| Unia | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Sonata Arctica |
| Cover: | UNIA.JPG |
| Released: | 25 May 2007 |
| Recorded: | December 2006 – January 2007 at Tico Tico Studio Sonic Pump Studio (guitars, acoustic guitars) Studio 57 (string, hammond organ) 2ndrate Soundcave (vocals, backing vocals, keyboards) Jani's Lair (guitarsolos) The Lanceland Room (keyboards, keyboard solos) |
| Genre: | Power metal, symphonic metal, progressive metal |
| Length: | 58:35 |
| Label: | Nuclear Blast |
| Producer: | Tony Kakko, Sonata Arctica |
| Prev Title: | Reckoning Night |
| Prev Year: | 2004 |
| Next Title: | The Days of Grays |
| Next Year: | 2009 |
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 guitarist 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".[1] He also described it as "a liberating experience. From there we took slowly some other direction".[1] Commenting further on the album, he also stated:[1]
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."[1]
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"[2] and Talviyö's "The Last of the Lambs".[3]