Metal Reviews

http://www.frontiers.it/Default.aspx?tabid=85&pl=R

Stratovarius with Toby Sammet and Michael Kiske on vocals.

Discuss.

oh my....

Sounds excellent! "Revolution Renaissance" seems like it'll be a favorite of mine. For whatever reason, those mid-paced stompers that Timo writes always do it for me. "Falling Into Fantasy," "Alpha & Omega," "Awaken The Giant," and "Dreamweaver" are my favorite Strato songs. All sound like this "Revolution Renaissance."

Don't scoff, either. I haven't heard any album that came before Infinite.

Due to issues with Timo, it's easy to want to hate this, but I can't Tobi sounds just right with Timo's music, and it's good stuff - despite how much I don't want it to be.

Same here. And Kiske still amazes me.

Same thing with Kiske. His "Metal sucks, but I don't mind getting paid to appear in it" mentality makes me want to hate him, but I still love hearing him do it.

He's elaborated on that many times now. He doesn't hate metal, he hates the sort of attitude that metal fans have. Just look at some of the little twerps that run around just this forum. They have an opinion on fucking everything, like they know what they're talking about, but they're just talking ignorant shit. And we'll see it soon when he releases the album of Helloween covers. That's what Kiske hates about the metal community.

And I don't blame him.

It's those fans that pay his bills. That's part of being in the entertainment business. Those same kinds of fans are in all genres. He'll discover that soon enough if he branches out farther. Fans are like that with movies, sports, etc. It's his job to deal with it if he chooses to stay in this business. No one in the entertainment business can avoid those fans.

Besides. he's also made bold statements about why he thinks metal -the music itself- sucks to him, so it's not just the fans, even if he tries to say that now.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. I still like his voice and am glad when he does something like this, even if I have to put aside my beef with him to enjoy it, which I always end up doing

I don't like these samples. The music is just lacking any excitement, Heroes sounds like an Edguy song (probably that's why Toby is singing on it) and RR sounds just like Soul Of A Vagabond in the chorus. Of course I still need to hear the complete album but these samples doesn't promise anything good.

I agree. I think all the songs are really ordinary.

Ehhh. The samples are rather generic, but it has potential. I'll still take a listen when it all comes out though, for sure.

Tolkki has been nothing but fail since Infinite. He needs to get stabbed again.

Agree, and yes, I also noticed RR sounds just like Soul of a Vagabond. I dunno, maybe I just wanted something more fresh-sounding out of a Stratovarius album (which it was originally intended as).

Cover and tracklist revealed. I'd say the cover looks cheap.

1. Heroes
2. I Did It My
3. Way
4. We Are Magic
5. Angel
6. Eden
7. Is Burning
8. Glorious And Divine
9. Born Upon The Cross
10. Keep The Flame
11. Alive
12. Last Night On Earth
13. Revolution Renaissance

Ugly cover.

Timo can afford better cover art than that

I'm not sure he can. Did you see the Saana cover? Frontiers Records may just be cheapskates.

Anyway, the sample with Sammet sounded good to me...the rest, not so much.

I'm not a bid fan of those mid-tempo Strato songs with the "dum-da-da-dum" bass lines and acoustic chords chiming every now and again (there's like 3 songs on Episode alone that do it) and a couple of these samples remind me of those.

But I'll keep an open mind, I really want this album to be a success.

Oh my fucking god. Even the song titles are generic. And the cover -- KILL IT WITH FIRE.

He even has the nerve to use the Strato symbol.

I just now noticed that.