Finnish melodic metallers SONATA ARCTICA have scheduled the following summer festival appearances:
Jun. 6-8 - Sauna Open Air - Tampere, Finland Jun. 20 - Monsters Of Rock - Zaragoza, Spain Jun. 21 - Hellfest - Clisson, France Jun. 27-29 - Tuska Open Air - Helsinki, Finland Jun. 28 - Graspop Metal Meeting - Dessel, Belgium Jul. 10-13 - Masters Of Rock - Vizovice, Czech Republic Jul. 11 - Evolution Festival - Milan, Italy Jul. 31- August 2 - Wacken Open Air - Wacken, Germany
France's Radio Metal recently conducted an interview with SONATA ARCTICA keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg and bassist Marko Paasikoski. Listen to the chat in streaming audio at this location.
SONATA ARCTICA last year parted ways with guitarist Jani Liimatainen and replaced him with Elias Viljanen.
The band's new album, "Unia", was certified gold in Finland for sales in excess of 15,000 copies. This brings the band's total number of gold albums to seven, with their debut LP, "Ecliptica", and "best-of" compilation, "The Collection", reaching gold status in the past few weeks.
Recorded and mixed at Finnvox Studios in Helsinki, "Unia" — which has been available in North America since May 22 — landed on the following international album charts: Finland - #1; Japan - #7; Sweden - #27; Germany - #35; Switzerland - #40; Austria - #62. The "Paid in Full" single also secured the #1 single position in the band's native land.