The Stratovarius Thread

[wolfking]

Thanks mate.  So many editions!!

[Kosmo]

Haven't heard anything negative from Tolkki yet so the album is really that good. 
If i recall he stated the following about polaris: ''It's a band trying to sound like Stratovarius, nothing more''

[wolfking]

I for one am impressed with Tolkki keeping his mouth shut over the last couple of years.  I think we would have all expected him to slag the band off, but props to him for letting them carry on.

Oh, and I just ordered the Japanese edition!! 

[RazielSR]

Haven't heard anything negative from Tolkki yet so the album is really that good. 
If i recall he stated the following about polaris: ''It's a band trying to sound like Stratovarius, nothing more''

Yes, that was his review more or less and some badmouthing in RR forum

I for one am impressed with Tolkki keeping his mouth shut over the last couple of years.  I think we would have all expected him to slag the band off, but props to him for letting them carry on.

Oh, and I just ordered the Japanese edition!! 

Well, that's mainly because he have Symfonia band and can have his mind "busy" with another things...

[?]

Didn't Tolkki say he met Timo K and Matias accidentally and wished them luck? So I guess we don't have to expect badmouthing from him anymore!

[RazielSR]

Didn't Tolkki say he met Timo K and Matias accidentally and wished them luck? So I guess we don't have to expect badmouthing from him anymore!

He met TK in Finland Airport and had a little talk. About the good luck, it was in Stratovarius forum...but this is the same all the time, today good luck, tomorrow fuck you. Let's hope this time is true.

Update about TK's voice infection:

Hi everyone,

Due to a recent bacterial infection my voice isn't what it should be. The infection dried out my vocal chords, and I'm still struggling to recover. Although canceling the tour was discussed, we decided to not let you down but to play for all of you great people out there who have been with you through thick and thin and continue to support Stratovarius no matter what. I want to thank all of you who have sung with me on the gigs,  you guys keep me going on! I'll keep you posted about my condition and everything directly related to me on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/officialkotipelto">my facebook page</a>. I hope you've enjoyed the shows as much as we have and like our new album, Elysium. See you at the gig!

Rock the Metal!
Timo

[RazielSR]

Well, as you may know Kotipelto had problem with a food poisoning and couldn't sing very well and still having problems...ok, now Deris have somekind of problems too.

Andi Deris from Helloween has some medical problems and the next weeks' shows in Germany have been cancelled. That means: Saarbrücken, Bonn, Hannover, Oberhausen, and Osnabrück were cancelled. Sorry!

Deutschland-Konzerte bis 06.02.11 abgesagt (Update)

Aufgrund einer Stimmbandentzündung von Helloween Sänger Andi, müssen wir folgende Konzerte

01. Feb D - Saarbrücken 
02. Feb D - Bonn 
04. Feb D - Hannover 
05. Feb D - Oberhausen 
06. Feb D - Osnabrück

schweren Herzens absagen! Bei der gestrigen Show im Z7 konnte sich Andi vor ausverkauftem Haus noch durchkämpfen aber um evtl Schäden an der Stimme zu vermeiden, wurde vom Arzt eine Zwangspause verordnet.

Es tut uns sehr leid und wir hoffen auf euer Verständnis - die Tickets behalten ihre Gültigkeit - einen Nachholtermin werden wir schnellstmöglich mitteilen.

Helloween

 

[wolfking]

Shit!!

[Kosmo]

This tour is cursed. 

[Mladen]

Yeah, but Andi Deris has trouble on every single tour. He's still an incredible singer...

[InstrumentalFiasco]

I like this album but think Polaris is way better. Still 100x better then anything Infinite - Self Titled.

[wolfking]

I like this album but think Polaris is way better. Still 100x better then anything Infinite - Self Titled.

Elements Pt 1 is my fav Strato album.

[?]

Well, as you may know Kotipelto had problem with a food poisoning and couldn't sing very well and still having problems...ok, now Deris have somekind of problems too.

Oh no, this sounds too familiar!

This tour is cursed.  

Yeah, it really seems to be!

[Mladen]

Elements Pt 1 is my fav Strato album.

Whoa, really? I find that album painful for listening, excluding Stratofortress and Eagleheart. It tries way too hard to be epic, and it fails in my opinion.

[wolfking]

Elements Pt 1 is my fav Strato album.

Whoa, really? I find that album painful for listening, excluding Stratofortress and Eagleheart. It tries way too hard to be epic, and it fails in my opinion.

Yeah, it just clicked with me, I love it.  I understand what you mean, but I love it.  Pt 2 on the other hand is a different story.

Eagleheart, Vagabond, Find Your Own Voice, Learning to Fly, Elements, Stratofortress, just amazing.  The bonus cut, Run Away is awesome too.

[Kosmo]

Kotipelto sings way too high on some songs from pt.1 but it's a great album.

[wolfking]

Kotipelto sings way too high on some songs from pt.1 but it's a great album.

His vocals on Find Your Own Voice are insanely high.  One thing I didn't like with a lot of Strato stuff, especially this song was the copy and paste vocals in the chorus, Tolkki seemed to do that a lot.

[Mladen]

Yeah, it just clicked with me, I love it.  I understand what you mean, but I love it.  Pt 2 on the other hand is a different story.

Part two isn't a great album, but I like it better than part one. It's slightly more down to earth and accessible. I walk to my own song, Dreamweaver, I'm still alive, Know the difference... Some kick ass tracks in there. 

[?]

I agree with wolfking, Elements Pt. 1 is great but Pt. 2 isn't anything special. I find it quite ironic that Tolkki thinks E1 was Stratovarius' peak but Kotipelto doesn't really care for the Elements albums. Maybe it's because of the overhigh notes he had to hit on E1!

[Dr. DTVT]

I'm not really up on my Stratovarius, but the new album is definately worth picking up.

[RazielSR]

Elements albums are not my fav but songs like Eagleheart or I walk to my own song are amazing to me. Anyway, it's insanely high while singing. TT said he wanted to "test" TK's vocals. There's one live version of Find your own voice that you can literally feel the pain while listening  

And about the "peak", he always said that but I think he doesn't feel really feel it. He knows that Episode was his best creation and for that reaseon he says that in Symfonia album he wants to recall that sound again, but I suppose he forget that he have not the same musicians anymore and it's quite complicated to get. We'll see.

I really thinkg Polaris is way worst than Elysium, but of course this is all about taste.

DTVT, of course is worth buying this album! Is a really good step for the band.

[Dr. DTVT]

My previous post was not a question, but a statement.   

[RazielSR]

My previous post was not a question, but a statement.   

   

[RazielSR]

AWESOME GALLERY!! https://www.concerts-live.ch/2011/stratovarius/index.html

[wolfking]

Just received the Japanese edition in the mail, lovely packaging.  I've listened to the album once so far, and to be honest, it's a lot to take in, I don't remember much, but I see most of the songs having potential.  The thing I am most happy with is there is more power metal style speedy songs this time, yet with touches of progressive elements.  And slower ones like Fairness Justified is awesome.  Look forward to discovering it more.

[RazielSR]

Just received the Japanese edition in the mail, lovely packaging.  I've listened to the album once so far, and to be honest, it's a lot to take in, I don't remember much, but I see most of the songs having potential.  The thing I am most happy with is there is more power metal style speedy songs this time, yet with touches of progressive elements.  And slower ones like Fairness Justified is awesome.  Look forward to discovering it more.

You'll need more listens to get in. You'll see, it's the kind of album that you need to listen more and more and then you can't stop. It's really well balanced. And if you add to you ipod Last Shore and Hallowed you have more to listen.

There are tons of intervies about Strato these months, but here I post and excerpt from one in German because it says some important things (thanks to mocobhc from Stratovarius forum for the translation):

About the writing processes for Elysium and Polaris:
Polaris needed a lot of effort from the whole band, especially Lauri put a lot of work into it, Matias did concentrate more on the playing aspects. Now with Elysium, Matias gained more self confidence, had more than enough stuff to fill a whole album on his own. He evolved into the new musical director and they decided to let him produce the album after they heard his demos were great quality. All in all, in earlier days the potential of the other band members was rather ignored, nowadays everyone contributes a lot to the whole process. The process of getting done a song could now be compared to a christmas tree: One guy provides the tree, and the whole family decorates it. In comparison to earlier albums, they did meet more often to record and evolve their ideas and the album.

About the band nowadays:
He thinks they lost a big amount of credibility when the fans had to read everyday what TT made up in his mind, so that finally one had to think to oneself "that band has turned into a mere joke now". They all try to leave the past behind and want to convince people with their new music.

About the tour with Helloween:
They're glad to be able to play for a bigger audience in this package and want to show and convince people that the band is functioning again.

About Elysium:
Record label asked them if they'd cut the song Elysium into three parts cause they could make more out of selling it in pieces via itunes, but they refused.
He thinks they didn't have enough time to polish the lyrics for the album together with Timo (not the content/themes, but some of the word choice and "sound" of the passages).
They think of making a video for Under Flaming Skies, which will be released as a single in Finland Smile
Btw The Game Never Ends is his favourite song of the album.

About a DVD:
They partly record stuff of the current tours, but nothing professional. They don't want to publish the older stuff with the old lineup anymore - only thing he could think of would be some kind of "limited treasure chest" for die hard fans. But they rather want to concentrate on enough new stuff to release a professional DVD in the next years.

[wolfking]

After listening through Elysium a couple of times, I can confirm that this is an amazing album, lightyears ahead of Polaris.  Matias has simply done wonders for these guys, they can confidentely move forward out of the shadows of Tolkki.  I really don't think anyone should be feeling disappointed that Tolkki isn't in the band anymore, Matias is a monster player and this album is fresh and fantastic.

Raziel, you are right, this album is definitely a grower, each song opens itself more and more on each listen.  The title track is simply one of the greatest things they have ever done, it has all the classic Strato epic elements and more, great melodies.  One thing I was impressed with was the quality of the solos on this record, Matias and Jens are on fire the whole way through.

Also, Castaway is a worthy edition to the album, even though the intro is almost identical to Black Diamond, but we will forgive Lauri for that since he also is a crucial part to this lineup. 

[Kosmo]

I went out and bought the digipack aswell, it's pretty cool.

[wolfking]

The title track is easily one of the greatest things they have ever done!

[Kosmo]

It works really well as a full track, thank god they didn't split it up like they were asked to. It moves so smoothly and doesn't drag on.

[RazielSR]

[Kosmo]

  I...I..Uh....

[?]

Great pic! BTW, I watched recent live videos and it looks like they've downtuned the songs to D (previously it was Eb) at shows because of Timo's illness, but he's still struggling with the high notes.

EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED9Nhgg9pSU Move the Mountain live!

[wolfking]

Epic pic, great stuff.

Let's face it, Timo has always struggled live.  There's some pro shot footage around of a concert he did under his solo band when Coldness come out.  Watching Timo sing was just embarrasing.

[RazielSR]

Definitely.... and even feeling bad for other songs, my fav song of the album is Elysium. I think it contains absolutely all the necessary for me in a song to be in my "personal elysium". And the last solo for me is one of the best things happening in my life while listening to music.

Many thanks for this album, seriously, many thanks.