Lockdown one, two, three… twenty-seven? What to do… what to do… what to do. Well, if you’re Sonata Arctica, you know exactly what to do and that is to hunker down in the studio and rework selected songs from your back catalogue into lighter, acoustic versions with the release of ‘Acoustic Adventures: Volume One’.
As an acoustic album, this pretty much does what it says on the tin and Sonata Arctica deliver these performances well through a pristine finish that has come to be expected from a veteran band of this nature. Tracks such as ‘Tallulah’, ‘The Wolves Die Young’ and ‘Don’t Say A World’ are performed to an absolute pinnacle of professionalism with Tony Kakko’s voice sounding as strong and accessible as ever. However, as enjoyable as ‘Acoustic Adventures…’ is, there is something about it which easily fades into background music, it is light music, not only can it cause the listener to drift in and out of conscious listening, but you could also even have it playing during a family dinner and grandma wouldn’t bat an eyelid or guess that this was even a power metal band.
If you’ve got work to do and need some background noise, then ‘Acoustic Adventures…’ is great, got a date and don’t want to scare them off, but still want to listen to something you like, then this is perfect. But as far as running out to grab a copy? ‘Acoustic Adventures…’ only really appeals to those hardcore Sonata Arctica fans that really, really want to continue to fill their discography.
