(Rated this album with 6 out of 10) Reviewed by
Romie
from Boston MA USA
I want to start with one simple thing: this album is far from being the Best in Sonata's career,though I don't agree that the songs are the "leftovers" from Silence.Winterheart's Guild is a completely different album,musicly mostly.Now they sound more like Symphony X rather than Stratovarius,and that takes away the old melodic perfomance,Still they managed to keep the true Sonata spirit. No doubt that the album,the structure of the songs is very complex,but what I'd like to hear is the music and not the way it could've been played: what happened to all the solos that made Sonata so different from the others,more keyboards not always good;Jenn is good but he is all-the-same,if you listen to the Infinite by Stratovarius you will hear axactly the same key-solo-work.Where is the POWER of all the fast songs,I mean they still fast but not the way they sounded before.It feels like something missing in the album,though it's got too much stuff I would never-ever put there. So simply put Winterheart's Guild is not the bad album from the genre point of view,but if you want to hear real Sonata Arctica get Ecliptica or Silence insted.
