I Want Out is thus the weak link in this EP, being vastly inferior to the original version. It absolutely buries Sonata Artica’s version, there’s no question about it. Then I went ahead and listened to the original. I originally thought that the cover of I Want Out (Helloween) wasn’t too bad yet rather bland before I had heard the original (yeah I know shame on me…).

Needless to say, it’s very good, perhaps even better than the original. Their version of Scorpions’ I’m Still Loving You is about one thousand times more energetic and in-your-face than the original, especially during the middle part containing the solo, which is played similarity to the one in San Sebastian (i.e. Half of the remaining songs (including Gun if my proportion is to be considered correct) are covers, namely of Scorpions, Helloween and Metallica. The fun continues during the rest of the EP, especially on the very next song, Gun, which is almost as catchy is not more so than its predecessor. Aside from the guitars, the main highlight is probably Tony Kakko’s usually good vocal work, especially during the chorus and the sections with the unique (unique my ass, he does it during half of the band’s songs but eh…) vocal effects. The drumming is somewhat repetitive but effective given the context of the song (fun, rocking out to catchy music). This song’s quite a good choice for an opener, being filled with joyful energy, both in the vocal department and in the instrumental section, featuring a superb high-speed solo dead in the middle of the track. Takatalvi starts off with the original version of San Sebastian, meaning that it’s the version from the Successor EP and not the Silence album. My attention has been caught by this enjoyable little seven-song EP because of its last song, whose original version I’m a big fan of (then again, who isn’t? but more on that later).

That being said, I’ve been something of an on-off fan of this band since my rather humble beginnings with the excellent genre of music that we commonly call metal. If there’s one band in the whole world deserving the term flower metal, it almost certainly is Sonata Arctica (well, ok, Rhapsody’s close too).

Takatalvi sonata arctica lyrics