The year 2018

Hello everyone !
I've kind of dropped the ball here with updates and such...for various reasons. I might keep this year and off-year....on not, let's see how things pan out. Be that as it may:

Sonata Arctica did a very successful Winter Chapter Tour in Finland, we also played at the 70.000 tons of metal for the second time and it was just as awesome if not even more so than last time. We will head back out during the summer, June-August to play the festival circuit before entering the studio for our next album. The year 2019 will then be spent more or less on the road again.

Mental Care Foundation is performing at the Pääsiäisjamit in Kokkola, on the 31.3.2018. We're also making another album as we speak...so stay tuned for some more screaming !!

I'm still waiting for news about when the next Winterborn album will be out, I played a lot of keys on that one and as far as I know, everything should be more or less ready.

Silent Voices is making new music and we're also starting to record the next Klingenberg Syndrome album so there will be plenty of more stuff out there within the near future. Some other projects are also under way but more about those later.

Whether or not I will resume writing this blog remains to be seen (omg that sounds so fucking dramatic)...anyways, atm I have trouble finding the time to do this , if it changes I'll be back. It's been a lot of fun however.

cheers & beers & all good stuff,
see you on the road,
Hank

Picture Update: Summer & Fall 2017

Here are some pics from the Sonata Arctica travels in the Summer & Fall of 2017:

Up in the Puijon Torni in Kuopio, Finland...

...even managed to capture an airplane while up there.

Backstage @ Wacken Open Air, Germany

Our BS door @ Wacken

..the special Wacken edition of Becks.

Hotelroom view in Sweden.

Our dear friend Kristian got these tattoos, cool as hell !!!

The backstage/dinner/breakfast-whathaveyou at the hotel in Iisalmi, Finland.

Random airplanewindowpic #09854399

In the van, somewhere in Europe.

Summerbreeze, Germany.

The smurftrail to get to our rooms in a hotel somewhere.

Backstage in the Czech republic.

Alestorm helped us out by making the setlist for the show ;-) 

Airport shopping in Moscow, Russia.

On the first morning in Tel Aviv, Israel we went for a walk and this dude just

brutally photobombed me...no idea who he is/was...

Tel Aviv random pics...

...with Pasi in it ;-) 

...walking to the beach...

....selfie time, again...

the beer boys ;-) 

This rug really tied my riser together !!

Preparing to rock before a sold out crowd in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Still in Israel, on our way to the tourist-day stuff in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem.

...more of the same.

one of the alleys in the old town, Jerusalem.

I was here as well.

Getting ready to go back to the hotel after swimming in the dead sea.

Fashion statement of September 2017 !

Time for a final swim at the beach in front of the hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel.

That's about it !!!

cheers,

Henkka

SA:On the road: Last trip of 2017: 8-10.11. Turku-Stockholm-Turku Rock the Boat

Our last show this year was yet another cruise, the northern trio of me, Tommy & Tony spent the day traveling to Turku by train, we arrived at night and got some kebab before heading to the hotel and get some sleep. We had to get up really early in the morning and board the ship, however we got to go straight to bed and sleep some more which was nice. On the showday we did some tax free shopping, soundcheck and the usual stuff and around 2300 we hit the stage. This was the last time we played The 9th Hour World Tour set, in January we’ll change it around and add the Caleb-saga to the setlist as well as some other stuff. Anyways, after our show we had a couple but had to end the night quite early since there was an early wake-up call to get off the boat and the next day was spent in the train again. We did however manage to get back home, safe & sound…..no more shows this year ;-(

—

…and that pretty much wraps up the year 2017 as well as The Ninth Hour World Tour, we did over 130 shows in 13 months in North & South America and Europe. We got to go to Israel and Honduras for the first time ever which was great. As far as touring with Sonata goes: In January we’ll do a special tour in Finland as well as the 70.000 tons of Metal Cruise. The rest of the spring is devoted to new music and we’ll of course play some festivals in the summer and then resume work on the next album in the fall.

Silent Voices will release a live album from the Darkest Night European Tour, check it out here: silentvoices.net

Sv is also preparing material for our 5th studio album. Mental Care Foundation will be back with a 3rd album….and we’re laying down tracks for KS3 which will once again be quite different from the previous one. I think at least some of these records will be out in 2018 but we’ll see how things pan out.

cheers,

Hank

Secret Rule: The third video for the upcoming album

Here's the third and last video we did for the new album,
It's called Imaginary World.

cheers,
Hank


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lanRSCQTfNI

Summer Days 2017: September

The last two trips for this year were upon us, the first one comes here:

6.9. Israel & 9.9. Radio Rock Cruise

On Tuesday the 5th we got up really early and flew to Helsinki at 0535, from there we continued to Tel Aviv via Moscow….and that basically took us the whole day. We arrived late in the evening and headed for the hotel to get some sleep. The next day was a showday, the show at the Havanna Club or was it Club Havanna? was sold out…

the day before one of our cases went missing, it was however found in Moscow and we were promised that it would arrive in time for the show….we’ll of course it didn’t (cheers Aeroflot ;-) ) We did however manage to borrow some in-ear monitors and were able to do the show. The next day we were the true tourists and went on a sight-seeing trip to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. Some of the stuff was really boring and some stuff was interesting…the hightlight was however floating in the Dead Sea so that pretty much made the whole day worth it. On Friday we flew to Helsinki, once again via Moscow.

Saturday morning was spent at myrskytattoo in Helsinki and in the afternoon we boarded the boat for the Radio Rock Cruise. Our show was in the evening between Lost Society and Children of Bodom. Had a rather good time and didn’t even get a hangover ;-) …After coming back to Helsinki on Sunday, we flew home in the evening or actually late at night.

One more show this year….and in 2018 we’ll shuffle the setlist around…finally ;-)

cheers,

Hank

Ps.I'll try to gather some pics from the summer as well, as soon as I get the time to do  it ;-)