Paid in Full

Sonata Arctica are one of only a few power metal band's that do not write about fantasy, dragons etc., but about life in general. For some it can be a bad thing, for others is can be a good thing, luckily here it is a good thing. There are two versions of "Paid In Full" on here, the first being the radio edit aka a shortened version, and the full length album version, both are good but the album version is better because the first verse is not cut out. Also there is a cover of Gary Moore's "Out in The Fields" along with the two versions of "Paid In Full", lets get into the music.

*this part is for the album version which is also for the radio edit*

In a very stark departure the song open's with a heavy keyboard intro along with a depressing sounding bass line, bad? no. The guitar kicks in around 0:09 into the song with a pinch harmonic and cuts into the main rhythm for the song, also noticible is the mid tempo drum patterns now taking full unlike most of there older material with it being nice and fast, bad again? hell no. Now we get to the highlight of the song Tony Kakko's emotionally filled vocals, it is obvious this time who is the real show on the song, but also unlike there older material Tony's vocals are mid-ranged and layered, but not heavily and used tastefully. The lyrics of the song deal with a romance that is starting to break, and tells on how the man (Tony possibly?) has to be able to find his heart before he can fix anything.

Sonata Arctica are known also for Jani Liitmatainen's powerful guitar solo's, you wont find that here, instead there comes an emotionally filled keyboard solo from keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg. The main and whole hearted honest reason the song escaped a much higher score is because of the experimenting for the song, and lack of older styles. I noticed that it seemed to have alot of Nightwish-esque sounds and styles, but the band pull's it off greatly, also the other reason is the Gary Moore cover is a bit "eh..." to me.