''Stones Grow Her Name'' is the 7th full-length
studio album by Finnish
power metal
Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...
band
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 c ...
. It was released in
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
on May 16, 2012, in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
on May 18, 2012, in
North America on May 22, 2012 and in
Japan on May 23, 2012.
It was the last album to feature longtime bassist
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 ...
.
In a 2014 interview about the album's successor ''
Pariah's Child'', vocalist and songwriter
Tony Kakko
Toni Kristian "Tony" Kakko (born 16 May 1975) is a Finnish musician, composer and vocalist. He is known as the vocalist, primary songwriter, and creative lead of the band Sonata Arctica since 1996.
Biography
Kakko was born in Kemi, Finland and ...
referred to it as "a rock album
ore
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...
than anything else", comparing it to the more back-to-the roots sound of the 2014 band's release.
Yet in a 2019 interview promoting the band's then new album ''
Talviyö
''Talviyö'' (Finnish for "winter night") is the tenth studio album by Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica. It was released on 6 September 2019 by Nuclear Blast.
Background and recording
The album was produced by the band and Mikko Tegelman ...
'', Kakko said ''Stones Grow Her Name'' marked "some kind of maturity point for us", citing him becoming a father for the first time as an influence.
Song information
Regarding the song "Cinderblox", Kakko stated:
"Somewhere Close to You" was originally written for a possible solo release by Kakko, but ended up on the album.
"Losing My Insanity" was originally written by Tony Kakko for
Ari Koivunen's ''
Fuel for the Fire''. The final two tracks, "Wildfire, Part: II - One With the Mountain" and "Wildfire, Part: III - Wildfire Town, Population: 0" continue the story introduced in "Wildfire" from ''
Reckoning Night
''Reckoning Night'' is the fourth full-length studio album by the Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica, as well as the first to feature keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg. The track "Don't Say a Word" continues the so called Caleb saga, a series o ...
''.
Track list
Tour Edition
On October 24, 2012 a special 2 disc "Tour Edition" of the album was released in Japan to commemorate the band's appearance at the
Loud Park Festival
The was a heavy metal festival held annually at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama City or Makuhari Messe in Chiba City, Japan. It was one of the biggest heavy metal festivals in Japan.
The festival has featured both Japanese and international p ...
. The first disc contains the standard Japanese version of the album with "One-Two- Free-Fall" serving as the bonus track. The second disc features acoustic versions of "Only the Broken Hearts (Make You Beautiful)" "I Have a Right" "Alone In Heaven" and "Somewhere Close to You" respectively.
Personnel
*
Tony Kakko
Toni Kristian "Tony" Kakko (born 16 May 1975) is a Finnish musician, composer and vocalist. He is known as the vocalist, primary songwriter, and creative lead of the band Sonata Arctica since 1996.
Biography
Kakko was born in Kemi, Finland and ...
–
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...
, additional
keyboard
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
s
*
Elias Viljanen
Elias "E.Vil" Einari Johannes Viljanen (born 8 July 1975) is a Finnish musician from Tampere, Finland, known for being the guitarist for Sonata Arctica since 2007. Viljanen joined Sonata Arctica in spring 2007 in order to replace Jani Liimataine ...
–
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
s
*
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 ...
–
bass
*
Henrik Klingenberg
Henrik "Henkka" Klingenberg (born 21 October 1978) is a Finnish keyboardist, keytarist and singer. He joined the Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica in late 2002 and currently resides in Kemi, Finland, when not on tour.
Keyboardists he has ...
– keyboards
*
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 ...
–
drums
Guest artists
* Mika Mylläri -
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
on "Shitload of Money"
*
Sakari Kukko
Sakari Kukko, (full Name: Jyrki Sakari Kukko, born 8 July 1953, Kajaani, Finland) is a Finnish musician.
Career
Kukko started his career in the early 1960s as a singer participating in several singing contests and performing in radio stations, ...
-
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
on "Shitload of Money"
* Peter Engberg -
acoustic guitar,
viola caipira
The ''viola caipira'', often simply ''viola'', ( Portuguese for ''country guitar'') is a Brazilian ten-string guitar with five courses of strings arranged in pairs. It was introduced in the state of São Paulo, where it is widely played as the ...
and
banjo on "I Have a Right", "Alone in Heaven", "The Day", "Don't Be Mean", "Cinderblox" and "Wildfire, Part:II - One with the Mountain"
*
Timo Kotipelto
Timo Antero Kotipelto (born 15 March 1969) is a Finnish musician best known as the lead singer of the power metal band Stratovarius, whom he joined in 1994, as well as fronting his own band Kotipelto.
Biography
He studied vocals at the pop/j ...
- additional
backing vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...
on "Only the Broken Hearts (Make You Beautiful)", "Shitload of Money", "I Have a Right" and "Alone in Heaven"
* Lauri Valkonen -
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...
at "Cinderblox" and "Wildfire, Part:II - One with the Mountain"
*
Pekka Kuusisto
Pekka Kuusisto (born 7 October 1976 in Espoo) is a Finnish musician.
Biography
Kuusisto comes from a musical lineage. His grandfather was a composer and organist, his father is a jazz musician who has composed operas, and his mother is a music t ...
-
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
at "Don't Be Mean", "Cinderblox", "Wildfire, Part:II - One with the Mountain" and "Wildfire, Part:III - Wildfire Town, Population: 0"
* Anna Lavender - spoken parts on "I Have a Right"
* Mikko P. Mustonen -
Orchestration on "Wildfire, Part:III - Wildfire Town, Population: 0"
Additional personnel
* Masi Hukari - recording assistant and
lyrics proofreader
* Nino Laurenne - producer
* Ahti Kortelainen - studio master technician
* Mikko Karmila -
mixing
* Pelri Ahvenainen -
recording engineer
* Ville - monitor technician
* Svante Forsbäck -
mastering engineer
Charts
Certifications
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stones Grow Her Name
Sonata Arctica albums
2012 albums
Nuclear Blast albums