Elias Viljanen — born in Finland in 1975 — has been Sonata Arctica's guitarist since 2007, having replaced founder Jani Liimatainen. His entry comes at the most delicate moment in the band's history. Liimatainen left because of his refusal of compulsory military service, and Viljanen took over precisely as Sonata Arctica released Unia (2007) and abandoned fast power metal for slower, harmonically complex material — meaning he had to learn an older repertoire of fast execution and at the same time help build a new sound demanding the opposite. He has since recorded The Days of Grays (2009), Stones Grow Her Name (2012), Pariah's Child (2014), The Ninth Hour (2016), Talviyö (2019) and Clear Cold Beyond (2024) — more albums than the guitarist he replaced. He has an instrumental solo career predating the band, with his own records of melodic guitar, and teaches the instrument — a path explaining the technical grounding with which he handled a repertoire of two opposite schools within the same group.
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