Finland's SONATA ARCTICA are currently on tour across North America and guitarist Elias Viljanen is blogging about the band's travels EXCLUSIVELY right here on METALEATER! Read Elias' entries as they are updated:

May 12, 2010 - Final Blog!

"Here we go! I've been already home for a week. Just took a couple of days to recover from the jet lag and the five week hangover. Actually, it took more than two days this time, but now I'm back in the groove again!

During the last shows, we were already quite tired after 4 weeks of touring, but we somehow survived. Actually the last 4 shows turned out to be really good! We played in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Atlanta, Georgia, Raleigh, North Carolina and West Springfield, Virginia. After the last show, we had a little party at the bar with the all of the guys from POWERGLOVE and MUTINY WITHIN. It was a nice ending to this marvelous tour. Actually this time around, 5 weeks went by really fast. When you are enjoying yourself, time flies.

I want to take the time to thank the bands we toured with: POWERGLOVE and MUTINY WITHIN - you guys are really cool and you rock! Also, I’d like to thank our fans for all your dedication! Gifts are cool too... We don't need anything, but the drawings and little things really cheer up our days. We are hoping to come back to the States as soon as possible! Until then I remain yours, UUUNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. Since I didn't post anything from our last Russian tour and I don't have any other cool pix, I'm sending this photo of me in Red Square, Moscow! Russia, you rock also!!!"

April 30, 2010

"After Edmonton and Vancouver shows, we headed back to the States and Seattle. The east coast shows went pretty good. Especially San Francisco, Santa Ana and Hollywood shows... they were fantastic.

Henrik and Marko got tattoos from L.A. Ink. We just went there and chilled out a bit. They shot some scenes to the series while we were there, so we had to be quiet. Marko's tattoo took 4 hours and it's his first tattoo so he was a little bit nervous.

House of Blues in L.A. is a really cool place to play. It has got good vibes. After the Hollywood glamour, we headed to Mesa, Arizona. We stayed up until noon and enjoyed the scenery to get into that road trip kind of mood. When we got there, we had a chance to visit our friend's place. They've got pool and everything, so it was a good chance for us to relax a bit. Tommy picked some grapefruits straight from the tree. Nice.

On Tuesday and Wednesday had shows in Austin and Houston in Texas. A little bit smaller crowds for us there, but still really cool! The fans love the music so they show up and that's the most important thing! We had a massage therapist in Houston, which I enjoyed a lot because my back is killing me after couple of weeks sleeping on a moving bus.

Occasionally we have the usual Wal-Mart stop and everything is quite cheap there, so we tend to buy some stupid stuff. Well, I bought UNO cards and everyone was like 'You must be kiddin'?' But then after one show, we give it a go and now we are playing every night like crazy bastards. Not for money of course...

Well enough for now, hope you enjoyed reading this. I'll be back."

April 15, 2010

"On Sunday (April) 11th, we had - once again - the pleasure to play at the House of Blues (House of Stairs)! It's a really cool venue with good vibes. We did some interviews also. We had a massage therapist, too, so I had a very relaxing massage. Cool!

After the Chicago show, we had a show in St. Paul. Our promoter took us to dinner and after the show we went to his cinema. We had a private show which was really cool! We saw 'Clash Of The Titans'.

In Winnipeg, the show was awesome as well. We met some cool fans after the show giving us presents and stuff. We had a little rice crispies accident in the bus, so it was time to do some serious vacuum cleaning.

Yesterday we had a day off. We spent it in Regina on our way to Calgary.

We were informed that Peter Steele from TYPE O NEGATIVE passed away. Terrible news, rest in peace...

So today, we are in Calgary. Hopefully the show will be a lot of fun."

April 10, 2010 - New York City

"After the good rehearsals, we were ready to rock the States once again.

First show was in Philadelphia at the Trocadero. Feels really good to be back in business. The second show was in Worcester and after that we played in NYC. This time around we had a chance to visit the Statue of Liberty in New York City. Nice to have at least some free time as well.

By the way, the guys started to work out. They bought some weights and boxing gloves and stuff. I hope that they won't hurt themselves. Well, it's good to be in shape. Or at least try to be.

After NYC, it was time to rock Canada. We had shows in Quebec City and Montreal. Yesterday we had a day off in Toronto and we were able to go to a NICKELBACK show at the Air Canada Center. We had a lot of fun. Marko's bed looked really bad in the morning..."