Sonata Arctica "Unia (Japan, Avalon, MICP-10658)"

Unia (English: Dreams), released on 25 May 2007, is the fifth full-length studio album by the power metal band Sonata Arctica, following the album Reckoning Night. The first single from the album was "Paid in Full", released on 27 April 2007. This is also the last album that features Jani Liimatainen, who was later replaced by Elias Viljanen after the album was released.

The album was mixed at Finnvox Studios, and mastered at Cutting Room Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The album was also released as a limited edition noble book in 7" size (1000 copies), exclusively available via mailorder from Nuclear Blast records. The limited edition came with a differing track listing and bonus tracks "To Create a Warlike Feel" and "Out in the Fields".

Unia is darker and more aggressive than Sonata Arctica's earlier work, with mid-tempo songs, more inclusion of 7 string guitars and a minimal amount of solos. It has been described as a significant "turning point".

Vocalist Tony Kakko has once admitted that Unia being released just after Reckoning Night "was probably a shock to many people". He also described it as "a liberating experience. From there we took slowly some other direction". Commenting further on the album, he also stated:

Back then our band thought we are in some kind of pit and that we needed to do something different. To be honest, in that time it would have been better to do a solo album, but there was no time nor possibility for it. Unia is one of the closest albums to me personally.

Drummer and founding member Tommy Portimo said that Unia "brought many good things. I think our band needed that little shaking. [...] That album felt very natural. Although we realized it was very far from what we were before. But it was just a natural shaking."

The track "Caleb" continues what the band refers to as "the so-called Caleb saga", a series of songs that started on Silence's "The End of This Chapter" and is continued on Reckoning Night's "Don't Say a Word", The Days of Grays's "Juliet"; The Ninth Hour's "Till Death's Done Us Apart" and Talviyö's "The Last of the Lambs".

Tracklist:

1. In Black and White 05:04  
2. Paid in Full 04:24   
3. For the Sake of Revenge 03:23
4. It Won't Fade 05:59  
5. Under Your Tree 05:14   
6. Caleb 06:17
7. The Vice 04:09   
8. My Dream's But a Drop of Fuel for a Nightmare 06:13  
9. The Harvest 04:19
10. The Worlds Forgotten, the Words Forbidden 02:57  
11. Fly with the Black Swan 05:08  
12. Good Enough Is Good Enough 05:32   
13. They Follow 04:50  
14. Out in the Fields (Gary Moore cover) 04:06
15. My Dream's but a Drop of Fuel for a Nightmare 07:11  

Time:  01:14:46  

Recording information:

Recorded at Tico Tico Studios, Kemi, Finland excepts:

Guitars and acoustic guitars at Sönic Pump Studio

Strings and hammond at Studio 57

Vocals, backing vocals abd keyboards at 2ndrate Soundcave

Guitar solos at Jani's Liar

Keyboards at The Lanceland Room.

Mixed at Finnvox studio, Helsinki, Finland.

Mastered at the Cutting Room in Stockholm, Sweden.

Produced by Tony Kakko and Sonata Arctica 2006-2007.