Tommy Portimo — born in Finland in 1981 — is Sonata Arctica's founding drummer, and one of the two members present since 1996, alongside Tony Kakko. He recorded the entire discography, from Ecliptica (1999) to Clear Cold Beyond (2024), which makes him witness and executor of the most radical transformation ever undertaken by a power metal band. Sonata Arctica began with fast material, continuous double kick and direct choruses, and from Unia (2007) onwards began writing slow tracks, harmonically ambiguous and irregular in structure. Those two phases demand opposite things of the drums. In the first, endurance and constant speed; in the second, dynamic control, subtle marking and the ability to steer changes of metre without the track losing continuity. Few drummers in the genre have had to cross that distance within the same band. His stay of almost thirty years alongside Kakko is what guaranteed Sonata Arctica its identity through every line-up change and every shift of musical direction.
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