Metal Reviews

Oh, snap! OWNED be me.

I own every full-length studio output with Kotipelto, and even having not released anything thoroughly impressive since Destiny, they're one of my favorites in the comtemporary power metal scene. Timo Kotipelto has to be one of the top three best vocalists in recent metal history, his voice and style is just so distinct and unique and has unmatched crystal clarity. He's basically the reason why I have yet to check out their three first...he's quite a large part in what makes the band for me, but I will get to those eventually.

Episode would be their strongest for me, with Visions and Fourth Dimension in a close second and third place respectively. Fourth Dimension feels quite different from their later stuff in many places...songs like "Galaxies", "Nightfall" and "We Hold the Key" for instance, and surprisingly these three are among the five top songs on there.

Destiny I enjoy quite a bit too, but it loses points for a couple of lousy ballads and doing nearly nothing in the way of progressing from Visions - this problem quickly escalates with their releases following this album. In particular, Infinite and Elements 2 have their moments, but are just too goddamn formulaic and also inconsistent. Elements 1 has four really good songs in Eagleheart, Soul of a Vagabond, Find Your Own Voice and Learning to Fly, but the rest is just symphonic cheese for the most part...don't particularly mind that sound, but they're just not doing it all that well (Soul of a Vagabond not withstanding). Kinda like 80's stuff on Metallica's S&M, but without strong song material to begin with.

The s/t is pure crap. Funny this topic came up just now, because I listened to it today for the first time in many months and not until now did it dawn upon me how much it really fucking sucks...now it's simply so much more (or less?) than the disappointment it seemed like at the thirthy-or-so first spins. I don't mind the more hard-rockish approach one bit, but the songwriting is absolutely rock-bottom for the most part and the disc's only saving grace is the usual stellar production and musicianship held within.

Hmm... I agree with most of what you said here. All the songs you listed as killer or good tracks I agree with. Your top three Strato albums are the same as mine, just in a different order. The only thing I don't agree with is the everything after Destiny is sub par remark. I find Infinite to be one of their better releases. It has some of the catchiest tracks they have written.

Same here they brought me out of a slump as far as buying music.

Albums like Infinite,Vision and The Fourth Dimension are classic stuff hell I even like Elements 1 and some of Elements 2.

Their self titled album is however their worst one and I'm hoping the next one isn't a repeat that they will either go back to their power metal self or do something that sounds good.

I'd say I like all their albums (with TK, I haven't heard any of the old stuff) to one degree or another. Elements II is probably my least favourite despite a few absolute killer tracks - if they'd made a single, 10 song album out of the best tracks on Elements I & II it would have been amazing from start to finish.

Probably my favourites are Visions and Episode.

Songs on Infinite like "Phoenix" annoy me, because they're like mix samplers of their previous stuff. Old vocals melodies (that verse in Phoenix appears in like three other songs of theirs and at least two songs per album have the same first half to second half melody progression), riffs and choruses all seem to re-appear all the goddamn time and since their execution/playing always sounds the same too, it is quite easy to notice. And then the song "Mother Gaia" is just a pure abomination and by far the worst Stratovarius song ever. Futhermore, the whole Infinite album is just so disappointing as a next step after Destiny, because it's far more simplistic and less intriciate than all of their previous stuff with TK, without really bringing some new and fresh ideas to the table either.

That said, however, "Hunting High and Low" absolutely fucking rules everything in sight and is their best song ever alongside "The Kiss of Judas".



:shock: Dude...that's not a bad idea at all. :idea:

1. Alpha & Omega (no other Stratovarius song has grown on me like this one, I flat-out disliked it the first few times I heard it)
2. I Walk to My Own Song
3. Find Your Own Voice
4. Soul of a Vagabond
5. I'm Still Alive
6. Luminous
7. Learning to Fly
8. Stratofortress (the weakest of the bunch; not bad but certainly not up to the level of "Stratovarius" and "Stratosphere")
9. Dreamweaver
10. Eagleheart

I actually put some effort into placing the songs so that the album flows well...I think it would work to have Eagleheart as the album closer instead of an opener. This is Stratovarius's very best albu, right here.

Stratovarius was the first band to get me into Power Metal. At the time i was only in the typical heavy metal (Metallica, Slayer, Fear Factory, Megadeth, Pantera, etc). First song i heard while searching on the net was Millennium from Infinite. Since then i have gotten every Strato studio album and Intermission.

My fav's would be Fourth Dimension, Visions, Destiny, Infinite and the two Elements cds. I am one of the few who does like "Stratovarius", while i think the best pre-Kotipelto release is Dreamspace.

If i were to chop the 2 Elements cds into one, this is how I would have it.

1. Eagleheart
2. I Walk To My Own Song
3. Find Your Own Voice
4. Soul Of A Vagabond
5. Awaken The Giant
6. I'm Still Alive
7. Learning To Fly
8. Luminous
9. Dreamweaver
10. Elements

Here is how I think it should be:

1. I Walk To My Own Song
2. I'm Still Alive
3. Awaken The Giant
4. Learning To Fly
5. Alpha & Omega
6. Eagleheart
7. Dreamweaver
8. Season Of Faith's Perfection
9. Soul Of A Vagabond
10. Fantasia

I didnt think Mother Gaia was that bad. I think their worst song in their most recent era, would be Know The Difference, from Elements part 2. I just cannot stand that song, simply terrible

These 10 track elements compilations we are doing all seem pretty good. Pretty much the same songs except for a couple

All I know is that "Dreamweaver" has become on of my favorite Strato songs thus far! Man, this song is awesome!

Yeah, and even if were a good song, the vocals totally would've ruined it. As much as I love TK, on later albums he tends to completely lose it from time to time. Oh well, at least the drums are great (even greater than usual).

Stratovarius was the group that got me into the power metal genre. My favourite group of all has to be Blind Guardian, but it was Stratovarius and Destiny that started it all. After having heard many of their songs, i began to look for better groups which i did find, but damn, these guys are still near the top of my list.

Everytime i hear Destiny, Against the Wind, Find Your Own Voice, Infinity and Black Diamond, i tell myself, "these guys can put out rap for their next album, i don't care." Those 5 songs will always have been created by Stratovarius, regardless what they do now or after.

ciao

What's so bad about Mother Gaia? I think it's a good song. Not metal in the least, but for what it's trying to do it does well.

Emotional solos (Not complex at all), a painful melody, and I love the end of that song.

I guess I can see why people don't like it - but I enjoyed it.

I'm going to see Stratovarius this friday. First time on their gig and I've liked their music since I was 12 so I'm pretty excited.

How was the show???

It was great. They only played a couple of songs from the new album and the main part of the gig were the classics. Kotipeltos voice lasted well through the concert and overall the band seemed to enjoy themselves.
They played 15 songs if I remember correctly. My voice was gone the next morning and muscles still ache a bit. It was worth it.

sounds great! i'm looking forward to seeing them in the summer, good to hear they didn't play much of the new stuff.

Well I think the only songs they've played at all from new album live are "Maniac Dance", "Land of Ice and Snow" and "United". The only ones worth playing live IMO

They played Fight!!! when I saw them.

!!!

And they didn't play Maniac Dance when I saw them.