv). A contraction of Double bas ...
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Marko Paasikoski
Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, Finland. Created as a hard rock band named Tricky Beans, they later changed to Tricky Means and finally to Sonata Arctica, when they shifted to power metal. The current lineup consists of drummer Tommy Portimo, lead singer Tony Kakko, keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg, guitarist Elias Viljanen and bassist Pasi Kauppinen. All the musicians of the band's history except Portimo also acted as backing vocalists. As of 2022, the band has released ten full-length albums (three via Spinefarm Records and seven via Nuclear Blast), their most recent being ''Talviyö'' on September 6, 2019. Biography Formation and early years (1996–1999) The band was founded by drummer Tommy Portimo and guitarists Jani Liimatainen and Marko Paasikoski in Kemi. At the end of 1995, lead vocalist Tony Kakko was added and bassist Pentti Peura joined in early 1996. Originally named Tricky Beans, they played hard rock rather than the power metal w ...
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Electric Guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic guitar exist). It uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities on the amplifier settings or the knobs on the guitar from that of an acoustic guitar. Often, this is done through the use of effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz and rock guitar playing. Invented in 1932, the electric guitar was adopted by jazz guitar players, who wanted to play single-note guitar solos in large big band ensembles. Early proponents of the electric guitar on ...
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Jani Liimatainen
Jani Allan Kristian Liimatainen (born 9 September 1980) is a Finnish musician, songwriter and backing vocalist, currently a member of melodic death metal band Insomnium. He is the former guitarist and one of the founding members of the power metal band Sonata Arctica. He has also performed with Cain's Offering, Altaria and Stratovarius vocalist Timo Kotipelto (his bandmate in Cain's Offering). Most of his technique is self-taught, even though he had a few guitar lessons early in his life. He is endorsed by Ibanez, plays a Destroyer DT 200 Custom, the Ibanez JPM4 P4 (which is John Petrucci's signature model), and Ibanez "Streetwise" USA Custom guitars & Ibanez Rg 2020X. He cites Freak Kitchen, Dream Theater, and Pain of Salvation as his biggest musical influences. He was born in Kemi, and currently resides in Kotka. Biography Jani was one of the founders of Sonata Arctica in 1995. Besides playing, he also contributed to the band's songwriting with "My Selene" on 2004's ''Re ...
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