SONATA ARCTICA: New North American Tour Dates Announced

Finnish melodic metallers SONATA ARCTICA — whose third North American tour begins September 12 in Fort Worth, Texas and includes a headlining performance at the ProgPower USA VIII festival in Atlanta, Georgia — are planning on returning in February 2008 for another batch of dates that will cover mostly Canada and will include some U.S. shows. Support on the trek will come from VISIONS OF ATLANTIS. Confirmed dates so far are as follows:

Feb. 08 - Winnipeg, MB @ The West End Cultural Centre
Feb. 09 - Regina, SK @ Exchange
Feb. 10 - Edmonton, AL @ Starlite Room
Feb. 11 - Calgary, AL @ The Warehouse
Feb. 13 - Vancouver, BC @ Plaza Club
Feb. 14 - Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
Feb. 15 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
Feb. 16 - Orangevale, CA @ The Boardwalk
Feb. 18 - San Francisco, CA @ Slim's
Feb. 19 - San Diego, CA @ House of Blues

Tickets for the above-listed dates go on sale on Friday, August 31 at noon EST exclusively through EnterTheVault.com until October 1 when they go on sale through normal ticketing systems.

SONATA ARCTICA recently 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.

SONATA's tour dates can be found at this location.