Finland’s Sonata Arctica have announced their new album titled Talviyö (aka Winter Night) will be released just in time for their upcoming North American tour with Kamelot and Battle Beast on September 6th via Nuclear Blast. The follow-up to 2016’s The Ninth Hour was recorded between September of last year up until this past May. Produced by Mikko Tegelman and the group in Studio 57 as the mixing was done by Mikko and Pasi Kauppinen.
Keyboardist Henrik “Henkka” Klingenberg commented:
“Mikko produced the album and he really managed to push us to do our best, even with the more experimental stuff. Working with an outside producer was the biggest new thing we tried this time.
We recorded a bunch of kick ass songs and tried some new stuff as well. I’m really proud of how we managed to record the band sounding more live, playing together instead of just tracking everything one by one.”
Henkka also discussed the album’s artwork:
“We were talking about having an album cover made from a photo and luckily managed to find this award winning photographer Onni Wiljami who actually hails from a village not too far from our hometown and his pictures were just perfect for this album.”
Vocalist Tony Kakko added:
“The idea was to create an album that is musically in line with at least the previous two albums. I am very happy with the songs and the general mood of the album. Some career highlights there, I feel.”
Today (21st), the group has also unveiled their first single from the upcoming record with “A Little Less Understanding.”
Check out the lyric video below:
