Deathwhite are clearly heavily influenced by bands like Katatonia. It's a good album. I need to check out the other one. Grave Image hasn't blown me away, but it's very good and I caught myself noticing lots of nice melodic choices while listening to it.
Yes, they are...there's a song on Grave Image, Plague of Virtue, that pretty much starts as a tribute of sorts to Discouraged Ones-era Katatonia (an album that I love and that tends to be forgotten...). Between the vocals and the overall mood, I think the songs tend to blend a bit when you listen to the whole thing, but I really enjoy their combo of Katatonia and more "muscular" guitars
As for Stratovarius, Dreamspace is wonderful. Early Stratovarius at its peak. And it's funny that due to its age and all the lineup changes that not many people talk about any of the songs on that one. There is some really cool stuff in there.
Indeed! They had such a cool use of keyboards back then. I miss the melancholic part of their sound that was so prevalent on that album.